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The history of education can make us wonder about things that are so self-evident today, such as learning to read and write simultaneously, that we are sent to school at the same age or that it is impossible to go to university without having finished secondary school. Wondering has a liberating effect, it helps us perceive the present with more imagination. It is precisely today’s knowledge-based society that should be wondering how it has become to what it is today.

Heinrich Bosse
A German literary scholar and historian of education

Scouting was started in Estonia at the end of the Tsarist era, and grew later into a massive youth movement in the 1920s and 1930s, when ideas of national education, love for nature and homeland were central. The same principles were followed by national organisations, such as the Young Eagles (Noorkotkad) and the Girl Guides (Kodutütred).
The Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian Association (YMCA and YWCA) were widely active as well as the Red Cross Youth Organisation. Popular clubs in schools were those of sports, science, literature and abstinence.
In 1940, all youth organisations active during the Estonian Republic were closed. They were replaced by the Estonian Leninist Communist League of Youth (also known as Komsomol) and its subordinate Pioneer Organisation, which also supervised the Little October Kids (aged 8–10). Various extracurricular activities were offered by the pioneers’ palaces and children’s sports, music and art schools. Various hobby groups and clubs were also active in schools.
The Pioneer Organisation was transformed into the Estonian Children’s Organisation (ECO) in 1988, and the Komsomol activities were stopped in 1991.
After the restoration of independence in Estonia, scouting organisations became active again. Several new associations were established. Through the Estonian National Youth Council, the Estonian School Student Councils’ Union and the Federation of Estonian Student Unions, young people can contribute to the shaping of youth, education and social policies now. Youth work is currently coordinated by the Estonian Youth Work Center.

During the Tsarist era, schools did not have to create gardens – the existing ones were the vegetable gardens of the headmasters and sacristans. Despite being rarely utilised for educational purposes, well-kept gardens served as examples for creation of farm gardens.
School gardens were considered necessary in the Republic of Estonia. According to the Public Primary Schools Act, it was mandatory to provide schools with a plot of land for sporting and playgrounds as well as for a garden. As creation of school gardens was slow-going, their establishment was made mandatory for all primary schools in 1934.
School gardens began to blossom in the 1950s and 1960s when, alongside educational tasks, the practical side of gardening gained great importance: much of the school meals consisted of produce from the school garden; flowers and medicinal herbs grown in the garden were used to pay for additional school supplies, used for excursions. Work in school gardens in summer was mandatory for students.
After Estonia regained its independence, the obligation of doing gardening began to gradually disappear. Nowadays, beautifully decorated recreation areas and open-air classrooms can be found near schools in place of previous experimental gardens at school.

The 1843 census of school books, organised in Tartu and Võru counties, provides evidence for the existence of small libraries in local peasant schools. The majority of the list consisted of catechisms or other church literature and ABD-books (or primers). Each parish had a book fund, into which they would collect the fines for missed school days and other acts of misdemeanour. The collected funds were used to purchase books and other school supplies/study aids.
As the literature in Estonian started to spread, including educational literature, became important during the Age of Awakening, due to which, the number of school libraries increased in the 1870s and 1880s. An important instigator for building up school libraries was Ado Grenztein (1849–1916), who offered recommendations already in his “Koolmeistri käsiraamat” (The Schoolmaster’s Handbook, 1879) as well as detailed instructions in the newspaper Olevik (The Present), which began appearing in 1882. In this, he also published a list of bibliography, necessary for studies at schools.
The Russification period at the end of the 19th century also meant strict control of inspectors over schools libraries – the reading material had to be in Russian as well as approved by the authorities. Applying for certification was made very complicated, so in many schools, libraries had to be closed down in the 1890s.
In independent Estonia, Section 44 of the Public Primary Schools Act stipulated that each school must have a library for students and teachers. The Ministry of Education began publishing lists of recommended literature for school libraries. However, many primary school libraries were still poorly provided even at the end of the 1920s. The situation in secondary and city primary schools was noticeably better. The main obstacle in developing school libraries was that the local governments, who owned the schools, were short of funds.
During the occupation years, school libraries were cleaned of “ideologically false and hostile” literature. Any educational literature that was published during the times of the Republic of Estonia was removed.
In the light of frequent merger and closing of smaller schools, the Ministries of Culture and Education signed an agreement in 1962 which allowed the libraries in primary and 8-grade basic schools to be shut down, if there was a public library close to the school. Despite the regulations of the Soviet era, all schools tried to have a library. Officially, libraries remained only in secondary schools and larger 8-grade schools.
At the end of the 1960s, textbook funds began to be created within school libraries. Until then students had to buy their textbooks, but now could borrow textbooks in September and return them to the library at the end of the school year.
Libraries in modern schools have become study centres, integrated into the process of studies. Today, libraries are equipped with the latest technological tools and students can work there independently.

