The main tasks of the Ministry of Education and Research are to guarantee the expedient and effective development of education, research, youth and language policies and the high level and competitiveness of research and development activities.

In order to fulfil these tasks, the Ministry:

• plans, organises and develops education, research, youth and language policies;
• develops national development plans in the areas of education, research, youth and language policies and guarantees their compliance with the national development plans in these areas;
• organises the funding, completion and assessment of the results of development plans;
• exercises governmental supervision over the activities of educational institutions regarding provision of education and the fulfilment of national study programmes and other educational standards;
• plans and develops national study programmes and other educational standards and organises their preparation and accreditation.

The area of government of the Ministry covers planning the education, research, youth and language policies of the state and, in association with the above, organisation of preschool, general secondary, vocational secondary, higher, hobby and adult education, research and development activities, the areas of youth and special youth work and preparation of relevant draft acts.

There are 12 agencies in the Ministry‘s area of government. The Ministry does not manage the agencies in its area of government directly, but strategically through the development of their development trends, definition of their goals and analysing their results, guarantee of their budget, exercise of supervision, etc.
The Ministry of Education and Research employs approximately 176 people.
In recent years, Estonia has invested 14–15% of its total public expenditure in education. In 2008, educational expenditure in Estonia’s public sector amounted to 12.6 billion EEK – less than 13% of the total public sector expenditure.