Inquiry Regarding Maarjamaa United School (No. 710)
Session: 15th Riigikogu, 5th session, plenary sitting
Date: 2025-03-17 20:08
Participating Politicians:
Total Speeches: 60
Membership: 15
Agenda Duration: 1h 3m
AI Summaries: 60/60 Speeches (100.0%)
Analysis: Structured Analysis
Politicians Speaking Time
Politicians
Analysis
Summary
The Riigikogu's fourth item on the agenda addressed the question presented on January 27, 2025, concerning Maarjamaa Combined School (question number 710). Helle-Moonika Helme is the representative presenting the question. The question raises concerns about the integration of seven students with special educational needs into the combined school during the summer of 2025, and focuses on potential impacts on students, teachers, and the school's personnel structure. Attention is being paid to reducing bureaucracy, unifying documentation, and consolidating IT solutions, as well as to financial matters – a projected savings of 300,000 euros, and the creation of specific positions within the combined school. The discussion also includes the involvement of parents, guardians, and student representatives, and the creation of a unified admissions and support system, which should improve the quality of education and learning effectiveness, and reduce excessive movement of children between schools.
Decisions Made 1
No specific decisions were made; the answers to the inquiry and the further proceedings continue, and the minister is expected to present and provide clarification regarding the operation of schools and the progress of the reform.
Most Active Speaker
The most active speaker was Helmen Kütt (from the left-wing party). They asked thorough questions on the topics of inclusive education and emphasized the importance of child wellbeing, combined school practices, and the involvement of the supervisory board, representing a significant role in the opposition as a critical and participatory discussion participant.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
Let us take up the fourth item on the agenda, which is the inquiry No. 710 submitted on 27 January 2025 concerning Maarjamaa Joint School; the submitters are Helle-Moonika Helme, Martin Helme, Siim Pohlaku, Rene Koka, Rain Epleri, Evelin Poolametsa and Arvo Alleri, and on behalf of the inquirers the presentation will be delivered by Riigikogu member Helle-Moonika Helme.
Helle-Moonika Helme
Profiling Eesti Konservatiivse Rahvaerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
Helme-Moonika Helme thanks the chair and the minister and notes that through the parliamentary inquiry a plan to merge seven schools for students with special needs will be considered in the summer of 2025, but the responses are too vague and bureaucratic, and she calls on the minister to clarify the process and priorities so that the school communities understand whether what matters are the children and the school communities’ collective relationships, or simply saving the state’s money.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
Kristina Kallas, the Minister of Education and Science, will answer all of your questions.
Haridus- ja teadusminister Kristina Kallas
AI Summary
Kristina Kallas described that from seven schools a single joint school will be formed with unified management and organization of teaching, which ensures high-quality education, a unified admissions process, and less bureaucratic burden; it will consolidate IT systems and create two new positions: (head of teaching methodology) and (network manager). The work of the board of trustees will be prepared for the entire school, and the distribution of work among teachers and the autonomy of teaching posts will not be significantly reduced, but a total of 300,000 euros in savings will be directed to improving the salaries of staff working with students and the working conditions of support specialists.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
The vice-chairman thanks and asks Tõnis Lukas to pose questions.
Tõnis Lukas
Profiling Isamaa fraktsioonAI Summary
Isamaa pointed out that an estimated saving of about 300,000 euros should come from the dismissal of the principals, but the reason for the changes is quality — although the schools have so far been well run and of high quality, it is necessary to replace or lay off the headteachers for one post in order to ensure a qualified worker for that position.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
The vice-chairman, Toomas Kivimägi, thanks everyone.
Tõnis Lukas
Profiling Isamaa fraktsioonAI Summary
Tõnis Lukas discusses the news item and asks how it can be that the initial quality is good, but it needs to be improved with a new director of studies, and whether the audience is aware of this.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
The vice-chairman, Toomas Kivimägi, thanks Tõnis.
Tõnis Lukas
Profiling Isamaa fraktsioonAI Summary
The main idea is that in schools there is no need for seven directors and seven heads of studies separately, because in some schools the director-level leadership is actually combined.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
The deputy chairman Toomas Kivimägi thanks Tõnis and apologizes, saying that the other colleagues are upset if he does anything to them.
Tõnis Lukas
Profiling Isamaa fraktsioonAI Summary
Tõnis Lukas notes that there is no full-time head of studies, and therefore cannot lay off 14 positions, since the number of positions to be cut is much smaller, and asks whether the savings of 300,000 euros will still materialize.
