DEVELOPMENT

More documents

Recommendations

Info

monitoring of teaching, the schools’ autonomy in the selection of teachers, and the determination of the study content. The referenced authors also find that national testing has a positive effect if the results are used only to compare schools, and not to group children into different tracks of study. However, assuming that impact of socio-economic deprivation will decline, one should carefully monitor whether the current good performance of Estonia’s education system will continue in the future. Possible risks are related to the liberal approach to the principle of school choice. Although the right of the parents to choose the school for their child is prevalent in many countries, Estonia is different because mechanisms are not utilised to balance the school choice model that has a segregating effect. Thus, an analysis of the children starting school in Tallinn from 2008 to 2011 showed that admission to the popular schools in the city centre was more probable if the child had completed a paid prep-school, his or her mother had a higher education, the father had a good income and they lived in the city centre (Põder, Lauri 2013). Therefore, several segregation mechanisms are simultaneously at work – an advantage based on residence in the city centre schools, admission testing, and the autonomy of the school director in deciding whether to admit a child – which intensify each other. Thus, several problems accompany the neoliberal education agenda that promotes competition. It has been discovered that it is more harmless to promote the principle of school choice in mature countries where the following preconditions exist: uniform school networks, parents who are experienced at making selections, and the ability and desire to consider collective interests experiences (Perry 2007). 1.3.4 The educational contribution to economic development The OECD and IEA surveys provide the answer to the question of which education systems are among the best in the world, but based on them, we cannot draw any direct conclusions about how education systems can satisfy economic needs. In its education sub-index, the Global Competitiveness Index, which is computed by the World Economic Forum, has focused on this topic. In order to measure the conformity of education with the needs of the economy, the experts used a scale of 1 to 7 to evaluate the conformity of the following aspects of the education system with a free market economy: the quality of the teaching of the sciences in the schools; the quality of the schools of economics and management; the utilisation of the Internet in the schools; and the training opportunities for employees in the workplace. Unlike the PISA and IEA surveys, in which the respondents are stakeholders in the education system (students, teachers, school administrators), the World Economic Forum’s data reflects the positions of experts outside the education systems, i.e. the consumers of the education product, the educational outcome. Estonia is above average in all the indicators, however, it stands out for the relatively low satisfaction Figure 1.3.7 Percentage of students with low and high levels of performance (%) in mathematics and the country’s average score, PISA 2009. Below the base level Percentage Singapore (562) Rep. of Korea (546) Finland (541) Switzerland (534) Netherlands (526) New Zealand (519) Belgium (515) Germany (513) Estonia (512) Denmark (503) Slovenia (501) Slovakia (497) France (497) OECD average (496) Austria (496) Poland (495) Sweden (494) Czech Republic (493) Great Britain (492) Hungary (490) Luxembourg (489) Portugal (487) Ireland (487) Italy (483) Spain (483) Latvia (482) Lithuania (477) Greece (466) Israel (447) Bulgaria (428) Uruguay (427) Romania (427) Chile (421) Percentage Source: OECD Top level 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 10 20 30 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 10 20 30 with the level of the management schools and the conformity of the education to the needs of the free market as a whole. This reflects a greater concern about the insufficient link to the economy. The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report states that the Estonian Employers Confederation considers the inadequate preparation of the workforce to be the main drag on Estonia’s economic development (WEF 2012). Since the given index is based on the assessments provided by local experts, the critical attitude of the local experts also affects the value of the index. By comparing the educational indicators of global competitiveness with the PISA results, it turns out that the Estonian experts are more critical than the others when assessing the level of the schools in their country. Thus, the performance of the Estonian students in mathematics and the sciences is higher than that of the Swiss and Belgian students, but the Estonian economic experts give the level of teaching in our schools a much lower 36 Estonian Human Development Report 2012/2013
