Estonia's Education System

By Sergio Martín Comesaña

Estonia's education system

iNDEX

Introduction

Size of classes

Length of school day

Happyness

Homeworks

Subjects

Main problems

Relationships

Comparison

So, obviously, the Estonia's education system is great, and we can learn a lot from it.

In the latest PISA exams, Estonia achieved some of the highest scores, ranking 7th in Mathematics and 6th in Science and Reading.

Introduction

Estonia is a small country in the east of Europe, which is usually ignored, however, after its independence Estonia has experiment an increase in its economy, society and, of course, education.

In comparison with Spain, in Estonia there are only 18 students for class, while in pain there are between 25 and 30 studets, which reduce the quality of our education.

This allows them to receive a better education, as the teacher can provide more support to all the students

Size of classes

The sizse of the classes in Estonia are pretty small, they usually has less than 18 students for class.

In comparison with Spain, Estonia has almost the same number of hours. Therefore, the difference in our education systems may lie in the way classes are taught

Usually in high school the length of the school day is between five and seven hours, however there are high schools which have more or less hours

Length of the school day

The length of the school day in Estonia is not determined. Each school decides how many hours students spend at school

In comparison with Spain, Estonia rank only a few positions above Spain, which has 6.88 points

At first 6.91 seems too low, however, the highest rank is held by Finland, which has 7.41. Furthermore, the average is 6.75, which means there must be a global effort to improve the student's satisfaction

Level of happyness

Estonian students are not only among the best in exams, but they also rank as the 14th country with the highest level of satisfaction, scoring 6.91 points.

In comparison with Spain, Estonian students spend much less time doing homework, because Spain is one of the countries that spends the most time doing homework

Estonia, like other countries such as Finland, spends less time doing homework. Instead of spending a lot of time like Asian countries, such as China and Korea

time spent on homeworks

Estonian students spent on average 3.1 hours for doing homeworks.

In comparison with Spain, the Estonian curriculum prepares more the students to the new necesities of the jobs and how to solve real problems.

Estonian students also learn about Maths, Language, English, History and Science, but they prioritise the practical use of these subjects to solve problems.

Subjects of the curriculum

In this day and age, the new technologies are essential for almost everything, so in Estonia there are subject such as robotics and programming.

In comparison with Spain, their problems are more concentrated, while in Spain there are many issues, such as motivation, pressure, and preparation for job, among others.

The main problem is that Russian-speaking people do not speak Estonian, which is used in all the schools. So, the government is trying to solve the problem by teaching Estonian to Russian-speaking children

MAin problem

Estonia has a great education system, however it has one main problem, which is related to its history. 25% of the Estonian population is of Russian ethnicity. Studies show that Russian-speaking people living in Estonia are discriminated in the classrooms and have lower grades.

Also, the students are encouraged to be indendent and responsible.

In comparison with Spain, the Estonian teachers are way more flexible to the way they teach, because they adapt theirself to the different necesities and capacities of their students

Relationship with the teachers

The relationship with the teacher is, of course, based on respect, but they are not seen as an authority, they are seen as a guide who transmit a lesson. The relationship is informal, who allow the students to feel comfortable to aks questions and dialogue with the teachers

GENERAL COMPARISON WITH SPAIN

As a conclusion, the estonian educational system is centered in teach useful information, which allow students to get a better job in the future, also they dedicate much less time to homeworks but has less number of students for class. Furthemore the educative pressure in Estonia is minimal. While in Spain the qualifications seem to be more important than the real objective of education, which is learning.

¡END!