TALLINN, 1 April 2005 - According to the State Audit Office (SAO) it is to be regretted that the network of student boarding houses is not being developed systematically in Estonia and the analyses underlying the regulation of the number, location and residents of boarding houses are insufficient. The goal of the project on student boarding houses is to help the children from socially disadvantaged families find a sense of security by providing an opportunity for such children to live and study in a boarding house.

In recent years, EEK 18 million have been appropriated in the state budget for the funding of student boarding houses. If in 2003/2004 there were 215 government-funded student places in 15 boarding houses, then in 2004/2005 there are 317 government-funded places in 21 boarding houses.

The SAO found that the principles for the establishment and financing of boarding houses were obscure. The Ministry of Education and Research failed to apply adequate control measures in the early years of the operation of boarding houses so as to ensure the purposeful use of resources allocated to the boarding houses project.

If at the launch of the project the goal was to set up boarding houses in all counties, then in 2004/2005 there were still no boarding houses in the Counties of Tartu and Viljandi. At the same time, however, there were 4 boarding houses in the Pärnu County and 3 in the Jõgeva County.

This shows that the Ministry has not sufficiently analysed the need for the establishment of boarding houses with those schools where they are today. The Ministry announced that it was considered right to delegate the decision making about the set-up of boarding houses to the county level, but the Minister of Education and Research in her reply to the SAO stated with regret that not all regions had taken full responsibility for the decisions on establishing boarding houses and been motivated by the regional education development plan in their decisions. That is why the Ministry has started to analyse the existing network of boarding houses and the viability of the respective schools.

Although the investments or the renovation and construction works of nearly all existing boarding houses as well as the acquisition of furniture have been funded through the state budget over the years, the boarding houses often accommodated fewer students than calculated in the course of construction. For example, in Järvakandi in the Rapla County the boarding students forecast for 2003/2004 was 20, including 10 students in government-funded places. In fact, there were only 5 boarding students in the boarding house in 2003/2004 and in the first half of 2004/2005 sometimes only 2 students. No boarding students were using government-funded places.

Further, the SAO found that in all boarding houses there were students on the list who had been missing for prolonged periods. Some were ill, some were disappeared, some were absent for social reasons.

Although there is a solid procedure in place for accommodating students in boarding houses, the boarding houses had not respected it in certain cases. Applications for boarding were often incomplete or totally missing.

Although in the early years of the boarding houses project the Ministry failed to make sure that boarding houses were founded only with viable schools and in every county, or to establish a well-functioning monitoring system for the planning, allocation and subsequent control of funds earmarked for boarding houses, the SAO recognizes the Ministry of Education and Research for the action taken or proposed in addressing the issues raised by the audit report.

In the context of the audit of student boarding houses, Auditor-General Mihkel Oviir has said the following:

"The student boarding houses programme is a government initiative of utmost importance, providing an opportunity for those children whose homes are not able or willing to maintain safe and favourable conditions for them. However, we have to ensure that such opportunities are fully exploited – only then will we achieve the goal of the boarding houses programme and spend the taxpayers’ money effectively. Current solutions are on the half-way: boarding students must leave for their permanent homes for weekends where they often have to tolerate their parents’ boozing or hunger and socially harmful environments. On the one hand, it would be reasonable to cut subsidies for children who are accommodated in boarding houses, because their parents do not incur costs associated with children when the latter stay in a boarding house. On the other hand, the Ministry of Education and Research together with the Ministry of Social Affairs is facing a challenge to fight situations where parents refuse to apply for boarding in order to avoid cutbacks on subsidies and they use the child as a "shield" against the curtailment or the termination of subsidies."


Toomas Mattson
Communication Manager of National Audit Office
Telephone: 6400 777
Mob: 51 34900
E-mail: [email protected]

• Posted: 4/1/2005 12:00 AM
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