In June of 2024, the Mõisaküla School held its last day of school. The school building, completed in 1973, was designed for approximately 400 students and was filled with children during the 1970s and 1980s. However, in the 2023/2024 academic year, only three students attended the 1,030 square meter Mõisaküla school-kindergarten. This is an extreme example of our school network and how old school infrastructure is no longer (education) future-proof.

According to the Ministry of Education and Research, our school network was built during times when the birth rate was over 25,000 children per year. Currently, the number of births is below 11,000. Therefore, Estonia's school network and many school buildings were constructed with twice the number of children in mind. One-third of Estonia's schools are half-empty.

Over the last 40 years, the number of births in Estonia has decreased by 40-81 percent, depending on the county. This decline is inevitably reflected in the number of students.

Education network operating with extremes

As of the 2023/2024 academic year, schools in Estonia have a total net area (excluding dormitories and sports infrastructure) of 1,755,855 square meters. According to the Ministry of Education and Research, rural general education schools have the most space per student (21.6 square meters per student), followed by small towns (13.1 square meters) and finally larger cities (9.9 square meters).

There are schools in Estonia where the space per student is less than five square meters, but there are also schools where it exceeds 100 square meters per student. As of the 2023/2024 academic year, there are 36 schools in Estonia with more than 40 square meters of space per student, including seven schools with more than 100 square meters per student, mostly located in remote areas.

Schools with less than five square meters of net space per student are typically large schools located in Tallinn, Tartu or Pärnu. Figuratively speaking, while some schools offer a bathroom's worth of space per student, others provide as much room per student as an entire family house.

The analysis of Estonia's education expenditures, led by academic Jaak Aaviksoo, presents a rather bleak picture of the state of Estonian schools. In Estonia, too much educational funding is spent on extravagant buildings. Essentially, our education network operates at extremes: some Estonian children and teachers study and work in world-class school buildings, while others are in significantly deteriorated facilities.

As a result, the physical learning conditions for children and the working conditions for teachers in Estonia are quite unequal. This is true not only in rural areas but also in larger cities. For example, the renovation backlog for schools in Tartu is approximately 30 years, with 15 of Tartu's 66 educational buildings in satisfactory condition and 35 in poor condition.

According to the Minuomavalitsus.ee website, one in four primary or secondary school buildings in Estonia is in merely satisfactory condition, meaning the school is usable but functionally outdated and requires constant monitoring to prevent hazards.

There are 15 municipalities in Estonia where 50 percent or more of the school buildings are in satisfactory or worse condition. This includes the cities of Tartu and Narva, as well as many smaller remote municipalities. A total of 34,286 students, or about 20 percent of all general education students in Estonia, study in these 15 municipalities.

Future-proof schools need new solutions

A key conclusion from the Foresight Center's study on the future supply of teachers was that the inefficiency of the school network exacerbates the teacher shortage: many schools are located in so-called empty catchment areas, and half-empty classes "tie down" more teachers than necessary.

Approximately 50 schools in Estonia are situated in areas where, due to demographic changes, fewer than 90 school-aged children live within a 25-minute drive. These 50 schools employ 412 teachers, with an average of six students per teacher.

Over the decades, population distribution has changed (not only from rural to urban areas but also within rural areas themselves), so schools established long ago may no longer be in the most "appropriate" locations. We need new solutions to make schools future-proof and save them from closure, as current decisions about the school network and infrastructure will shape the educational future of several generations.

Commissioned by the Foresight Center, a mapping application of Estonia's school network has been developed. This tool allows users to see the state of our schools and future simulations based on current birth rates.

The mapping application provides an overview of schools across Estonia and a detailed view of all schools within a specific municipality. It is easy to find information about the number of students and teachers in the school of interest over the last five years, the percentage of qualified teachers, the proportion of teachers over 60, the percentage of students with special educational needs and the percentage of students who continue their education after finishing primary or secondary school.

The application shows how many children live within a 25- or 45-minute drive of a specific school along Estonia's road network, thus indicating how many children have that school as their closest option. However, it must be acknowledged that we do not know how many children actually attend the nearest school to their home, as some parents may choose to send their children to schools farther away.

