Estonian Tiger Leap Foundation in September 2012 launched a program called “ProgeTiiger”, in the framework of which Estonian students in grades 1 to 12 will be introduced computer programming and creating web and mobile applications.
“The interest of students towards using modern technologies has grown year after year. With the “ProgeTiiger” program we create prerequisites for students to develop from consumers of software to developers of software,” said Tiger Leap Foundation training sphere manager Ave Lauringson.
In the first stage, the program concerns pilot schools, in the following years all public schools can join if they want to become part of the “ProgeTiiger” program.
The first ones to start with “ProgeTiiger” program lessons will be primary school students after their teachers go through corresponding training in September. Next year, programming hobby groups for middle school and selective courses for high school will be added. Study materials for all levels are being created. Tiger Leap Foundation’s initiative is supported by technology sphere companies.
Estonian Tiger Leap Foundation decided to start this project because they saw how many companies struggle to find decent programmers. This new program is expected to bring Estonia in front of the rest of the Eastern Europe in terms of IT development and growth.
Estonia is famous for Skype since it was developed by Estonian programmers and was run by Estonians, until recently was sold to Microsoft for a whopping $8.5 billion in cash. Estonia has one of the fastest internet connections in the world, which have allowed to grow companies like Skype and Playtech.
Back in 1997 Estonia decided to invest heavily in development and expansion of computer and network infrastructure and now they have gone even further by introducing programming to elementary school.
Does it means that Estonia becomes the first country in the world to teach programming for first graders?
Source: tiigrihype.ee
Who gives a shit about Estonia? Where is it even?
Who gives a shit about Estonia? Where is it even?
Ever heard of Skype?
Nope.
Skype??? Isn’t that a spyware that masks itself as an IP telephony application?!
it’s right next to Latvia, in the northeastern part of Europe.
Shhhh! I really think it’s better if Jack Sparrow doesn’t know where Estonia is. I mean, such a cool place, why does he need to know?
It’s a very impressive country. Tartu and Talinn are beautiful cities, with fantastic histories. If hadn’t been held back by the Soviet Union for so long, it would probably be considered in the same category as Finland (and if you’ve got a low opinion of Finland, well that says more about you than anything else).
The Estonian people seem to have more civic & national pride than anywhere else I’ve ever been. They had a peaceful revolt against soviet domination.
Shame is, it is so damn cold in the winter. But then, so is Finland.
I was taught programming (logo) in the 80s at just 7 years old, in Barcelona, Spain. So it’s not, by far, the first country to do it.
Was it a state sponsored activity in all of a region’s schools? Also, Logo isn’t very useful as a programming language
We had (state sponsored) computer programming in Logo in france too, in the 80s. In primary school.
Logo was the go-to educational programming langage then. It’s a lisp-based langage, so you could argue that it was more advanced than BASIC in term of formalism.
It’s interesting that these programming classes disappeared, replaced by “how to use a computer” classes.
Today, we see computer class where 11 years old are taught to use emails by their teachers, even as they do so since… the age of 8 at home!
“Useful” is a typically Anglo-Saxon way of looking at things: don’t learn languages, learn abstract programming concepts. After that you can pick up languages as and when you need them. Very often “toy” languages (like Scheme or Logo) are better for learning the theory than complex, complete multi-paradigm ones (like C++).
There’s a reason Andrew Ng used Octave, not Java, for his Machine Learning class. Just saying 😉
estonia may be small, but that doesn’t really mean much. demonstrating your ignorance about a country doesn’t somehow make it unimportant. grow up.
yay estonia, i wish lithuania would copy you more often.
While these high-tech, streamlined processes were initially directed at the secondary level, they are now extending their reach toward Estonia s youngest students. Computer programming has been seamlessly integrated into the curriculum in order to not only cultivates the kids’ technological skills, but also to foster creativity and critical thinking.