Regardless of the time, place and economic conditions, children have always found opportunities to play. There are games, which have been played by both – grandparents as well as by grandchildren. However, new times bring along new games.
In the old days, children’s games imitated the life of a rural society. The toys were self-made, often from natural materials. Certain games were played during specific holidays with all family members participating (such as the game called “Catching the Shoemaker’s Eye” and club pulling). When children were herding, they carved wooden animals. The most common games were running and skill-based activities that allowed players to test their physical capabilities. Albums with poems were popular among girls.
The world and the opportunities for playing became broader during the Republic of Estonia. However, much depended on whether the children lived in the country or in the city and what were the economic conditions of the family. Games were mostly played with objects that were available (such as the “The confectioner’s game” with candy wraps, “The button game” with buttons). Students of the time recall lots of outdoor games. Various ball games were popular, snowball fights and sledging were popular during winter times. There were different circle or ring-around games (“One master finds a wife”, “Off we go to cut the rye”), as well as racing games (“Tag”, “The King of Mooramaa”), skill-based games (“Chair thief”, variations of Patty cake) and games which tested physical strength (“Weighing the salt”, arm wrestling).
Outdoor ball games remained popular during the Soviet era (“Spinning statue”, “Rotten egg”, dodgeball, ball school), as well as hide-and-seek and chasing games (“Uka-uka I am free,” “Geese and swans”, “The final pair – out”). Different circle games were played at class evenings and school parties, such as “The blinking game”, “The chair game”, “Long nose”, “Grandfather’s old pants” and others. Games that were played during school days and free time were battleship, Tic-Tac-Toe, chess, checkers, domino and card games (such as “Burning cities”, “The fool”, “Black piggy”). Skipping games were popular amongst girls. Very common were board games such as “Trip around the world”, “Circus” and “Trilma”. Development of technology also brought along changes, considering types of games. At the beginning of the Soviet era, no child had watched television, by the end of the period, imitations of television shows became popular alongside their associate role-plays. Children started to play more indoor games.
Although the bright screens of the modern day captivate children for hours, a video game can help develop a child in the same way as a board game or hide-and-seek in the yard could, because it helps children learn to assess new situations and find solutions. However, problems began to occur, when video games became a priority; it made children forget about school work, friends and other hobbies. The relationship between children and computers depends a lot on parents’ awareness of possible influences.

