9 Educational Careers in Estonia

Abstract

Estonians were literate at the end of the nineteenth century but tertiary education became common only during Soviet times. Thus, over half of the respondents in our study had some university education. After briefly describing the Soviet educational system, this article examines pre dictors of the educational career, specifically, the type of secondary school attended, gender, and social (family) background. Our study found that gender had a major impact on educational out comes. Two-thirds of the secondary school graduates were women, thereby surpassing men on the level of basic education; only at the university level did men outnumber women. However, a lower proportion of women than men studied after secondary school, and women 's studies were prolonged. The study also found that tracking played a decisive role not only in educational outcomes by gender but also for the postsecondary educational career. General secondary schools provided direct access to university edu cation, and the general pattern was uninterrupted enrollment from second ary school through higher education (by age 24.8, three-quarters of the cohort had finished their education).