Estonian Ministry of Education and Research

Since 2001, the Estonian Ministry of Education has been focussing more than ever before on management and on the planning of educational and scientific policy and has passed a part of its former responsibilities over to its subsidiary agencies or other institutions. The area of government of the Ministry covers planning, research, youth and language policies of the state and, in association with the above, organisation of pre-school, general secondary, vocational secondary, higher and adult education, research and development activities.

The Department of External Evaluation is responsible for the evaluation policy in the education sector as well as for national and international cooperation in the field of evaluation. Estonia belongs to those countries which have reduced the role of inspection and have given more freedom to the educational institutions.

Replacing external evaluation with internal self-evaluation, the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research has focused on a support system for schools. In recent years, the department has been working on the regulation and guidelines of self-evaluation for schools and kindergartens. Momentarily, the department is working on a quality concept in the field of general education.

For more information, please visit www.hm.ee