Are Estonian schools raising successful youth, or just exhausted ones?

A student at Tallinn's Järveotsa Gymnasium asks whether Estonia truly believes in its young people or merely expects better results from them. Kelly Alliste argues that Estonian youth are judged more by exam scores than by their ideas, creativity, or character. The result, she writes, is a generation that works harder than ever yet feels increasingly burnt out.

From childhood, Estonian young people are told they are the country's future, in classrooms, at national celebrations, and in politicians' speeches. But Kelly Alliste, a student at Tallinn's Järveotsa Gymnasium, asks a pointed question in her commentary: does Estonia actually believe in its youth, or is it simply waiting for better test scores?

Alliste argues that as young Estonians grow older, a troubling pattern becomes clear. Their worth, she writes, appears to be measured far more by examination results than by the quality of their thinking, their creativity, or their character as individuals.

The consequence, in her view, is a generation that is putting in more effort than any before it, and yet feeling more exhausted and less valued than ever. The pressure to perform academically has created a cycle where striving for success has become indistinguishable from grinding towards burnout.

Her commentary raises a broader question for Estonian society: if the education system consistently prioritises measurable outcomes over the whole person, what kind of adults is it actually producing? And is a society that tells its children they are the future genuinely investing in them, or simply demanding more from them?