2024-07-16
13 分钟The Economist Hi there, this is Jason Palmer,
co-host of The Intelligence, our daily news and current affairs show.
This is Editor's Picks,
where we take an unmissable article from the latest edition of The Economist and get someone with better diction than mine to read it aloud.
Have a listen.
In a secondary school on the outskirts of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia,
a pupil scrolls the solutions to mathematical equations on a whiteboard.
His teacher, a young woman,
stands at the back helping to guide the student and encouraging his peers to comment.
In a chemistry lesson down the corridor,
two students race to scribble out formulae for compounds
while their classmates offer helpful critiques.
Such cleverness is easy to find in Estonian classrooms.
Its teenagers rate as the brainiest in Europe.
In maths,
the country's 15-year-olds post test scores that suggest they are roughly a year ahead of British children and two years ahead of American ones.
Yet for all their success,
Estonia's world-beating schools face a formidable long-term challenge.
More than half of its teachers are 50 or over, compared with an EU average of 38%.
Many will retire in the next 10 years and just like less celebrated school systems,