The annual knowledge assessment in schools during the Tsarist era was called “trying out school” and was conducted in spring by the local priest or pastor. Children who started school were expected to be able to read or, at least, read by spelling and possess basic religious knowledge (the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, baptising, the communion, prayers, a selection of scriptures from the Bible).
The annual spring school assessment for pupils was a major event, which the entire family attended. Work was stopped in the village on that day. A school assessment document from the end of the 19th century in the village school of Jaaska (Raiste), Võrumaa, is described as follows:
“The great prayer hall was filled to the brim with people far ahead of time. /---/ Inevitably, a portion of the audience had to remain in the entryway. When a large number of people remained outside, the windows towards the yard were removed and the outdoor crowd would go to listen from there. /---/ Although emphasis was placed on the word of God, the children were very excited about assessment of their writing skills. They considered it the most difficult. /---/ Because the “trying out school” took place in the presence of many people ... [it] forced even the laziest students to learn something and ... the parents to bear responsibility for their child’s studies. /---/ Quite a few of the lazy and careless school children were not only reprimanded by the pastor on that day, but also lashed at home ... And the villagers gossiped about it ... Several punishments!”
Schools were classified according to the results pupils had demonstrated: “top level, almost top level, reaching the top level, slightly higher than the average level, good average level, almost reaching the average level, slightly below the average level, the lowest level.” The attention of the teachers in schools with unsatisfactory results was directed towards the shortcomings, at times they would be publicly reprimanded. For schools at “the lowest level,” a new school assessment was scheduled for the coming winter, the results of which would determine whether the teacher would remain in his job or not.

The early 1990s can be characterised as “years of great freedom” when education in Estonia was searching for new goals. The development of schools was relatively free and primarily depended on the school boards’ and teachers’ courage to introduce innovations and take advantage of new opportunities. Liberal values and freedom of choice in education led to concerns regarding quality.
From the second half of the 1990s, educational institutions became more structured alongside increasingly systemic management and strategic planning of the country. A system of quality assessment was built up, which in general education meant the beginning of national examinations, starting in 1997 and the launch of the standard-testing to assess students’ basic knowledge and skills. The goal, when the national exams were started, was that the same exam’s results of students could be used for admission into universities.

A rooster as a symbol of light can be seen on the front cover or on the last page of a primer, denoting enlightened students, who had completed the hard work of learning to read.
The rooster, widely known as a decoration on top of church towers, was first used in primers in the 17th century. The oldest Estonian primer (1649) shows an old-fashioned and passive rooster, standing on the basis of a church tower. The rooster from the 18th century primer is a teacher of great authority, who actively teaches children, standing on one leg with its beak open.

The oldest type of primers is the wooden primer, where the alphabet was either cut or painted on wooden boards. After the invention of the printing press (ca 1440), letters, syllables and prayers were added. The text was printed onto paper and then pasted on either one or both sides of the wooden board. As the language of learning was Latin, the board would be called the “abcdarium,” based on the first three letters of the alphabet, and would later be called the ABC-board in the course of later studies in the native language. Unfortunately, none of those wooden primers, used in Estonia, has survived.
The primer, printed at the official command of Estonian bishop Joachim Jhering in 1641, is considered to be the earliest primer in the Estonian language. The primer consisted of catechism texts from the church handbook by Heinrich Stahl, an influential clergyman and linguist. Over the course of about a century, this primer was widely used as a learning material, but again – no copies of this primer have survived.

The oldest of the preserved Estonian primers can be seen in the library of Lund University. The North-Estonian primer was printed in 1694 and the South-Estonian primer in 1698. The author of these books was Bengt Gottfried Forselius (1660–1688). Both primers are similar in content and design, containing 22 pages of letters, numbers, spelling examples and prayers.
Forselius developed a spelling system, which was based on German orthography with the authentic pronunciation in Estonian, omitting the foreign letters C, F, Q, X, Y, Z and introducing the umlauts Ä, Ö, Ü.
Forselius’ learning method was similar to the phonemic method, which helped students to learn to read faster than before. However, working through the primer from cover to cover, would still take some years of attending school.

Otto Wilhelm Masing (1763–1832), the man who brought the letter “õ” into the Estonian language in the primer “ABD ehk Luggemise-Ramat Lastele, kes tahawad luggema öppida” (ABD, The Reading Book for Children Who Wish to Learn How to Read), published in 1795, was the first to mention the name of the author and offered secular educational reading materials with explanations for punctuation marks and the multiplication table. Henceforth, the multiplication table would be printed into every Estonian primer, until the first quarter of the 20th century.

