Education
AI
Estonia's Digital School Admissions Failure Sparks Chaos
Estonia's failure to launch its new unified SAIS3 school admissions platform has forced institutions back to older systems, compounding administrative turmoil as educators simultaneously grapple with hastily approved national curricula and a contentious new preparatory year for students.
- —Estonia's Ministry of Education and Research announced that graduating basic school students will use the older SAIS2 admissions platform or other school-selected systems for secondary education applications this spring, as the new SAIS3 system is not ready.
- —The delay in the SAIS3 rollout, which was intended to be a unified nationwide admissions system, has led to wasted preparation for general education schools that had not used SAIS2.
- —Vocational schools are also facing challenges due to the late approval of national curricula, with implementation guides for some programs exceeding 500 pages, leaving schools with limited time to prepare their own programs.
- —A new preparatory year for students not admitted to regular programs is being introduced, which some educators believe adds pressure and negatively impacts youth mental health, while local governments express concern about increased workload and insufficient resources.
- —The Ministry of Education and Research aims to launch the fully reliable SAIS3 platform by September 2026, stating it will simplify the admissions process by consolidating all application options onto a single platform.
Recap
The delay of Estonia's SAIS3 admissions platform is not a simple technical glitch but a symptom of systemic project mismanagement within the Ministry of Education. The resulting administrative chaos, combined with a rushed curriculum rollout and under-resourced mandates for local governments, shifts the burden of state-level failure directly onto schools and students, jeopardizing educational quality and mental well-being.