Tiigrihüpe ( Estonian for ''Tiger Leap'') was a project undertaken by Republic of Estonia to heavily invest in development and expansion of computer and network infrastructure in Estonia, with a particular emphasis on education. The project was first proposed in 1996 by

Toomas Hendrik Ilves Toomas Hendrik Ilves (; born 26 December 1953) is an Estonian politician who served as the fourth president of Estonia from 2006 until 2016. Ilves worked as a diplomat and journalist, and he was the leader of the Social Democratic Party in the ...

, then ambassador of Estonia to United States and later President of Estonia, and

Jaak Aaviksoo Jaak Aaviksoo (born 11 January 1954) is an Estonian politician and physicist, a former rector of the University of Tartu and Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech). Aaviksoo has been the Estonian Minister of Defence and Minister of Educa ...

, then minister of Education. The project was announced by Lennart Meri, the President of Estonia, on 21 February 1996. Funds for the foundation of Tiigrihüpe were first allocated in national budget of 1997. An important primary effect of the project was rollout of Internet access to all Estonian schools, which effectively ended

UUCP UUCP is an acronym of Unix-to-Unix Copy. The term generally refers to a suite of computer programs and protocols allowing remote execution of commands and transfer of files, email and netnews between computers. A command named is one of the pr ...

usage in Estonia, combined with updating

computer lab A computer lab is a space where computer services are provided to a defined community. These are typically public libraries and academic institution Academic institution is an educational institution dedicated to education and research, which ...

s in schools to use IBM PCs, where Estonian CP/M based school computer

Juku ''Gakushū juku'' ( ja, 学習塾; see cram school) are private, fee-paying schools that offer supplementary classes often in preparation for key school and university entrance exams. The term is primarily used to characterize such schools in ...

introduced in 1988 was still widely used. Although outdated for 1990s, Jukus did enable Estonia to "gain a head start in mass school computerization" by providing early access to computers and a standardized study environment. After the cyberattacks on Estonia in 2007, Estonia combined network defence with its common military doctrine. Success of the process led to

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

creating the

NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence NATO CCD COE, officially the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence ( et, italic=yes, K5 or ''NATO küberkaitsekoostöö keskus''), is one of NATO Centres of Excellence, located in Tallinn, Estonia. The centre was established on 14 ...

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...

. This project has been nicknamed ''Tiger Defence'' ( et, Tiigrikaitse) by analogy with Tiigrihüpe. In 2012, two more programs for technology education were launched in Estonia. Firstly, the ProgeTiger program to improve technological literacy and digital competence of teachers and students, and IT AcademyIT Academy – Estonian way to shape ICT education
/ref> – a cooperation and development program between the state, the ICT sector companies and universities aimed to improve the quality of higher ICT education.

References

External links

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How it all began? From Tiger Leap to digital society
Internet in Estonia {{Estonia-stub

See also

References

Further reading

External links