The 19th century school can be characterised by the abundance of primers. During the final decade, approximately 30 primers were published in addition to their reprints. Children learned through very different primers. Reading materials were lengthy and difficult. When previously the rooster could only be seen on the final page of the primer, then Mats Tõnisson (1853–1915) was the first to bring the rooster to the front cover in his “ABD-raamat” (ABD-Book, first published in 1882).
An initiator of simplifying the process of learning to read was Carl Robert Jakobson (1841–1882) with his “Uus Aabitsaraamat, kust wiiekümne pääwaga lugema ja kirjutama wõib õppida” (New Primer, Which Can Teach Reading and Writing in Fifty Days, 1867). For the first time, the phonemic method was applied for learning to read together with the spelling system developed in 1843 and still used today.
Images would be used to influence the Estonian child’s mind from the days of C. R. Jakobson onwards. Previous primers were used more for technical teachings of the Bible.
The author compared the old method to the new one and found that the old method of learning to read was as good as if someone were to start travelling around the world in a carriage, although ships and trains were already easily accessible.
Learning to read had previously been a painful process. For example, the word “lühhikessed” (“short” – adj.) would be spelt together in syllables as follows: first, the child would have to name the first three letters and say “lüh”, then they would tackle the next syllable and say “hi”. The two syllables would then be combined and the student would say “lühhi”. Now the child could move on to the third syllable, “kes”. The first three syllables would then have to be combined and said as “lühhikes”. Now the student could take on the final syllable “sed” and only then spell out the full word and say “lühhikessed”.

During the first half of the century, primers became richer in content as well as considering their visual side. Contrary to the 19th century, when pictures were only loosely connected to the reading material, illustrations were now used to help children better understand the text.
Ernst Peterson-Särgava (1868–1958) used the “Eesti laste Aabits: Kodu ja kooli jaoks” (The Children’s Primer of Estonia: For Home and School, first published in 1907) to teach both orthography as well as lower- and upper-case letters simultaneously with reading and writing. In the 1918 edition, children also had to learn the lyrics of the future Estonian anthem by heart, which then carried the title “Isamaa laul” (“Fatherland Song”).
Mihkel Kampmann’s (Kampmaa) (1867–1943) “Aabits kodule ja koolile” (Primer for Home and School, first published in 1914) followed the principle that a child learns to read through writing. Questions were asked, based on the reading material, and interesting tasks were added.

Primers used in the first independence period of Estonia depict children living in safe environments. Their homes or neighbourhoods are described, their parents and family issues are discussed, as well as their everyday activities with other children, participating in games. Reading materials intentionally consist of shorter texts, which are more feasible for children. The texts in primers are united into topics discussing issues of local culture and history, nature and ethics.
During the Soviet era, only one primer was used in all schools. Children in these stories were going further away from home and there were descriptions of city environments and industrial enterprises. Photos and texts of the great leaders, Lenin and Stalin, as well as those of the Little October kids can be found in primers of those days. In the middle of the 1950s, everything related to Stalin disappeared. Lenin, however, would continue to be praised and the October holidays would be celebrated for decades to come.
After regaining independence, there was, once again, an abundance of primers and it meant choice for schools. Generally, the tradition of teaching children to read has beene literature based for the last 100 years. It is assumed that the examples of classical literature, presented in the primers, help children understand the national culture and develop their identity.