Haridus- ja teadusminister Kristina Kallas
AI Summary
Kallas said that there are no criticisms of the quality of education in the schools, but the future is worrying, because the number of students is decreasing, and in seven separate schools, to ensure quality, there is a need for one headteacher-methodologist who would monitor quality in all schools and help prevent a shortage of qualified teachers and principals.
AI Summary
Rene Kokk questions the legitimacy of education policy, pointing to the coalition's falling support numbers (below 19%), and criticizes the plan to close or merge service and vocational education schools and to end environmental education, stressing that the decisions must be understandable to the public and useful.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
Toomas Kivimägi offers René Kokk a brief prayer.
Haridus- ja teadusminister Kristina Kallas
AI Summary
Kallas acknowledges that the criticism of environmental education is confusing, because on the one hand there is a demand to discontinue it and to stop wasting money, but on the other hand it is said that it should nevertheless be continued within the framework of environment-themed teaching.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
The deputy chairman Toomas Kivimägi makes a brief plea: please repeat.
Haridus- ja teadusminister Kristina Kallas
AI Summary
They mentioned education for children related to the green transition and said that they didn't know how to answer because the question did not directly concern education policy.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
The vice-chairman, Toomas Kivimägi, asks Helmen Kütti to speak.
Helmen Kütt
Profiling Sotsiaaldemokraatliku Erakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
Helmen Kütt asks whether, before the merger of the schools, a pre-merger analysis was carried out and where it can be found, because the leaders of the school council and the parents want to know about it.
Haridus- ja teadusminister Kristina Kallas
AI Summary
The state, as the funder of schools, seeks to ensure long-term quality and support that meets children's needs, through unified management across seven schools, a common curriculum strategy, and a one-stop policy, taking into account the shrinking number of children and the shortage of qualified teachers.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
At the beginning of the speech, Anti Poolametsa was asked.
Anti Poolamets
Profiling Eesti Konservatiivse Rahvaerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
Anti Poolamets emphasizes that savings must not come at the expense of rural areas and that life in the countryside should not be scaled back, and people are moving away, and he asks for the latest information about the retention of HEV students at Vana-Vigala School.
Haridus- ja teadusminister Kristina Kallas
AI Summary
The Vana-Vigala School will be merged with Kehtna Vocational Education Centre and will remain the Vana-Vigala teaching site, where specializations that are not taught elsewhere are taught, and for the future the school must develop unique specializations that are not available anywhere else in Estonia, in cooperation with the state's education administrator and the associations of entrepreneurs in Rapla County.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
The vice-chairman Toomas Kivimägi invites Arvo Alleri to speak.
Arvo Aller
Profiling Fraktsiooni mittekuuluvad Riigikogu liikmedAI Summary
Arvo Aller claims that environmental education is a practical activity, not propaganda for the green transition, and criticizes the merger of seven schools and centralized management as a threat to the quality of the schools, and asks how better quality can be ensured under a single leader.
Haridus- ja teadusminister Kristina Kallas
AI Summary
Education and Science Minister Kristina Kallas said that although there are currently no complaints about the quality of education in schools, the negative trends are cause for concern, and finding qualified teachers and school leaders is becoming increasingly difficult, therefore we must intervene and use centralized leadership so that the quality remains in the long term.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
The vice-chairman Toomas Kivimägi invited Kert Kingo to speak.
Kert Kingo
AI Summary
Kert Kingo accuses that a politician who became a minister through election fraud will start rampaging through the education network, demolish the school system, close rural schools and HEV special-needs schools, and do so only under the guise of technical explanations, finally asking who these schools really are for and what better outcome for their parents and students will come.
Haridus- ja teadusminister Kristina Kallas
AI Summary
Kristina Kallas asserts that there will be no closures of rural schools and that, to preserve them, support measures will be implemented to ensure that seven small schools remain, and after the reform there will be one central place to turn to, where teachers know which support is available at which school.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
The vice-chairman Toomas Kivimägi invited the minister's wife to speak, noting that a small debate is taking place in the hall and that proceedings should be conducted in turn, and asked the minister to continue if she wishes.
Haridus- ja teadusminister Kristina Kallas
AI Summary
Kristina Kallas stressed that for a child with special needs, access to support must be available without parents having to expend excessive energy, and that over the next 20 years quality support will be guaranteed and quality education will continue through these schools, making the processes easier for parents.
