Estonia's 'Tiger Leap'.

Speaking of information and communication technology (ICT) in developing countries, many hope that these countries might leap-frog the stages of development. Estonia is taking tiger-leaps instead.

The Estonian "Tiger Leap" is a national target programme launched by the Ministry of Education of Estonia, with the objective to modernize the educational system in the country by introducing information and communication technology. It acknowledges the right of every citizen to network access, and rests on the belief that the path to the future lies on the information superhighway. Initiated by Estonia's President Lennart Merti and sponsored in part by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Tiger Leap is based on the cooperation between schools, universities, private enterprises and public institutions.

Since its launch in February 1996, the Tiger Leap project has been trying to decrease the differences in education between the capital city and other parts of Estonia, and to give the children living on small islands equal chances to obtain more knowledge. It builds up structures for distance learning and continuous learning for teachers and students. Estonian teachers are provided with elementary computer skills and guided to use educational software for teaching languages or sciences.

In accordance with the Tiger Leap Foundation's aim to assist the counties in developing the information technology infrastructure, almost all schools were supplied with computers in 1997 and one fourth of the total number of teachers was trained. In December 1999, there has been, on average, one computer for every 28 students in Estonia, bringing its slogan "one computer for every 20 pupils" into reach. More than half of the total number of teachers has graduated from the Tiger Leap's beginner course; 180 Estonian schools have on-line Internet connections; 218 schools are using dial-up Internet services; and 360 schools use e-mail services.

Through its Tiger Tour Roadshow project, the Foundation tries to introduce the larger population to the new technologies in an effort to overcome the reservations people often have in connection with ICT. In total, more than 50,000 people have acquired new skills and knowledge over the two years of the Tiger Tour. "The Tiger Leap programme is not simply about surfing the Internet", says UNDP's Lantz-de Bernardis. "It's about access to information. It's about democracy."