The first steps towards establishing school compulsion were taken in the second half of the 18th century, when according to Browne’s school patent (1765), supported by the Russian empress Catherine II, made larger manors open schools for peasants. However, parents who could read and knew the catechism, were still allowed to teach their children at home.
In Estonia, compulsory three-year schooling became nation-wide only between 1870–1880. School attendance was compulsory for children aged 10–13. Prior to this, from the age of 8, children were home-schooled, and then they would attend the so-called intermediary school (aged 14–16), which was organised once or twice a month in order to revise the once learned materials. The compulsory three-year attendance was valid only for children, living in rural areas. Primary education for the city kids was mostly fee-paying and not obligatory.
In 1919, children aged 9–14 had to attend school for four years. From the 1920s, transition to a new national school system with school compulsion of 6-years (children aged 7–16) was started. The final deadline for the transition was set for 1930, until then children (aged 8–15) had to learn four years at a school. The age limit for the compulsory school attendance was changed in 1931: now the children had to attend school until they were 16, or when they had finished the 6th grade. Estonia was greatly influenced by the global economic crisis of the 1930s. National budget cuts for education became a daily topic. In May of 1934, the mandatory school attendance was reduced from 16 to 14, in order to alleviate the problems caused by the crisis.
During the academic year of 1940/41, the compulsory school attendance age was raised from 14 to 15 again. Compulsory education still lasted for six years. In 1946, compulsory school attendance was extended to seven, and in 1962, to eight grades (school was compulsory for ages 7 to 16).
In the 1960s, the goal was set to offer everybody general secondary education. The academic year 1977/78 was the first year of compulsory secondary schooling. Although in 1981 the transition to compulsory secondary education was declared completed, its full implementation proved to be unrealistic.
The introduction of starting compulsory schooling at the age of 6 in 1986/87 did not prove successful either. In the autumn of 1989, children starting the first grade had to be seven years old again by October, 1 of the academic year.
Currently, the minimum compulsory education in the Republic of Estonia is 9-years of basic education and the age period for that is from 7 to 17.

The celebration of the 1st of September as the beginning of the new schoolyear dates back to the Byzantium in the 6th century, from whom Russia adopted Orthodoxy in the 10th century. Because of this, the church year began to be based off of the Byzantine calendar. Although January 1st was set as the beginning of the year in 1700 by the decree of the Russian tsar Peter the Great, the church and religious circles still considered September 1st as the beginning of the clerical year.
As schools were under supervision of the church, it can be said that the tradition of the 1st of September as the start of the school year is based on the historical beginning of the church’s new year. Due to the school year being shorter at the time as well as the children were expected to work as herders, the 1st of September as the beginning of the school year was too early. At the end of the 19th century the school year in rural Lutheran schools began on the 15th of October and ended on the 15th of April. However, in secondary schools, September 1st was declared to be the beginning of the school year all over Russia by a decree in 1893.
The Public Primary Schools Act of 1920, adopted in the Republic of Estonia, did not mention the beginning date for studies. However, the 1st of August was mentioned as the beginning of the school year, when the teachers had to be present, prepare for work, and bring the premises to good order.
The 1st of September, as the beginning of the school year was specified in the Primary Schools Act of 1931 as follows: “Studies in primary schools normally last from September 1st until May 31st.” A provision, considering rural life and the needs of farm owners was added: “In rural primary schools, lessons can begin after September 1st and end before May 31st, but studies must generally last at least 180 days per year.” But usually, the school year did not start on September 1st. In secondary and city primary schools, the school year began mostly in the last week of August; in rural primary schools, the first grade would begin in the middle of September and 2.–6. grades two weeks later, at the end of September.
The 1st of September became the regular start of the academic year in Estonian schools during the Soviet era from 1945. Since 1984, the 1st of September has been celebrated as the day of learning and wisdom.