Mart Helme
Profiling Eesti Konservatiivse Rahvaerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
Mart Helme criticizes demagogy, emphasizes the importance of choice and freedom between schools, and accuses Minister Rene Kokk of not distinguishing between the green transition and environmental education, and points to the gradual closure of schools.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
The vice-chairman Toomas Kivimägi asks Mart Helmet to come forward.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
The speech is an expression of gratitude to a good colleague.
Mart Helme
Profiling Eesti Konservatiivse Rahvaerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
Mart Helme says that their job is destruction and demolition work, and they lock everyone up.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
They express gratitude to a good colleague.
Mart Helme
Profiling Eesti Konservatiivse Rahvaerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
The speaker says that they are very angry, and that if the listeners don't understand this, the misunderstanding will persist.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
The vice-chairman thanked his colleague Mart Helme.
Mart Helme
Profiling Eesti Konservatiivse Rahvaerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
They emphasize that, in order to stand up to demagoguery, one must immediately admit that one cannot cope with the job and resign.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
The deputy chairman Toomas Kivimägi said that he does not agree with the claim that the minister would have spluttered back, stressed that the minister has remained polite and asked the minister to respond.
Haridus- ja teadusminister Kristina Kallas
AI Summary
Since there was no question, we did not receive an answer, and we simply listened to the ambassador's expressed displeasure.
Rain Epler
Profiling Fraktsiooni mittekuuluvad Riigikogu liikmedAI Summary
Rain Epler submitted, in the form of a written question, a critical review of the ministry's financial priorities, emphasizing spending related to the educational mobility of the unemployed carried out through NGOs and LLCs and funding for social issues, and requesting the creation of a pyramid of priorities in which, first, the education of children and children with special needs is funded, and only after that are the remaining costs reviewed for the purposes of ideological projects.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
The vice-chairman, Toomas Kivimägi, invited Rain Epler to speak.
Haridus- ja teadusminister Kristina Kallas
AI Summary
Education and Science Minister Kristina Kallas said that she has been closely monitoring the Ministry of Education's budget for two years with a magnifying glass, but at the moment she does not understand what these €250,000 and €850,000 mean for training men, and she will take this data with her and review it to ensure a common understanding.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
With thanks to the minister, it is said that the questions have ended, negotiations will be opened, and the inquirers' representative has the right of first word; the first word will be given to Helle-Moonika Helme.
Helle-Moonika Helme
Profiling Eesti Konservatiivse Rahvaerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
They want to take three minutes right away.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
The speech lasts eight minutes.
Helle-Moonika Helme
Profiling Eesti Konservatiivse Rahvaerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
Helle-Moonika Helme claims that the ideology of inclusive education and the integration of seven students with special educational needs into the school is harmful, because it does not take into account the particularities of SEN students, creates administrative and quality problems, and does not bring the expected savings, but threatens the functioning of schools and the needs of local communities.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
The message emphasizes that it's your time.
Helle-Moonika Helme
Profiling Eesti Konservatiivse Rahvaerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
They claim that the involvement process is practically non-existent, and the main aim of the whole work should be children's well-being, not strengthening management or increasing bureaucracy.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
The vice-chairman Arvo Aller said that the speech ran a little over time, and then asked Tõnis Lukas to speak.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
Vice-Chairman Arvo Aller says that there will be three more minutes of discussion.
Tõnis Lukas
Profiling Isamaa fraktsioonAI Summary
Tõnis Lukas criticizes the rushed and inadequately prepared educational reform, primarily the treatment of children with special needs, as well as the threat to families' sense of security and the ongoing involvement of teachers, and notes that the focus is on savings, although the preservation of school places is promised.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
The vice-chairman thanks the audience and asks Helmen Kütti.
Helmen Kütt
Profiling Sotsiaaldemokraatliku Erakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
Helmen Kütt asks to be allocated eight minutes just in case.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
In the speech, it is simply said that the total time is eight minutes.
Helmen Kütt
Profiling Sotsiaaldemokraatliku Erakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
Helmen Kütt raised the topic of inclusive education in connection with the plan to merge Kammeri, Kiigemetsa, Nurme, Raikküla, Urvaste, Valga Jaanikese and Ämmuste schools and to create one new school from them, expressed concern, posed a number of questions about funding, the definition and support for students with special needs, and stressed the need for a long-term, transparent plan and inclusive dialogue, so that all students could cope better and their quality of life would improve.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
Deputy Speaker Arvo Aller informed that there are no requests to speak, the minister does not want a closing speech, and he closes the negotiations — today’s fourth item on the agenda has been dealt with.