Estonians Believe in Education
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Editor-in-Chief of Riigikogu Toimetised
The development of the Estonian language, culture and identity has been strongly connected with education. Issues of good education are also relevant today. The world is evolving rapidly, and we have to be able to keep up with the skills we need for that, and our education system must be able to provide them to learners. This issue of Riigikogu Toimetised offers a range of views on the state of our (higher) education system, on the quality we should demand from it, what it costs and what we should expect for our money.
Kadri Männasoo, Professor at the School of Business and Governance of the Department of Economics and Finance of Tallinn University of Technology, writes about investing in higher education and its potential expected rate of return in Estonia.
Kaire Põder from the Estonian Business School and Uku Varblane from the Foresight Centre examine the funding of higher education and whether students really have to work during their studies. The second article by Uku Varblane looks at possible scenarios for higher education in Estonia, using materials from the Foresight Centre’s study “Future of Higher Education”, sectoral reports and academic literature.
The central contribution in Focus section comes from Professor Margit Sutrop, who also participated in the discussion panel. She gives a summary of the main part of the report of the Higher Education Support Group of the Riigikogu.
Member of the Academy of Sciences Jaak Aaviksoo writes in the RiTo essay: “First, we might consider whether it is sensible to increase quantitative expectations for the whole education system when society becomes more complex. All this burden ultimately falls on the shoulders of teachers, leaving neither time nor energy for what is really important.”
As usual, in addition to the focus topic, the new issue of RiTo also features contributions on other topics. We publish the second part of a study by Piret Tipner (Avarmaa) on the dangers of modern warfare and how to protect oneself against them. In the second part, the author also focuses on places for shelter, looking at the situation in East Viru County in Estonia.
From the RITA research projects, we publish the survey on the financial literacy of the Estonian population conducted by the market research company “Turu-uuringute AS”, which will be continued in the future, and which is indirectly related to the focus topic of education. For four years now, Turu-uuringud have been studying how our people can handle money.
As regards political commentaries, former politician Peet Kask recalls how the rules of procedure of the Parliament were set up in 1990–1992.
And last but not least – the Riigikogu Building celebrates its centenary this year. Head of the Library of the Estonian Academy of Arts Mait Väljas gives an overview of the birth of this magnificent building and the architectural details that can be found in it. Happy reading!