Estonia is among the first European Union (EU) countries to incorporate education supporting sustainability into its national curriculum, doing so as early as 2002. Estonia is recognized for its comprehensive approach—not only focusing on skills and knowledge but also addressing attitudes and values, integrating environmental, social, and economic issues.
Estonian students rank 4th in Europe in knowledge related to sustainable development. According to the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS), Estonia scored 522.9 points, compared to the EU average of 506.7 across 17 countries. Environmental awareness among Estonian students has improved, though girls and Estonian-speaking students continue to be more environmentally aware.
The implementation of sustainability education faces challenges due to a shortage of qualified teachers, particularly in natural sciences. However, more than half of Estonian teachers have participated in at least one professional development program focused on environmental awareness.
The European Commission’s report also highlights the strong core skills of Estonian students, based on PISA results. The proportion of students with low proficiency in core skills remains one of the lowest in Europe. Estonia is the only EU country where the target of reducing underperformance to below 15% has been met in all three domains: only 15% of students struggle with mathematics, 13.8% with reading, and 10.1% with science. However, the share of low performers in Estonia has increased over the past decade (+4.5 percentage points in mathematics, +4.7 in reading, and +5.1 in science), although this rise is smaller than the EU average (+7.4, +8.2, and +7.4 percentage points, respectively).
Estonia continues to have the smallest socio-economic gap in underperformance in mathematics in Europe (18.4 percentage points compared to 37.2 in the EU). Nevertheless, disparities have grown since 2018, with a slight increase in the performance gap between students from rural and urban areas, favoring urban students.
The Education Monitor also highlights significant education reforms in Estonia, such as extending the mandatory school age to 18 or until obtaining vocational or secondary education, and reforms to vocational education aimed at increasing its flexibility and popularity. The attractiveness of vocational education in Estonia has remained relatively stable in recent years, with 44.6% of upper secondary students enrolled in vocational programs in 2022 (compared to 52.4% in the EU).
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