During the Middle Ages students would use a metal stylus and a wax tablet. Over time the wax tablets would be replaced by a slate tablet and slate pencil. For centuries, ink and a goose feather (a quill) was used for writing. In the 17th–18th centuries, graphite sticks were added to the list of writing tools. In the 19th century, pencils in wooden cases with pencil sharpeners were used.
The mass production of notebooks began at the end of the 18th century, after the invention of the paper machine. Notebooks and pencils were very expensive for a long time, which is why rural school students continued to use slate pencils and tablets even at the end of the 19th century. Paper notebooks replaced made slate tablets at schools between the 19th and 20th century.
Steel pens were invented at the end of the 18th century, and they were used in schools since the second half of the 19th century. Fountain pens were invented in 1884 and ballpoint pens in 1938. During the time of the Republic of Estonia, the main writing instruments were the pencil and the steel pen. The only students, who could afford fountain pens, were the ones who came from wealthy families. In Soviet Estonian schools, fountain pens were forbidden until nearly the end of the 1950s. In 1958, children from the 5th grade, and later from the 3rd grade, were allowed to use fountain pens. Until then, students were mainly allowed to use pencils and so-called five-point pens, which had a scraping, sharp tip – a real nuisance for school children.
The first ballpoint pens became available in Estonia in 1963–1964. Initially, students were not allowed to write with ballpoint pens in schools because it was considered bad for their handwriting. From 1967–1969, students from the 5th grade were allowed to write with ballpoint pens.
Even today, students in the first grade usually write with pencils. Starting from the second grade they gradually start using blue ink pens and from the fourth grade they may start writing with a ballpoint pen, if they wish.
The first computers arrived in Estonia at the end of the 1980s. The school computer Juku was developed and produced in Estonia.

The instructions for producing ink from oak gall or gallnut, where the oak gall wasp’s larvae developed, originates from the first century AD. When soaking the gallnut, gallic acid was produced, to which adhesive and iron sulphate would be added. The acid, when reacting with the iron salts and oxygen, produced a black colour. The downside of this type of ink was its poor absorption into paper as well as the fading of the blueish-black tone into brown over time.
In the middle of the 19th century ink was also made from aniline colour, which was synthesised from coal tar. The ink used in schools, anthracene ink, was a solution of various dyes. The ink in a contemporary ink pen is the mixture of 50 or more chemical components.

During the Tsarist era, school uniforms were not worn in peasant schools. From 1890–1891, however, uniforms became compulsory in secondary schools and other city schools for both the teachers and students. It was a militaristic uniform. In private schools and girls’ schools there was no obligation to have a school uniform, although many schools established a unified dress code.
The period 1920–1940 schools generally did not require students to wear uniforms but private schools and larger city schools decided otherwise. Contrarily, high school students were mostly obliged to wear unified clothing, and schools were allowed to choose and design the uniforms themselves. School uniforms as well as headwear were made similar in the 1930s.
In Soviet Estonia, just as all over the Soviet Union, requirements for wearing school uniforms were set in 1955. The authors of these uniforms were fashion designers from Moscow and the decision whether or not to implement the uniform was reserved for the school.
In 1959 a new uniform, designed by the local fashion designers from Soviet Estonia, was affirmed and made obligatory in the 1960s. Throughout the next couple of decades, the school uniform would see multiple changes and would differ more and more from the union-wide uniform. In 1973, girls were allowed to wear long trousers and boys could wear a vest instead of a jacket. The designers from Tallinn Fashion House tried to follow fashion trends when designing new uniforms. For example, in 1979 a denim uniform was introduced.
The school uniform was not a must any more after regained independence. Several schools began to use elements of earlier school uniforms already in the middle of the 1990s though, mostly caps with school symbols. Currently used uniforms try to have the same caps or other elements of clothing their schools had in the times of 1918-1940.

Kindergartens as educational establishments are noticeably younger than schools. The first person to actively use the word “kindergarten” was the German pedagogue Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel (1782–1852), who established the General German Kindergarten in Blankenburg in 1840.
In Fröbel’s mind, the word “kindergarten” was a combination of the humane (Kinder) and the natural (Garten). His kindergarten was the first to focus on the development of children and free fantasy play, to which garden work, songs and work with different materials were added. There were no so-called school lessons in Fröbel’s kindergarten.
 

The oldest known preschool establishment in Estonia was Tallinn Day Care institution  for Small Children, established in 1840 by the widowed baroness Elisabeth von Üxküll. The objective of the day care was to help unsupervised children of poor families. The majority of these kids were the children of Estonians, whose parents worked long days as servants.
During the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, daycares were established by charity associations, civilians, factory workers and estate owners, who needed the labour power of Estonian mothers. Emphasis in these institutions was set on religious education and they essentially functioned as schools for young children, where they were taught how to read and write.

