Photo: Hendrik Osula/The Guardian
Estonia, a small country that is relatively poor compared with most of the EU, is an educational powerhouse. It ranks the best in Europe, just behind a handful of Asian countries, according to an international ranking of 15-year-olds’ abilities in maths, reading and science. Its teachers are highly educated, the focus is on social and personal skills as much as academic learning and the curriculum is packed with a wide range of subjects. Many children learn coding and robotics, and everything from textbooks to communication with parents is digital. Gunda Tire, who leads international assessments for Estonia’s education and youth board, says success is partly thanks to its mix of history and geography. Education minister Kristina Kallas thinks the strength in Estonia’s education system is because “it’s built from the bottom-up, not run by [central government], and it never was.”
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