Ms Kristina Kallas, Minister of Education and Research of Estonia, on a visit to Spectra Secondary School.
Both countries also increasingly see the need to impart 21st-century skills like analytical thinking and intercultural communication, Ms Kallas said in an interview with The Straits Times on April 23. “We both have been very poor and small societies, countries with no natural resources to rely on,” she added.
Estonia has about 500 schools providing basic education from grades 1 to 9. Children start school at the age of seven and finish at 16, when they take a national exit examination. They then move on to upper secondary education, where they can opt for the academic or vocational tracks. Asked how academic rigour is maintained with just three subjects, she said: “Teachers have been arguing that we need to have more exams at the exit level in the ninth grade…
“AI is an enormous opportunity for schools and education... The children are already bringing it to schools, so we might as policymakers even be late in designing the policies.”