Eurofound's COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch collates information on the responses of government and social partners to the crisis, as well as gathering examples of company practices aimed at mitigating the social and economic impacts.
Factsheet for case EE-2020-18/977 – Updated – measures in Estonia
Country | Estonia , applies nationwide |
Time period | Open ended, started on 01 May 2020 |
Type | Legislations or other statutory regulations |
Category |
Supporting businesses to stay afloat
– Direct subsidies (full or partial) |
Author | Ingel Kadarik (Praxis Center for Policy Studies) and Eurofound |
Case created | 13 July 2020 (updated 11 January 2021) |
Due to the COVID-19 related containment measures, the private schools and childcare institutions lost at least parts of their income, while they still had ongoing costs. In addition, children and youth experienced rapid decrease in possibilities to engage in extracurricular developing activities (due to cancelled events or the loss or decrease of the income of the parents which reduce the possibilities to pay the participation fees). To mitigate the situation, the Ministry of Education and Research provides support to child private child care institutions, schools and summer camps. The budget was allocated with the adoption of the supplementary state budget on 15 April 2020.
Two support schemes are available. A total of €15 million is allocated for those measures.
Private schools, private child care institutions and kindergartens and private hobby schools could apply for a support to cover their unavoidable costs made during the COVID-19 crisis. The maximum support was €80 per month per child/student for up to 50% of the children/students per school and it could be applied for March, April and May 2020 (all months or some of the months). The application rounds were open until 15 May and 29 May (additional round due to high number of interested institutions).
For the organisers of children and youth short summer camps (3-5 days long day camps or overnight camps) which aim to provide youth work, hobby activities and work/labour education. It is possible to apply for a support of €40 per child per day in case a camp with overnight stay and €20 per day per child in case a day camp. The applications were accepted between 25 June and 10 July 2020.
The following updates to this measure have been made after it came into effect.
17 December 2021 |
On 17 December the Government decided to allocate €1.5 million and on 31 December additional €2.74 million to the field of education and youth. From the €2.74 million most (€2.3m) will be allocated to Ida-Virumaa and Harjumaa as those regions are most affected by the second wave. Private schools and private hobby activities providers receive support in the amount of €10 per student. The support is higher in Ida-Virumaa and Harjumaa (€30 per student). The applications will be accepted as of January. The companies and organisations can also apply for a support from the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund to cover wage cost for the period 28 December - 17 January. However, each organisation can apply for only one of those support measures. |
Altogether 725 institutions received the support in the total amount of €7 million from the first measure. From the second measure, 369 organisations applied for around 700 camps in the total sum of €2.7 million. This allowed around 24,000 children to participate in camps.
Workers | Businesses | Citizens |
---|---|---|
Does not apply to workers |
Sector specific set of companies
|
Children (minors)
Youth (18-25) |
Actors | Funding |
---|---|
National government
|
National funds
|
Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:
Trade unions | Employers' organisations | |
---|---|---|
Role | No involvement as case not in social partner domain | No involvement as case not in social partner domain |
Form | Not applicable | Not applicable |
Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:
No involvement.
Not applicable.
This case is sector-specific (only private sector)
Economic area | Sector (NACE level 2) |
---|---|
P - Education | P85 Education |
This case is not occupation-specific.
Citation
Eurofound (2020), Support in the field of education and youth, case EE-2020-18/977 (measures in Estonia), COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch, Dublin, http://eurofound.link/covid19eupolicywatch
Disclaimer: This information has not been subject to the full Eurofound evaluation, editorial and publication process. All information is preliminary and subject to change.