Figure 1.3.8 Percentage of students with low and high levels of performance (%) in sciences and the country’s average score, PISA 2009. Figure 1.3.9 Percentage of students with low and high levels of performance (%) in reading and the country’s average score, PISA 2009. Below the base level Top level Below the base level Top level Percentage 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 10 20 Percentage 50 40 30 20 10 0 10 Finland (554) Singapore (542) Republic of Korea (538) New Zealand (532) Estonia (528) Netherlands (522) Germany (520) Switzerland (517) Great Britain (514) Slovenia (512) Poland (508) Ireland (508) Belgium (507) Hungary (503) OECD average (501) Czech Republic (500) Denmark (499) France (498) Sweden (495) Latvia (494) Austria (494) Portugal (493) Lithuania (491) Slovakia (490) Italy (489) Spain (488) Luksemburg (484) Greece (470) Israel (455) Chile (447) Bulgaria (439) Rumeenia (428) Uruguay (427) Republic of Korea (539) Finland (536) Singapore (526) New Zealand (521) Netherlands (508) Belgium (506) Switzerland (501) Estonia (501) Poland (500) Germany (497) Sweden (497) France (496) Ireland (496) Denmark (495) Hungary (494) Great Britain (494) OECD average (492) Portugal (489) Italy (486) Latvia (484) Slovenia (483) Greece (483) Spain (481) Czech Republic (478) Slovakia (477) Israel (474) Luxembourg (472) Austria (470) Lithuania (468) Chile (449) Bulgaria (429) Uruguay (426) Romania (424) Percentage 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 10 20 Percentage 50 40 30 20 10 0 10 Source: OECD Source: OECD assessment than the Swiss and Belgian experts do for their schools (see Table 1.3.4) The conformity of education to the requirements of a “smart economy” is also on the agenda in the European Union’s analyses. As opposed to the view that is prevalent in Estonian public debates, i.e. that our young people are studying the “wrong specialities” (horizontal incompatibility), the European Commission points out a problem with vertical incompatibility, which means that people are working beneath the level of their acquired skills and knowledge. It’s true that vertical incompatibility is not uniquely an Estonian problem, because, in Europe, about 20% of workers with higher educations are doing work that does not correspond to their educational qualifications. However, the disharmony in Estonia is one of the highest in the EU (see Figure 1.3.11). This is a phenomenon that not been researched extensively to date; it is not yet known what causes the incompatibility, and whether the main factors are to be found the structure of the economy or the education system. However, from the European Commission’s policy trends we can surmise that a good solution for reducing the disharmony between education and the economy is to be found in the teaching of creativity and entrepreneurship. The existing statistics on the teaching of creativity in schools demonstrates a contrary picture. Although great emphasis is placed on creativity and innovation in general education curricula, few teachers feel it is necessary. Estonia especially stands out in the comparison with other European states for the great contrast between the curriculum as a normative document and the actual teaching practices. In our basic school curriculum, the words “creativity” and “innovation” appear the most, as compared to the other countries, but only 13% of teachers who were queried considered the teaching of creativity to be necessary, which is the lowest indicator in the European Union. For instance, in Finland and Estonian Human Development Report 2012/2013 37
Page 1: ESTONIAN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2
Page 4 and 5: Table of Contents 1 Human Capital /
Page 6 and 7: Dear Reader Since the moment when E
Page 9 and 10: 1Human Capital Estonian Human Devel
Page 11 and 12: the HDI’s content has also been h
Page 13 and 14: Figure 1.1.1 The human development
Page 15 and 16: Figure 1.1.7 The income sub-index:
Page 17 and 18: The results of the Princeton Projec
Page 19 and 20: the hypothetical generation. The to
Page 21 and 22: Figure 1.2.3 Life expectancy. Eston
Page 23 and 24: Table 1.2.2 also presents the most
Page 25 and 26: The new trends that are appearing i
Page 27 and 28: Figure 1.2.8 Components of populati
Page 29 and 30: New features were introduced into E
Page 31 and 32: Initiation of Voluntary Birth Contr
Page 33 and 34: Table 1.3.1 Best-known educational
Page 35 and 36: (OECD 2012b). Therefore a certain r
Page 37: The reciprocal dependence of the pr