The oldest still active kindergarten in Estonia is the Kindergarten in Sindi, which was established in 1894 by the local baize factory owner, Joseph Wulff. The second oldest still active kindergarten is Tallinn Kopli Kindergarten (Kindergarten of Tallinn No. 1), the history of which dates back to 1918.

The earliest records regarding the training of professional kindergarten teachers in Estonia date back to Käru manor in 1870. There, near the nursery, the baroness Anna von Stackelberg opened the so-called German Kindergarten Teachers’ Seminar. Despite being German in spirit and using German as the language of instruction, it was the first attempt at educating young girls in the field of preschool pedagogy. The seminary was based on Fröbel’s ideas.
Training of nursery teachers in Estonian began in 1910 at Tartu Kindergarten Association. The teaching methods of Pestalozzi-Fröbel were used as a basis for the training.
Nation-wide training for nursery teachers began in 1920 with Tartu Nursery Teachers’ Seminar, close to Tartu Teachers’ Seminar.
Carl Heinrich Niggol (1851–1927), who was the founder of Estonian pre-school education and a great help at developing curricula, was also the father of headteacher (inspector) of the seminar Marie Niggol (1883–1933). Training at the seminar lasted for one year. The institution had its own kindergarten for practical activities with observations and delivering lessons before noon.
Several graduates of the seminar made meaningful contributions to pre-school education in Estonia, such as Marta Haas, Ella Treffner, Meeta Terri, Eva Lootsar et al in the 20th century.

The first primer developed for preschoolers was “ABD eelkooliealistele” (ABD for Preschoolers, 1958), compiled by Meeta Terri (illustrations by Lilian Härm and Helga Jõerüüt).
“Karu-aabits” (Bear Primer, first print in 1971) is a primer, which has become a classic (compiled by Heljo Mänd, Helle Raigna and Meeta Terri; illustrations by Vive Tolli). Due to its simple texts and wonderful illustrations it is still used in kindergartens and homes.

The roots of education in Estonian - our native language

Beginning of schooling in Estonia can be traced back to the 13th – 14th centuries when the first educational institutions with instruction in Latin were opened at cloisters in towns.
The roots of schools with instruction in Estonian can be found in 1686 – from times three centuries ago – when establishment of peasants’ schools became mandatory according to the decree of the Swedish king Charles XI. A wider organizational basis for peasants’ schools was laid by Bengt Gottfried Forselius (1660–1688). He was most successful with training future teachers for those schools and teaching them to read by a new method of recognizing sounds and spelling.

When all obstacles have been removed,
I think it could never be possible,
to find a person unable to read,
and I would like to surely hope,
that the situation here in Estonia and Livonia
could be somewhat better,
than it has been in Sweden and Finland so far.

Bengt Gottfried Forselius
June 20, 1687
 

“The Soviet nation was ostensibly built on the principle of what it looked like. There were specific rules of the game played, which had to be followed on all levels, and everyday life actually depended on the people who “held the reins”. It was a practical system, where the apparent and the real existed in unison, without interfering with one-another.
If the Estonian school in Soviet times had truly been “red” or hostile towards Estonia, then where would the young Estonian-minded politicians have come from, when the independence was regained? They all came from the same school! Considering all that – it should be clear what school in Soviet Estonia was truly like.”

A quote by Kalju Luts
Deputy Minister of Education 1993–2003

A Model of Children’s Day Care No. 3 in Tallinn (now Tallinn Kullatera Kindergarten, 11 Magdaleena Street). A standard kindergarten yard area with a splash pool, 1950s.

In those days, day nurseries were separated from kindergartens. The fence and the playing areas were designed by Estonia's first female architect Erika Nõva (1905–1987) for the union-wide standardisation project (No. 257).