This presentation was given by Aune Valk of the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research and Birgit Lao-Peetersoo of Foundation Innove at the GCES Conference on Education Governance: The Role of Data in Tallinn on 13 February during the session on Keynote: Data collection systems – the Estonian example.

1. Education Governance: The Role
of Data, Tallinn, 12-13 February
Education Information Systems and their
usages in education governing in Estonia
Aune Valk
Ministry of Education and Research of Estonia
Birgit Lao-Peetersoo
Foundation Innove

2. Wider context
● More than 10 years of e-government, e-elections;
● 1000 services for citizens and three times more
for enterprises created;
● Statistical registers are electronic and
communicate to each other via x-road;
● ID-card which enables digital connectivity is
obligatory (not a passport), digital signature.

3. What is an x-road?
● Data exchange layer X-Road was launched in 2001. It is a
technical and organisational environment, which enables
secure Internet-based data exchange between the state’s
information systems.
● The X-Road allows institutions/people to securely exchange
data as well as to ensure people’s access to the data
maintained and processed in state databases.
● More information: https://www.ria.ee/x-road/

4. Centrally managed information systems in
the field of the Ministry of Education and
Research
EHIS – Estonian
Education
Information
System
EKIS – Estonian
School
Management
System
EIS – Electronic
Assessment Bank
ÕIS – Study
Information System:
joint system for HEIs
(used by ca 50%)
SAIS – Admission
Information System
(for universities and
vocational schools)
State register of
occupational
qualifications
ETIS – Estonian
Research Portal

5. What is Electronic Assessment Bank EIS?
• EIS is an electronic system which provides an
opportunity to authorise e-items and perform e-tests.
• EIS is an input for school assessment.
• Main goals:
• to supply high-quality items and tests in all subjects
and provide wider access for usage;
• to encourage usage of e-tools in the learning process;
• to modernise and update existing testing tools;
• to raise the interest to different forms of assessment.

6. EIS is used for:
● creating E-tests based on Electronic Item Bank;
● reporting on schools achievements (indicators);
● assessment of teaching quality;
● national statistics;
● promoting e-testing possibilities.
National exams results are accessible in the state portal
eesti.ee Possibility to download digital version of
certificates and to control if certificates are valid.

7. Main services of EIS
Directed to individuals:
– Pupils – to see its test performance and certificates.
– Teachers – to create tests; to assess outcomes of testing and analyse
common mistakes.
– School leaders – to assess overall performance of pupils.
– Parents – to know and assess its child performance at school.
Directed to organisations:
– Linked to EHIS – statistical personal data about test and exams.
– Linked to SAIS - Admissions Information System for higher
education – national exams results of future students.
– Linked to X-road service with Population register – data of pupils.

8. EHIS - Web based info system, that:
● was established on 2004 - www.ehis.ee;
● contains data on education from the original source
(core provider), has input from approx. 2,000
institutions: educational institutions, publishers,
other registers;
● contains personalized (live) data;
● is accessed only by ID-card;
● cooperates with over 20 different information
systems.

9. EHIS
is organised in six modules:
1) documents certifying
education
2) pupils and students
3) teaching staff
4) educational
institutions
5) textbooks
6) curricula
contains information about:
● early childhood
education
● general education
● vocational education
● higher education
● interest in education
● juvenile committee
desicions
● state examinations
● etc

10. EHIS is used for:
● making policy and financing decisions in education and
other tasks arising from law;
● education statistics, incl. for international data transmission
and for the analysis and studies of developments in
education;
● x-road based services, e.g. payment of needs-based study
allowances, study loans and ID-tickets;
● Educational institutions have access to all of their data and
data concerning their students and teachers. Comprehensive
consolidated information about activity and performance
indicators is being prepared for schools for their self-
assessment and development.
● The public sees the EHIS data via the HaridusSilm

11. Main X-road services with EHIS, see
https://www.eesti.ee/eng/
● Directed to individuals:
– submitting application for VET and higher education;
– applying for needs-based study allowance;
– getting discount in public transport: ID-ticket;
– getting study loans via banks; etc.
● Directed to governmental organisations:
– Local governments: for planning school network and
calculating headcount money’;
– Health Insurance Fund (decisions about insurance cover);
– Social Insurance Board (for calculating family benefits);
– Citizenship and Migration Board (residence learning data);
etc.

12. HaridusSilm / EducationEye
● Runs on QlickView platform;
● Consists data about all educational levels; research;
educational expenditures; teachers salary;
● First idea was to ease the work of analysts and thus, to cut
costs;
● New views are created based on external demand (most
demanded views from previous years) and on internal
regular needs (steering policy aims): e.g. Teachers’ salary
analyses
● www.haridussilm.ee

13. Recent developments (1)
● Connecting registers (EHIS and tax payers
register) for longitudinal analyses: informing
public about graduates „Success in labour market“
years after graduation. In cooperation with
Statistics Estonia.
● Connecting EHIS and other register data with
PIAAC data for Nordic PIAAC data-base located
in Statistics Denmark

14. Connecting registers: EHIS and tax record

15. EHIS
PIAAC
Basic Gen
Sec
Voc Sec Voc
after
Sec
Prof HE BAC 3y BAC 4y Maste
r 3+2
Mast
er
4+2
PhD Match Sum
93 3 2 1 93 99
Gen Sec 91 2 3 1 1 93 98
Voc Sec 2 2 78 15 1 80/9
5
98
Voc after Sec 1 18 71 3 3 71/8
9
96
Prof HE 1 1 72 14 10 2 1 86 100
BAC 3y 87 10 2 1 87 100
BAC 4y 1 6 80 7 4 91 98
Master 3+2 0,5 0,5 3 64 33 97 100
Master 4+2 2 6 87 2 93 97
PhD 8 4 88 88 100
Connecting EHIS and PIAAC: match of highest degree, %

16. Recent developments (1)
● Comprehensive consolidated and comparable
information about activity and performance
indicators for schools’ self-assessment and
development. In process.
● Cooperation with Cybernetica company for testing
secure computation Sharemind

17. Sharemind
● Project run by R&D intensive ICT company
Cybernetica
● Sharemind is a database and analytics system
that works on encrypted data without decrypting
it
● One of 2014-2015 experiments run with EHIS
● http://sharemind.cyber.ee/

18. Source:

19. In case you liked it, apply for e-residency
● Since Fall 2014 „the e-resident digi-ID
can be issued to a foreigner who has links
with the country of Estonia or a
reasonable interest in using public e-
services in Estonia, and who: …
● Application rules in www.politsei.ee

20. Thank you!
aune.valk@hm.ee
birgit.lao-peetersoo@hm.ee