According to Eneli Kindsiko, students most often turn to the chancellor of justice with concerns about overload, which is typically related to homework.

"When we talked a lot [in the Human Development Report] about hobby education in Estonia and why children do not participate, a major piece of feedback was that, especially at the upper secondary level, they cannot make it to extracurricular activities because they have a lot of homework in the evenings for the next day," Kindsiko said.

Kindsiko compared a student's day to that of an adult where the school day is essentially like a workday. However, a young person's day does not end there — on top of a school day equivalent in length to a workday, homework must also be completed.

"As an adult, when I come home after a long day at work, do I want to open up that work again at seven, eight or nine in the evening and start reviewing or preparing for the next day?" Kindsiko said.

According to Kindsiko, the rise of artificial intelligence is also significantly shaking the school system.

"Artificial intelligence has shown how much of the homework we have historically assigned may have been rather pointless — for example, mechanically summarizing something. Take a report today: does it even make sense as an assignment anymore?" Kindsiko explained.

Kindsiko said the education system is on the verge of being rethought.

"Our students are among the more depressed when we look at neighboring countries. They are stressed, they are tired and their sense of belonging at school is weak. What PISA highlights — and teachers say the same — is that teachers themselves are also tired and grading homework in the evenings is likely one source of that fatigue," Kindsiko said.

Minister of Education and Research Kristina Kallas (Eesti 200) said on "Terevisioon" that there is significant variation between schools in the amount of homework assigned.

"There are schools where no homework is given in primary grades and there are schools that still assign a great deal. But in international comparison, in the PISA study, we do not stand out for having a particularly large amount of homework after school," Kallas said.

The minister agreed that homework needs to be reconsidered within the school system.

"Learning will likely take a form where there is a lot of discussion, debate, group work and learning through interpersonal relationships and communication at school," Kallas said.

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