Märt Aro: Education into a revenue source for Estonia

There are quite a few arguments in favor of a serious overhaul of the school system. Fundamental questions should be asked: what is the role of education and which skills do children need to succeed in the twenty-first century.

Estonia is in the absolute top of the existing global educational paradigm on the basis of the PISA test. Further excelling in academics would be difficult. Some issues have already been actively raised - how school should provide more digital know-how and develop teamwork and social skills. But little is discussed in regards to the role of schools in contemporary society. There are some who still believe that the primary aim of a school is to provide a safe place for children while their parents are productive at work. But the question could be approached differently by considering how best to equip children to succeed in real life in the 21st century. Once that is clear, we could discuss which methods best support it.

In Estonia we have about 1400 public services available online. Of these, only a handful are exported, as government services are typically built on a monolithic IT architecture and not designed for export. However, the Estonian private sector already has outstanding international success stories in the field of exporting e- services. Specifically in the education sector, more than 10 companies offer services around the world: research management software Sona Systems, language learning application Lingvist, and university management software DreamApply, to name a few. According to a study by the University of Tartu, the artificial intelligence-supported language learning system developed by Lingvist has already reached a level that is four hundred percent more efficient for learning languages than traditional curriculum-based learning. Thanks to its excellent work in the field of e-government, Estonia has a very positive international status, which could be used to turn its digital services into a source of revenue, including in the education sector. Many of the state's end-user services could be developed by the private sector and exported.

Getting utopian, each one of these 1400 public services could be exported and that`s still far from the full potential. For instance, in the education sector, a narrow vertical approach could be used. When one service solves a specific problem, it is called a micro service. For example, learning a multiplication table is one specific learning outcome that can be supported by specific software.

Both knowledge and practical skills for such technological developments already exist and there is a growing number of services developed by private sector that are designed for export, in the education sector and in other e-government sectors. There is a need for stronger political desire to direct resources towards developing exportable services. In order to move forward, the strong e-services team that we already have at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications could use more meaningful backing.

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