We need more comprehensive views like this across Estonia, integrating other public services alongside education.

Rural schools have potential to become community attraction centers

If the reader finds the state of school buildings poor, the "Education Expenditure Analysis 2022" led by Jaak Aaviksoo notes that "64 percent of the real estate used by local governments has an energy rating of 'D' or worse, or no energy rating at all. The condition of educational infrastructure is somewhat better, but approximately 30 percent still lack minimal forced ventilation." In other words, many local governments are struggling with deteriorating buildings.

Each region requires tailored solutions that primarily address the needs of the local community. Should we renovate existing school buildings, perhaps transforming them into multifunctional community schools that also house other public services (such as libraries, family doctors, kindergartens, etc.)? Or is it more sensible to abandon large, often dilapidated buildings and move the school under the same roof as another service?

When planning entirely new school buildings, we should consider the comprehensive view of public services and community needs, designing multifunctionality and flexibility of spaces into the building from the start.

We should not underestimate more daring school models, at least at the conceptual level. For example, interviews on the future supply of teachers conducted by the Foresight Center in 2023 revealed that the need for schools in remote areas can be quite cyclical. Thus, why not consider so-called mobile school solutions, where schools open when there are enough children and in locations where the children are?

In the fall of 2024, after a 16-year hiatus, a school will reopen in Obinitsa based on a new educational model, as a community class, due to new families moving into the area. Such flexibility fits well in community buildings, where the spatial multifunctionality of the building allows for various public services, including schools, to be added or paused as needed.

Since many school buildings across Estonia are awaiting major renovations, it may be more practical for the field of education and the Ministry of Education and Research to collaborate with various other ministries for funding, as community buildings can house multiple public services.

Rural schools have a strong, but underutilized advantage over schools in larger cities: a flexible and responsive community school model. Smallness is thus their strength.

In an atmosphere of budget cuts, where each service sector desperately tries to find austerity alone, we risk missing an opportunity where collaboration between multiple service sectors could yield the desired financial savings while potentially raising the quality of services.

Crises create fertile ground for new ways of thinking. We often talk about community schools and communities in relation to schools, but saving only the school without other public services will lead to the village fading away sooner or later around the school. There may be a school, but the library, hobby clubs and cultural center are in the neighboring village.

The school network should not be planned separately from other services of the local government. A comprehensive and strategic long-term vision for public services is crucial.

Often, schools in Estonia are closed after school hours and extracurricular activities, not to mention the summer months. We should ask how much of the time any given service building is closed. For example, if a library is open only two days a week and the rooms are closed the rest of the time, wouldn't it be sensible to combine the library with another service building, such as a school?

To give another example, the school auditorium and the cultural center have organically similar functions, and the whole community could use the school auditorium for cultural events. It would even be beneficial for schools to have a family doctor located in the same building, not to mention youth centers or similar services.

In one building, traditionally underutilized but highly educated professionals could have more diverse roles: a librarian could lead hobby clubs and substitute for literature or history teachers as needed; a family doctor could give guest lessons in human studies, etc. Scientific research has long confirmed that everyday interactions occurring in close proximity, such as in a coffee room or corridor, create fertile ground for new collaborative ideas.

Small schools are often criticized for a lack of social interactions (few students in the school and class). By bringing in other community services to the school, a kind of mini-society is created around the children, fostering a conducive environment for acquiring good social skills. Estonia has relatively few examples of such a community-based model, surprisingly more so from Harju County. For example, in the primary school building of Kose High School, in addition to the primary school, there is the Kose Hobby School, Kose Cultural Center, Kose Library and the family medicine center.

Making Estonia's school network future-proof primarily requires a comprehensive view and cooperation between ministries, as education has a very significant regional policy dimension. This ranges from understanding how conceptualizing schools as community centers helps make other public services more viable in rural areas to ensuring that people don't have to wait 30 years for qualified teachers and well-maintained school buildings.

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