Ministers and education officials from several countries dropped in to observe a variety of classrooms in Estonian schools on Monday.

At Tallinn's Laagna High School, Singaporean Minister for Education Desmond Lee and several officials joined students playing the xylophone during music class.

Singapore's education system is widely considered among the world's best. This is reflected in its top rankings in the OECD's Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests measuring student knowledge and skills. Estonia currently ranks sixth in the same comparison.

Singapore also emphasizes communication skills and encourages kindness and gratitude among students. Even so, Lee says they have a great deal to learn from Estonia's approach.

"What struck me was the initiative that the students had," he said, praising them for raising their hands and wanting to participate.

The minister also noted that students were encouraged to help guide fellow classmates.

"I think this is a function of the Estonian system that I've seen today, where you encourage student agency, student autonomy and a very strong rapport between the teachers and the students," he added.

Visiting delegates also joined in Finnish lessons and chemistry experiments, and in a seventh-grade math class, British Minister for School Standards Georgia Gould even tackled the same exercises as students.

"They were I think 13 years old, and they were doing a mix of math and coding," Gould said. "It was really interesting to see how the two were integrated."

PISA creator praises Estonian approach to AI

Education leaders from around 20 countries are in Estonia for a summit this week to discuss the future of the field, with the rapid spread of artificial intelligence (AI) looming especially large over the talks.

Andreas Schleicher, the creator of the PISA tests, said some countries such as Japan and France remain cautious about AI. Estonia, however, appears ready to take a leading role.

"You can see how [Estonian] teachers take it on in very intentional ways," he said. Rather than simply introducing new tools in the classroom, he said, teachers are considering how AI can support learning rather than undercut or replace it.

Keeping students from being overwhelmed by their workloads will require rethinking the entire education system, Schleicher argued, noting that it's clear young people are learning a lot in schools today that may no longer serve them as well in the future.

"If you think about something like science, you need to learn to think like a scientist today," he emphasized. "But not necessarily memorize lots of knowledge in physics and chemistry."

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