Chapter 7.2.2: Education

In 1803, a 4 layer school system was adopted. In the countryside there were village schools and then parish schools. In the cities, there were elementary schools, which were comparable to the two school levels in the countryside. Then came county schools, which were located in the capital of each county. Then gouvernante high schools, which were located in the capital of each gouvernante and then finally universities. In the city schools of Estonia all teaching was done in German.

The abolishment of serfdom also had an effect on the school network. The upkeep of schools was now the responsibility of peasants. However, as the economic resources of the peasantry were still rather lacking, the renewal and expansion of the village school network was very slow. Homeschooling remained dominant in the first half of the century. Only kids who had learnt to read and the basics of the holy texts went to school for about 3 winters. The school age was 10-13 years.

Starting from the 1870s, some education reforms were made. The school year would last from October until April. Students studied in a single classroom, by year they were divided into 3 groups. Whilst the teacher was dealing with one group, the two others would do independent work. New institutions to supervise the school network were created.

After graduating from the village school, students were able to continue their studies in the parish school for 2-3 years, but only around 4% of them did that. Those kids would go on to become teachers themselves. For educating future teachers, new teacher training seminars were created in different parts of the country.



A typical 19th century village school. In Velise.




The interior of the Palamuse parish school.

The school network increased substantially. In 1850, there were 626 village schools, by 1885 it had increased to 1103. The main compulsory subjects were religious studies, Estonian, maths, singing and geography, history and Russian for all, physical education for boys and home education for girls were considered optional. A considerable factor of importance for educating children was the publication for many new school books in Estonian, which were of very good quality.



The old building on the left is the former county school in Võru. Now it is a high school.



The former building of the gouvernante school in Tallinn, now a high school.

When the French revolution began, going to study abroad was made illegal in Russia. As there was a demand for higher education however, several new universities had to be established. The first such university came about with the reopening of the University of Tartu in 1802. The university became a significant scientific centre, boasting alumni like Karl Ernst von Baer, the discoverer of the egg cell.




The main building of the university, from 1802.


The university differed from other universities in the empire in many ways. Firstly, the teaching was in German and Latin, not Russian. Secondly, there were 4 faculties: philosophy, medicine, justice and lutheran theology, the latter of which was not present in other universities. Thirdly, the tradition of forming student corporations was copied from Germany, the first corporation was founded in 1808. All sorts of student organisations were heavily repressed in Russia. The number of students increased from just 46 in 1802 to 301 in 1812 to 452 in 1827. By 1880, there were 1105 students, making it the third largest university in the empire. There were only a handful of Estonian students during the first decades, by the end of the century the number of Estonians started to increase.

Only men from the age of 16 who had finished high school (gouvernante school) were admitted. The length of study was 3 years at first, later it was extended to 4 years and in the faculty of medicine, 5 years. Going to lectures and doing an exam were optional until 1817. If the student left school, they would be given a certificate showing which courses they had attended and how well they had studied. From 1817 onwards, students had to pass one oral and one written exam to get accepted into civil service positions. To study, students had to pay a fee for every course.

In addition to the majors, students were also able to learn languages (Russian, German, Latvian, Estonian, Finnish, English, French and Italian), horse riding, fencing, dancing, swimming, music and drawing.



The Old Anatomical Theatre. The rotunda was built in 1825-1827, the wings were added in 1856-1860.



The New Anatomical Theatre, built in 1886-1887.



Tartu Observatory, built in 1808-1810 in Toomemäe park.




The Tartu Botanical Garden, opened in 1803.




The former clinic of the university, current building is from 1846. Now the Supreme Court of Estonia (Riigikohus).



The statue of Baer (1792-1876) (opened in 1886). Located in Toomemäe park.

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