Page 41 and 42: Table 1.3.4 The quality of educatio
Page 43 and 44: 1.4 Health Raul-Allan Kiivet Change
Page 45 and 46: Table 1.4.1 Usage of prescription m
Page 47 and 48: allude to the fact that approximate
Page 49 and 50: promote healthy lifestyles among th
Page 51 and 52: Figure 1.5.1 The World Values Surve
Page 53 and 54: Table 1.5.2 Estonia’s participati
Page 55 and 56: Figure 1.5.3 The percentage of the
Page 57 and 58: Figure 1.5.5 Percentage of the Esto
Page 59 and 60: The fact that Estonia’s position
Page 61 and 62: Summary Mati Heidmets The global vi
Page 63 and 64: 2People and Society Estonian Human
Page 65 and 66: Table 2.1.1 Structure of the Bertel
Page 67 and 68: tioning market economies (15 states
Page 69 and 70: 2.2 Freedom and democracy Martin M
Page 71 and 72: Table 2.2.1 Democracy indicators Po
Page 73 and 74: Figure 2.2.2 The distribution of th
Page 75 and 76: would be something that none of the
Page 77 and 78: political participation are general
Page 79 and 80: strongest, while a very small perce
Page 81 and 82: is concerned, Estonia is one of the
Page 83 and 84: Figure 2.4.2 Average circulation of
Page 85 and 86: 2.5 Corruption Jüri Saar In accord
Page 87 and 88: Lithuania, 61%; and in Russia, 69%.
Page 89 and 90:
2.6.2 Intentional homicides in Esto
Page 91 and 92:
crime. And thirdly, there was a wis
Page 93 and 94:
References 1. Ahven, A. & Tabur, L.
Page 95 and 96:
states included in the EU Kids Onli
Page 97 and 98:
2.8 Public assessments of the state
Page 99 and 100:
Figure 2.8.4 Changes releated to tr
Page 101 and 102:
of the state’s development are en
Page 103 and 104:
Table 2.9.1 The positions of Estoni
Page 105 and 106:
3. IEP (2011). Structures of Peace.
Page 107 and 108:
3Welfare and the Quality of Life Es
Page 109 and 110:
choices made, not what people say t
Page 111 and 112:
Figure 3.1.5 Public social spending
Page 113 and 114:
tion agreed upon the social contrac
Page 115 and 116:
References 1. Aidukaite, J. (2006).
Page 117 and 118:
hand, to the “inequality of acces
Page 119 and 120:
and explanations of the extent of i
Page 121 and 122:
5- much more than I deserve. Some d
Page 123 and 124:
people in Estonia consider the inco
Page 125 and 126:
Table 3.3.1 Experienced Well-Being
Page 127 and 128:
at about 70%. In Latvia and Lithuan
Page 129 and 130:
sign. It seems that the usual view
Page 131 and 132:
3.4 Quality of life Anu Toots 3.4.1
Page 133 and 134:
a uniform composite indicator has n
Page 135 and 136:
3.4.6 The components of life qualit
Page 137 and 138:
Figure 3.4.4c Perceived quality of
Page 139 and 140:
Figure 3.4.5 Changes in the depriva
Page 141 and 142:
3.5 Environment dimension of well-b
Page 143 and 144:
Figure 3.5.1.b Estonia’s position
Page 145 and 146:
3.5.4 Energy intensity The energy i
Page 147 and 148:
productivity, which is defined as t
Page 149 and 150:
perceive themselves as worse off th
Page 151 and 152:
4The Economy Estonian Human Develop
Page 153 and 154:
vide a valuable connection for maki
Page 155 and 156:
Figure 4.1.3 Components of economic
Page 157 and 158:
ule of law, the sub-indicators for
Page 159 and 160:
References 1. Acemoglu, D.; Robinso
Page 161 and 162:
Development Report employs generali
Page 163 and 164:
and pasture land, and this was capi
Page 165 and 166:
Basing the total and net savings re
Page 167 and 168:
4.3 Labour market Reelika Leetmaa,
Page 169 and 170:
The problems include the very limit
Page 171 and 172:
• Expenditures for active labour
Page 173 and 174:
who lose their jobs. These ensure i
Page 175 and 176:
4.4 Productivity and the economic s
Page 177 and 178:
labour costs at the company level r
Page 179 and 180:
Table 4.4.4 Comparison of the produ
Page 181 and 182:
Figure 4.4.1 Annual average increas
Page 183 and 184:
4.5 Innovation Erik Terk, Katrin M
Page 185 and 186:
Table 4.5.2 Comparison of innovatio
Page 187 and 188:
Table 4.5.4 Comparison of the indic
Page 189 and 190:
in order to make the R&D potential
Page 191 and 192:
It is characteristic of the South K
Page 193 and 194:
mechanisms for increasing their sta
Page 195 and 196:
Globalisation and Policy Patterns 5
Page 197 and 198:
When Estonia regained its independe
Page 199 and 200:
5.2 The impacts of globalisation an
Page 201 and 202:
Table 5.2.2 Support of the differen
Page 203 and 204:
5.3 Development policies Erik Terk,
Page 205 and 206:
• C -the “Estonia-centred” su
Page 207 and 208:
Figure 5.4.1 Support for the possib
Page 209:
Summary Erik Terk Estonia is part o
Page 212 and 213:
ehavioural patterns. Therefore, it
Page 214 and 215:
EDR 2012/2013 authors Clemens Buche
Page 216 and 217:
EDR 2012/2013 authors Alari Purju i
Page 218:
Editor-in-Chief: Mati Heidmets Prod
show all

DEVELOPMENT

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?