A Tiger, the first leaps of which were announced two years ago already, started its activities in reality only a year ago. The Tiger Leap Foundation was established on February 27, 1997. After this very first active year some summaries can be made.

For a fast start-up of the program it was necessary to start work-groups required to monitor different areas – quite a lot of work was done in areas concerning IT, training of teachers, study software and data networks. 740 Pentium computers were given to schools, there was also additional equipment; permanent connections were established for 105 schools and about 4000 teachers were given same basics about computers and software.

One of the purposes of the Tiger Leap Foundation is to update Estonian education and decrease the differences between the capital city and other parts of Estonia, cities and country, villages and townships, and give the children living on small islands equal chances to obtain more knowledge. The conclusions based on the activities of the very first year show that this can be done easily – the biggest number of computers can be found in the Western area, where the ratio of students and computers is 1:39 compared to the ratio of 1:93 in Tallinn.

The level of information technology at schools is very different in different counties, but in this case the neglected areas are not what they usually are. One of the reasons why most of the computers have been concentrated into small country schools is the common understanding that children must have their first contacts with computers in early childhood – otherwise it will be too late. In most rural areas schools are the only places where children can use the computers, as computers at the offices of their parents or even at home are still only a dream.

When speaking of local administrations, rural areas show the keenest interest in investments – this can be said about the towns and townships in Valga county, where the investments into information and communication technology reached the level of 324 kroons per student. To compare: in Tallinn the investment level was only 52 kroons per student. In total the local administrations invested in 1997 ca 17 million kroons to purchase schools the IT equipment required.

In average in Estonia there are 52 students per computer. The situation is the best in Laanemaa (39 students per 1 computer), Valga County (40/1), island Saaremaa, Tartu and Viljandi county (42/1). The situation is the worst in Tallinn, where the ratio is 93/1, in East Virumaa (71/1) and Harju county (60/1). In all the other counties the student/computer ratio exceed the average.

One of the objectives in regional development schemes for 1997 was to supply all the schools with computers, and this was reached in most cases. There were still no computers in 55 elementary and high schools (10% of the total number of elementary and high schools), 15 of which were high schools (6% of the total number of high schools/gymnasiums).

In 1997 4000 or more teachers were taught the computer using basics, while the training costs were covered by the Tiger Leap Foundation. This figure represents one fourth of the total number of teachers. The teachers had a 40-hour free of charge Tiger Leap Basic and Software Training, 70% of the expenditures of trainings held at U of T, TPI and TTU were covered by Tiger Leap Foundation.

The percentage of teachers who took the basic training – their total number was 3190 – differed very much in different regions. The best situation was met on island Hiiumaa – during a period shorter than a year 41% of the teachers of this region had computer training, Viljandi (38%), Voru (36%), Tartu (33%) and Rapla (32%) followed it. East Virumaa, Jogeva county and Tallinn were the opposite extremities, where the percentages were correspondingly 2, 3 and 4%. When speaking of averages, we can say that 18% of the total number of teachers have taken the basic computer training.

We can only make some estimates concerning general computer literacy of teachers – expert evaluation says that 6000-7000 teachers have some basic computer using skills. In addition to those figures we can also use the data contained in projects submitted to Tiger Leap Foundation, so it can be said that more than 60% of Estonian teachers could make their lives a lot more easier when using computers.

University of Tartu, Pedagogical University of Tallinn and Technical University of Tallinn provide teachers with basic skills with training courses that include learning software, use of information technology in different teaching areas, data processing, designing training materials, multimedia, school information system, etc. Last year 269 teachers participated at the training courses. The schedule for this year training have been settled already and teachers are invited to participate freely.

In 1998 Tiger Leap Foundation will cover 100% of the expenditures of the basic training and 50% of the costs of courses held at the universities. Introduction of software and training courses are also free of charge for the teachers.

Two schemes were used in 1997 to connect the schools into computer networks: (1) three equal connections to every county and (2) school project competition. In total 1997 permanent connections were established for 105 schools, after the realisation of which about one half of Estonian schools would have an Internet connection.

The number of schools having an access to computer and data network differs very much by counties at the present moment. In Tartu county 74% of school have an Internet connection, in the city of Tartu the same figure is 59% and in Voru county – 53%, in Tallinn the figure is relatively small – 13% - regardless of the biggest number of telephones. Valga County also has a relatively small number of Internet connections (16 %), the main reasons for that are probably communication problems. In southern part of Estonia some schools have decided to use radio communication because of small number of telephones and low quality of the service – the newly opened Reola radio support station offers permanent Internet connection for Kambja Basic School, Ulenurme Gymnasium and Torvandi Basic School.

In the beginning of the present year about 230 schools had an Internet connection, 36 of which even enjoyed a permanent connection.

The Year 1998 will bring Along Some Changes

After having helped the schools to satisfy their first hunger for IT, the working schedule of the Tiger Leap Foundation will undergo some changes.

The right to use 33 million EEK meant for information and networking will be handed down to the level of regional and local authorities. Half of this amount or 16.5 million EEK will be divided between the counties considering their own expenditures made in 1997, the rest of it will be divided in accordance to the number of students in general schools. So the local authorities will be a level where together with regional coordinators and workgroups decision concerning soft and hardware purchases will be taken. The first priority will be permanent network connections. Six millions left of the 39 million EEK will be spent on project competition organisation.

To get unbiased opinions concerning the quality of IT and network activities, training and software development, instead of work-groups independent experts both from academic and business circles will be used.

Jaana Priidel

Tiger Leap Foundation