Digital Education in Estonia

Mart Laanpere
Professor of mathematics & computing education
Centre for Educational Technology
Tallinn University, Estonia
Educational statistics of Estonia
Number of schools: 517, including:
- 351 basic schools (grades 1-9)
- 140+25 secondary schools (grades 1-12 or 10-12)
50% of high schools have <100 students
11% private schools, 8% state schools
Number of students (K-12): 156 000
Number of teachers (K-12): 15 000
Free textbooks, school lunches & transport
Population: 1.3 Million
Size: 45 227 km²
Capital: Tallinn (pop. 446 000)
Official language: Estonian
Ethnic Estonians: 69%
Member of EU, NATO: since 2004
Information society index:
#1 in Europe (public e-services)
Strong ICT sector (employs 5,3%)
The startup nation: the highest
number of IT-startups, Skype
Home of EU IT Agency & NATO
CDC
 OECD PISA study 2018
• Estonian 8th graders
ranked on top in EU
for Math, Science,
Reading skills
• Estonian students:
• Student’s socio-economic
background has small impact
on performance
• 70% of Estonian students are
satisfied with their life
• 70% of Estonian students want
to acquire higher education
• Believes in technology, is active
digital device user and reads
online news regularly

More info: www.hm.ee/en/activities/statistics-and-analysis/pisa

Educational policy reforms
• National curricula: 1996, 2001, 2011, 2024?
• School autonomy, no school inspectorate
• External evaluation (state exams): 1997, 2011
• Online level e-tests, diagnostic e-tests: 2009
• Lifelong Learning Strategy 2014-2020: pedagogical paradigm shift,
digital turn in schools, teachers' qualification, aligning with job
market needs, reducing dropout
• National Strategy of Education 2021-2035: personalised learning,
access to education, dissolving the borders between formal and
non-formal education

National Strategy of Education 2035: https://www.hm.ee/en/activities/strategic-planning-2021-2035

National curricula: https://www.hm.ee/en/activities/pre-school-basic-and-secondary-education
Digital innovation strategies
• Tiger Leap programme (1997-2000): computers & internet to
schools, teacher training, informatics subject
• Tiger Leap Plus (2001-2005): 80% primary, secondary & high
school teachers passed 80-hrs Intel course 'Teach to the
Future', ICT skills test for 9th graders
• Learning Tiger (2006-2009): 80% primary, secondary & high
school teachers passed 80-hrs course
• Lifelong Learning Strategy 2014-2021: Digital Turn in
education, massive teacher education, digital learning
resources, e-textbooks, OER portal, e-services, e-tests
• Education Strategy 2021-2035: personalised/flexible learning
paths, digital ecosystem of smart services
Digital Learning Resoucers: e-Schoolbag www.e-koolikott.ee

Online exams
https://eis.ekk.edu.ee/
Dimensions of whole-school Digital Turn

Depth of change
5

Continuous innovation
4
Seamless embedding
3

Process redesign
2

Internal coordination
1
Accidental use

10% 25% 50% 90% 200+ %

Scale of change: the share of people engaged

Digital Mirror Digital Mirror: An online tool for
self-assessment of school’s digital
digipeegel.ee maturity, then creating digital strategy

Self-assessment:
• By the principal
• By digi-team
• By peer team

Data-driven
decision-making:
• Benchmarking
• Strategic goals
• Action plan
• School-owners’
digital strategy
Digital Competence Task Force Group
• Founded in 2017, consists of six experts from two universities, school
and National Agency of Education & Youth
• Meets monthly, reports to Digital Competence Council twice a year
• Achievements:
• localisation and promotion of European digital competence standards
• Digital Competence Hub: digipadevus.ee
• Development and validation of digital competence assessment instruments
for students, teachers, teacher educators
• White Paper on digital competence, consolidation of national policies
• Mapping all teacher training courses to DigCompEdu model
• Webinars for teachers, training for school principals etc
• Reviews of best practices on digital competence assessment globally
digipadevus.ee
Students' digital competence framework
• Based on European DigComp 2.1 framework, defined in the national
curriculum since 2014 as:
• the ability to use developing digital technology for coping in a quickly
changing society for learning, acting as a citizen as well as communicating in
communities;
• to use digital means for finding and preserving information and to evaluate
the relevance and trustworthiness of the information;
• to participate in creating digital content, including creation and use of texts,
images, multimedia;
• to use suitable digital tools and methods for solving problems, to
communicate and cooperate in different digital environments;
• to be aware of the dangers of the digital environment and know how to
protect one’s privacy, personal information and digital identity;
• to follow in a digital environment the same moral and value principles as in
everyday life
DigComp framework: https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/digcomp_en
 Digital Competence vs. Informatics
Almost any teacher Only qualified informatics
Digital competence: is able to teach
Special preparation
teachers are able/allowed
Informatics as
is needed to teach it
integrated into subjects to teach it a school subject
InfoLiteracy
Collaboration
Content creation
Digital safety
Problem solving
Robotics
Programming

A swimming pool
metaphor Elective courses:
- Software prototyping
- Geoinformatics
- Data analysis
- Robotics & mechatronics
- CyberDefence
National test of Digital Competence
• The same version for 9th (8th) and 12th (11th) grade students
• Fully online on EIS platform since 2017, designed by experts from the
University of Tartu and Tallinn University
• Automatically graded multiple choice items
• No aggregated score or grade is given to students, only summary
analytics to teacher and school
• Compulsory for a random sample of 20 schools, voluntary for the
others (a week later after the sample-based test)
Implementing Digital Competence test
• Test was piloted first in 2017, then implemented in 2018, 2019 and
2021 on a sample of 3000+ students (in Estonian and Russian)
• Test contained 24 tasks in 5 dimensions of DigComp 2.1:
• information literacy – 5 tasks
• Communication – 6 tasks
• Content creation – 6 tasks
• Digital safety 5 tasks
• Problem solving -2 tasks
You need to share some video, image and text files with your classmates after a class trip.
Please select the most appropriate medium for sharing for each file.

File Messenger application External memory device Cloud drive

Choose: Choose: Choose:

• Unsuitable • Unsuitable • Unsuitable
• Maybe suitable • Maybe suitable • Maybe suitable
• Suitable • Suitable • Suitable

Choose: Choose: Choose:

Choose: Choose: Choose:

Choose: Choose: Choose:

Results of an web search with keywords: Paid Probably Likely
restaurants Tallinn advert unsafe safe
Training of public officials: DigitalState
Academy
• Public procurement won by TalTech and Tallinn University
• Self-paced MOOCs on Moodle platform:
• DigitalState ABC: services, strategies, policies
• Project Management ABC
• Open Data ABC
• Managing Digital Services
• Agile Software Engineering

DigitalState Academy: https://digiriigiakadeemia.ee

Official documents about Estonian education
• National curriculum of basic schools (2011): https://www.riigiteataja.ee/en/eli
/524092014014/consolide
• National curriculum of upper-secondary schools (2011): https://
www.riigiteataja.ee/en/eli/524092014009/consolide
• National strategy of education 2021-2035: https://digital-skills-jobs.europa.eu/en
/actions/national-initiatives/national-strategies/estonia-education-strategy-2021-2
035
• Pre-school curriculum:
https://www.hm.ee/en/education-research-and-youth-affairs/general-education/g
eneral-education-estonia
• Overview of SEN education in Estonia:
https://epikoda.ee/en/for-parents/education/basic-education,
simplified curriculum for basic schools
• A brand new book on Estonian education success story:
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003255543/lessons-eston
ia-education-success-story-peeter-mehisto-maie-kitsing