Estonia/OER

Overview

Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia is a country in Northern Europe in the Baltic region. Its territory covers only 45,227 km² and is divided into 15 counties. Estonia is a democratic parliamentary republic. Its capital and largest city is Tallinn. Estonia was a member of the League of Nations from 1921, has been a member of the United Nations since 1991, of the European Union since 2004 and of NATO since 2004. With only 1,400,000 inhabitants, Estonia comprises one of the smallest populations of the EU countries.

In 1918, the Estonian Declaration of Independence was issued, to be followed by the Estonian War of Independence (1918-1920), which resulted in the Tartu Peace Treaty recognizing Estonian independence in perpetuity. During World War II, Estonia was occupied and annexed first by the Soviet Union and subsequently by the Third Reich, only to be re-occupied by the Soviet Union in 1944. Estonia regained its independence in 1991 and it has since embarked on a rapid program of social and economic reform. Today, the country has gained recognition for its economic freedom, its adaptation of new technologies and as one of the world's fastest growing economies.

The official language in Estonia is Estonian, which belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family and is closely related to Finnish. Along with Finnish, the languages of English, Russian and German are also widely spoken and understood.

The major minority language is Russian with its speakers making up about 30% of the population. Russian-language education is provided in public and also in private schools at all levels: pre-school, basic and secondary schools, as well as vocational schools higher education institutions. About 24% of all Estonian school children attend Russian-language basic and secondary schools. Some 10% of higher education students study in Russian.

Further information

For further general information see Wikipedia:Estonia/OER.

Education in Estonia/OER

For a general description of education in Estonia/OER see Education:Estonia/OER.

e-learning

For a description more focussed to e-learning see E-learning:Estonia/OER.

Internet in Estonia/OER

The role of ICT and the internet in society is growing - providing information, business transactions, and interaction between the state and citizens. An emphasis made on computerizing the schools and providing vocational education to grownups has been essential. (1)

Internet in Education

In the educational sector, the Tiger Leap program has played an important role in the virtuous circle of making IT popular first among children and through them among the whole society. Almost all children (93 %) have access to the Internet either at school, in the neighborhood or at home. Pupils use the Internet mainly at school (79%). In 2000, there were no basic or upper secondary schools without computers in Estonia, 75% of schools also had online Internet connections. (1)

References

1. ReVica/VISCED page for Estonia (http://virtualcampuses.eu/index.php/Estonia)

Reports

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