OECD Reviews of School Resources: Estonia 2016
The effective use of school resources is a policy priority across OECD countries. The OECD Reviews of School Resources explore how resources can be governed, distributed, utilised and managed to improve the quality, equity and efficiency of school education.
The series considers four types of resources: financial resources, such as public funding of individual schools; human resources, such as teachers, school leaders and education administrators; physical resources, such as location, buildings and equipment; and other resources, such as learning time.
This series offers timely policy advice to both governments and the education community. It includes both country reports and thematic studies.
School education in Estonia
School governance in Estonia is fairly decentralised and involves two levels of administration: the state and municipalities. While the government and the Ministry of Education and Research are responsible for national education policy and the overall strategy for the education system, three types of providers offer competing education services: the state (dominant in vocational education), the municipalities (dominant in pre-primary and general education) and private. The large majority of children attend public schools, although private providers receive public funding on a similar basis than public schools. The Estonian school system is high-performing. Coverage rates in pre-primary education are high, participation in schooling is almost universal, the performance of students at the secondary level is among the best in Europe and adults have literacy and numeracy skills above the OECD average. In addition, at the secondary level, students’ socio-economic background has a smaller impact on performance in Estonia than in other OECD countries. However, there are concerns about the performance of students in Russian language schools.