How did a small, relatively poor country become an educational powerhouse? Creativity, autonomy and a deep embrace of the digital age
‘One of the key elements of the educational system is that schools have a lot of freedom’ … Cordelia Violet Paap and Targo Tammela at Pelgulinna State Gymnasium. Photograph: Hendrik Osula/The Guardian
When Estonia embraced the digital age, schools were part of that. As far back as 1997, the country launched an initiative called, to upgrade computer resources and provide internet access to schools. “We trained a lot of teachers, connected all the schools and gave them computers,” says Tire. “The idea is not to have an IT class, but to have digital skills incorporated everywhere.” Many children learn coding and robotics, and everything from textbooks to communication with parents is digital.
Paap says her school’s ethos of creativity “is a lot more enjoyable than the very orthodox way, where you just sit in a classroom and listen.” To counter any notions that this is too liberal, Targo Tammela, 17, who has just come from a Nordic history class, says there “is still discipline, you still have to pass every test.” Neither has particularly embraced Estonia’s much-admired digital education, but it is still a big part of their learning, they say.
Are there behavioural problems? “Of course,” says Salum. “Every day there is some sort of incident where you have to talk to students about how to respect others and how to behave. We have certain students we need to keep a closer eye on and we work with parents a lot, but overall I think the students tend to appreciate their environment.” It looks pretty harmonious to me.
“One of the key elements of the Estonian educational system is that schools and teachers have a lot of freedom,” says Salum. There are standards they need to meet, but how they achieve that is up to them. Toom has access to tablets and laptops for the children, but she is just as likely to take a lesson outside, or on the roof terrace, with paper and pencil – not to study nature , but because it’s nice to learn maths outdoors.
Teachers’ pay “is a problem all over the world,” says Kristina Kallas, Estonia’s education minister, when I meet her in her office. “The education system is always under resources pressure.” There are two main issues at the moment, she says. “One is the economic recession, and the other is that any budget surplus goes to defence, because we are in a very precarious situation.” All eyes are on Estonia’s neighbour, Russia, and the situation in Ukraine.
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