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Table 1.3.4<br />

The quality of education according to the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI 2012): Estonia and the top 5 countries in<br />

the world<br />

Measures supporting efficiency<br />

Measures supporting<br />

innovation<br />

Conformity of<br />

education to<br />

the economy<br />

Level of<br />

mathematics and<br />

sciences teaching<br />

Level of schools<br />

of economics and<br />

management<br />

Availability of<br />

the Internet<br />

in schools<br />

Availability of<br />

high-quality<br />

training services<br />

Training and<br />

development<br />

of workers<br />

1 Switzerland Singapore United Kingdom Iceland Switzerland Switzerland<br />

2 Finland Finland Belgium Estonia The Netherlands Finland<br />

3 Singapore Belgium Switzerland Finland Austria Singapore<br />

4 Qatar Lebanon Spain The Netherlands Germany Luxembourg<br />

5 Belgium Switzerland Canada Singapore Belgium Japan<br />

Estonia among<br />

144 countries<br />

49. 19. 48. 2. 39. 46.<br />

The following educational risks for Estonia should be<br />

mentioned: the small percentage of men among the students<br />

at all educational levels and the meagre positive<br />

effect of education on positions in the labour market.<br />

Estonians with higher education more often have jobs<br />

that do not conform to their educational qualifications,<br />

and higher education also does not have the same positive<br />

effect on salary levels as it does in other countries.<br />

Keeping Estonia’s small population in mind, a serious<br />

concern is the percentage of young people with only<br />

Figure 1.3.12<br />

Assessment of the role of school in the development<br />

of entrepreneurial attitudes, as well as knowledge and<br />

skills, % of the respondents that agreed that school<br />

plays a positive role.<br />

Attitudes<br />

Turkey<br />

China<br />

Finland<br />

Switzerland<br />

Czech Republic<br />

USA<br />

Denmark<br />

Rep. of Korea<br />

Austria<br />

Slovakia<br />

Slovenia<br />

Estonia<br />

Netherlands<br />

Hungary<br />

Ireland<br />

Japan<br />

Skills-knowledge<br />

Percentage 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70<br />

Source: Flash Eurobarometer 354, 2012<br />

basic education or less, which is statistically equal to<br />

the European Union average. A drop-out rate of 10–11%<br />

means 10,000 young people aged 18 to 24 who only<br />

have a basic education, if that. Only 6% of them are<br />

employed, which means great economic losses to the<br />

society in the form of unpaid taxes and increased social<br />

costs, as well as the indirect costs for ensuring security<br />

and health (European Parliament 2011).<br />

We should keep an eye on the changes in Estonia’s<br />

position in the rankings of educational indicators.<br />

For instance, Estonia’s results in the 2009 PISA tests<br />

were poorer than in 2006 (Kitsing 2011). Secondly,<br />

there is no decline in the measures of education that<br />

are based on expert opinions related to competitiveness<br />

and the public’s assessment of the role of school<br />

in the development of entrepreneurship has improved<br />

between 2009 and 2012. Therefore, the data on the<br />

quality of education are somewhat contradictory and<br />

today there are too little of it to draw any fundamental<br />

conclusions.<br />

International impulses have significantly shaped<br />

Estonian education policy (Heidmets et al. 2011). During<br />

the last decade, Estonia has adopted the European Union’s<br />

educational guidelines, and also actively learned from<br />

neighbouring countries. At the same time, the arguments<br />

and instruments for the adoption of polices have rapidly<br />

developed; among other things, learning from our neighbours,<br />

has made learning from international organisations<br />

less important (Toots 2009). One reason could be that<br />

Estonia’s accession to the European Union and the OECD<br />

came at a time when greater importance started to be<br />

placed on the measurement of the efficiency of indicator-based<br />

education systems.<br />

Besides the things that are on the international<br />

agenda, topics are prevalent in Estonia’s educational policy<br />

debates that do not seem to be justified by Estonia’s<br />

international position (see Table 1.3.5). This confirms<br />

that external influences have been multifaceted and are<br />

mediated based on domestic interests. Secondly, it seems<br />

that domestic policymakers have not always known how<br />

to assess Estonia’s situation based on the international<br />

reference system, and therefore, some topics have been<br />

over-amplified while others have not received sufficient<br />

attention.<br />

Estonian Human Development Report 2012/2013<br />

39

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