No. 9

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Towards a knowledge-based Estonia – why and how?

14 June 2004

Politics

RiTo No. 9, 2004

  • Olav Aarna

    Member of Board, Foundation Estonian Qualification Authority

There is a significant paradigm shift taking place in the global economy. The new socio-economic system is characterized by the terms knowledge-based, innovation-based, networking-based and lifelong-learning-based.

The foundation of a knowledge-based economy is a knowledge-based society, often called a learning society. At the same time there has been no progress either in Estonia or the rest of Europe in finding the necessary mechanisms to launch the changes, probably due to old and rigid ways of thinking prevailing, old paradigms. There are likely numerous circumstances that prevent Estonia’s educational strategy from making progress, but the most important is the lack of the big picture. It could be said that the script for a learning Estonia is still a mere outline. In order for us to have an educational strategy that can be used as a concrete activity plan, we need to stop talking about future planning, learn from our mistakes in the last decade and develop the principle of equal educational opportunity in the Estonian context. Monitoring the educational policy process should also become a regular duty of the parliament, just as keeping track of foreign policy is.

Full article in Estonian

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