Ministers, distinguished guests, dear educators,
Welcome to Tallinn – and to a conversation that matters. Estonia is honoured to host a gathering of policymakers and educators around one of the most decisive questions of our time: how we shape the future of learning.
Whenever a major new technology arrives, a familiar story returns with it. We heard it with radio and television. We heard it again with the internet. And now we hear it with artificial intelligence: surely this time, we will no longer need teachers.
It is an understandable temptation. Technology can scale information. It can automate routine tasks. It can place a library in every pocket. And AI can produce fluent answers at astonishing speed.
But reality has a way of correcting our fantasies.
Again and again, the more complex our societies become, the more we need something technology cannot provide: human guidance.
Because every powerful innovation arrives with new freedoms, and also with new risks. More information brings more misinformation. More choice brings more distraction. More speed brings more anxiety. When the world shifts gears, learners do not simply need answers. They need orientation. They need to learn how to learn. They need someone who can help them make sense of what they see and connect knowledge to values and responsibility.
That is why the role of teachers is not shrinking. It is growing.
And the teachers we need most are not simply deliverers of content. They are adaptive professionals: able to support different learners, to build motivation, to cultivate curiosity, and to strengthen learning skills, so that young people can handle uncertainty with confidence rather than fear.
The recently published Estonian Human Development Report, which this time focuses on education, asks a very important question: how do we preserve meaningful contact between teacher and learner in a more digital learning environment?
In the decade ahead, we will likely find a more sustainable balance between digital and traditional methods. And to do that well, continuous professional learning for teachers becomes indispensable, so that new tools serve the learning experience, rather than replacing it.
This brings me to the “AI Leap”.
We do not yet know precisely how to tame artificial intelligence so that it consistently creates value – in education, or anywhere else. But one thing is clear: there is no way back. AI will shape our societies, our labour markets, and our daily lives. Education cannot stand aside and hope the wave passes.
That is why I initiated an education programme we call the AI Leap, an effort to use AI not as a fashionable add-on, but as a tool to further improve the quality of learning.
Today, students and teachers have access to an application adapted specifically for educational use. We are observing carefully what it changes, what it improves, and what new questions it raises.
I want to underline this: the AI leap is not, at its heart, a technology reform. It is a learning and teaching reform.
The innovation does not end when you place an application in students’ and teachers’ hands. That is where it begins.
Because we know something important about today’s language models: in their raw form, they do not automatically support learning. Sometimes they do the opposite. They can make it easy to copy instead of understand. They can reward speed over reflection.
So the teacher must remain a clear guide. And that is why, in our AI Leap programme, we have invested a great deal of energy in supporting teachers, so they can master approaches that make their own work easier, and use methods that help learners reach real understanding, not just quick answers.
This is a reason for hope. But we know that AI in schools also brings fears. However, we cannot respond to fear by standing still. We need to experiment, and we need to learn honestly from results: what worked, what did not, and for whom.
That is why every technological leap in education should come with something equally important: a research programme. We need evidence that can tell us, in a rigorous and data-informed way, what supports learning and how.
A summit like this matters precisely because the challenges are shared. We need thoughtful implementation, grounded in trust in educators, and strengthened by evidence.
As you begin your discussions here in Tallinn, I hope you will keep one simple idea in mind. Technologies will continue to evolve. The gears will keep shifting. But the heart of education remains profoundly human.
Invest in teachers. Trust them. Give them the time, support, and professional autonomy to grow, and the responsibility to use that autonomy well. If we do that, then whatever tools the future brings, our learners will not be left to navigate it alone.
I wish you an inspiring and productive summit.
