» The ESF programme “Developing an Educational Counselling System” (2008-2011)
The objective of the ESF programme “Developing an Educational Counselling System” is to improve the quality of the educational counselling system and create academic advice centres on the county level to prevent students from dropping out of school, and to increase coping strategies and competitiveness for young people in their everyday life and in the labour market.
The programme activities are aimed at ensuring that academic counselling service is available in all regions of Estonia, providers of the educational counselling service are being trained and the counselling system developed.
The programme target group comprises students with special educational needs, the children’s parents, providers of counselling service, teachers and specialists at educational institutions, and local government officials responsible for the educational sphere.
Currently, educational and psychological counselling is fragmented and not evenly available from one region to the next. The shortage of support specialists (special education teachers, speech therapists, psychologists, social workers) in schools and kindergartens is a serious problem. The most frequent concerns that parents and teachers bring to counselling centre specialists are related to children’s learning problems, behavioural problems, finding a suitable study programme, learning opportunities for children with special needs both in school and after leaving school, and emotional problems and social communication difficulties at school, at home, with peers.
Primary programme activities: 1. developing a model for financing the counselling service and the counselling centres; 2. mapping the availability of counselling service and developing cooperation schemes; 3. developing principles for the procedure and structure of the assessment of the quality of service and the procedure for assessing quality in all regions, developing new operating principles for counselling committees; 4. creating and developing a website for educational counselling specialists and the service’s target group; 5. training specialists and preparing instructional materials related to provision of the academic counselling service.
The programme partners were selected in cooperation with county associations and the educational departments of county governments. This ensures that educational counselling centres are established in all regions of Estonia. The function of cooperation partners is coordinating the educational counselling service, establishing and developing a network and providing counselling service. Two schools for children with special educational needs provide counselling for sight- and hearing-impaired children.
The educational counselling programme is being implemented by the National Examination and Qualification Centre. The total cost of the programme is 35 million kroons, and the programme is funded by the Estonian government and the European Social Fund. For more information, contact:
programme manager Riina Otti, tel 7350 715, e-mail:
programme coordinator Ada Lumiste, tel 735 0619, e-mail:
assistant to the programme manager Reilika Kaasik, tel 7350 718, e-mail:
