APPLYING THE PRINCIPLE OF SUSTAINABILITY OF EDUCATION TO THE CURRICULA OF THE ELEMENTARY STAGES OF EDUCATION IN ESTONIA

Sustainable education is a multi-level process, which bears humanistic values in today's and tomorrow's society and which is achieved through a long-term development process, where acquiring practical skills is in compliance with the theoretical self-concept and the concept of the whole surrounding environment. This principle is the basis for the objectives and competences formulated in curricula of pre-school education and primary education. The stronger is the connection between the two stages of education, the more sustainable is transition from kindergarten to school. However, in practical education we often experience something else. Therefore, the following questions need to be answered: To what extent does today's education take into account regularities of children's development? How is the sustainability of the objectives of the curricula of pre-school and primary education guaranteed? The aim is to give a survey on school readiness of children at school entry in different counties of Estonia and the children's achievements at the end of the first stage of their studies. Methods. The research data have been collected in the framework of the ETF grant “Efficiency of pre-school education and its sustainable development in basic schools in four counties (Saare, Järva, Võru and East-Viru County)”; in 2005 data were collected in pre-school child care institutions, and in 2006-2008 in grades 1-3. This is a longitudinal study, which analyses the development of the same children from their last year at kindergarten up to the end of the third year at school. Children's coping was assessed by their teacher in five point scale in nine different target fields. The research results showed that according to their teachers, children were well prepared for school in respect to different subjects, but there were several shortcomings in social skills, in their positive self-concept, and in the formation of abilities to learn.