EdTech Estonia

As part of the national education strategy and development plan, Estonia is contributing to the development of its education technology (EdTech) sector.

The strategic goal is to support the creation of a learner-centred education system that supports a self-directed learner - each learner’s personal ability to set goals and plan their development.

Aims and objectives

The main aim of the collaboration is to bring about new EdTech services, provide different programmes to facilitate the continued science-based development of these services and companies, as well as aiding in exporting activities. Through this collaboration the state aims to stem a multitude of services needed for creating an interoperable education service system meaning that education service providers will be exchanging data to provide a more personalised learning experience for each student. Building the digital infrastructure to facilitate this data exchange is underway by the Ministry of Education and Research.

Background and context

The collaboration started in 2018, when the state funded the creation of an EdTech focus area in a government financed organisation called StartUp Estonia. Since then the EdTech sector has grown significantly during the collaboration to see a tripling of service providers, 168% increase in turnover and 81% growth in sector employment from 2017 to 2021.

The programme aimed to foster the development of a supportive EdTech startup community. For that, they started bringing disruptive education innovation closer to schools, including helping to bring new Estonian EdTech start-ups to the market and support existing EdTech startups to go global and become the next success stories from the country.

The programme is financed by Ministry of Education and Research and by European Regional fund in collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication. The state sees the development of the EdTech sector fifty-fifty as an educational necessity and an economic opportunity.

In 2020, the sector and community had matured to a level to see the creation of an umbrella organization in the form of EdTech Estonia. Since then, the ministry has signed a strategic partnership agreement with the organisation and both the obligations and financing to develop the sector has increasingly moved to EdTech Estonia.

Why is this a good practice?

EdTech Estonia is currently running the all major life-cycle support for the sector’s service providers, which in 2021 helped Estonia win the title of International EdTech Programme of the Year at Bett Awards.

Estonia has in its public administration in general prioritized high levels of interoperability between its information systems. This has led to a high level of administrative capacity in the public sector in general but also in education. Data on students and teachers is easily exchanged between different administrative systems, that are given the proper authorisation. Further collaboration between the public and private sector is however crucial to further develop the capacity of the education system to provide for development of truly self-directed learners with the aid of technology.

The first step for setting common goals in this regard between the private and public actors was set in a memorandum of understanding and collaboration between EdTech Estonia as a representative of the sector’s companies and with different ministries in 2022. The document outlines responsibilities and common targets, providing a framework for further future cooperation.