The Estonian Human Development Report 2026 points out that while in medicine no vaccine reaches people before its effects and safety have been thoroughly proven, the situation in education is the opposite: nine out of ten education reforms are not evaluated for their long-term impact.

"This means that decisions are made in education that are not tested, measured or assessed according to the same standards we take for granted in other areas of life," the report states.

The report identifies the abundance of studies and the lack of a comprehensive overview as a problem. When tens of thousands of pages of analyses are produced without leading to action, research becomes an expense rather than an investment as the true output of a study should be the change it brings about.

"There is no single database in Estonia that would allow users to quickly see what has already been studied, what work is ongoing and which conclusions remain unimplemented. The knowledge exists, but it is fragmented — scattered across the websites of ministries, funders, universities and research firms. This creates a paradox: We repeat studies because we do not know they have already been carried out," the report notes.

In other words, Estonia has the knowledge, but it simply does not circulate.

In addition, the authors point out that Estonian education is strained not by a lack of knowledge, but by an overabundance of initiatives. Each new minister, official or commission launches another program, yet no one asks what else is already underway or what could be discontinued.

"Schools and teachers are submerged under reforms, strategies and projects, but no additional resources are provided and the existing workload is not reduced. The result is a system that tries to do everything at once and therefore does nothing well," they write.

According to the report, the biggest bottleneck in Estonian education is students' low enjoyment of learning and poor mental health, alongside exhaustion among teachers and school leaders. For this reason, the goal of the education landscape should be to shed tasks that stifle the joy of learning and teaching.

"All educational institutions know in their daily work which tasks are the most burdensome and do not support learning. This list does not need to be prescribed; rather, the courage must be found to articulate it for themselves and then to cut something," the report recommends.

The report identifies the two most dangerous sentences in education as: "This subject cannot be taught any other way" and "We have always done it this way."

It also notes that globally there is growing debate over which tasks could be abandoned in education. Homework is one example: while teachers' overtime outside the school day is seen as a problem, students' work after the school day is largely taken for granted.

The report concludes that the education system has been burdened with tasks it is unable to fulfill and the price is deepening inequality. If difficult choices and subtractions are not made, the system will buckle under pressure.

The editor-in-chief of the "Estonian Human Development Report 2026" is Eneli Kindsiko.

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