On Saturday, thousands of students at Tallinn and Harju County state high schools were unable to take their exams due to failures with the Estonian examination information system (EIS) system. On Tuesday, more errors occurred during a test exam which resulted in extra time being awarded.

Riisenberg told ERR that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the EIS system.

"Today, nearly 6,000 children took the Estonian language electronic proficiency exam, and since we are talking about a trial exam, I think we are all learning," he said. "I can say with certainty that it was not a cyberattack, and we are just investigating what caused this overload."

Human error and communication errors were behind the problems on Saturday, he said.

"We have taken the necessary steps today to avoid them in the future," the official said. However, he would not say which state agency was to blame.

Riisenberg said mistakes were made by schools, the Ministry of Education, and the Education and Youth Board (Harno).

Asked if someone is responsible, he said that it is too early to draw conclusions and this can only take place after April 20, when there is a new e-exam.

Riisenberg does not believe pupils will challenge the results of the interrupted tests.

"When we talk about technology, there always needs to be paper available if necessary. Technology is technology; something can always happen. This needs to be sustainable and risks thought through," Riisenberg said.

He said the Ministry of Education apologized to them at the meeting held with state high schools on Monday and is trying to improve cooperation.

Ministry of Education Spokesperson, Mari Annus, on Tuesday stressed the ministry has taken responsibility for the faults, but whether any specific individual is personally accountable, who did what, or where there were shortcomings, is under investigation.

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