Estonia aims to bring drone courses to every upper secondary school

Estonia wants to offer drone training at every upper secondary school in the coming years, ERR reports. This school year, 53 schools are offering an elective course on unmanned aircraft.

One of them is Tallinn Arte Upper Secondary School, which has about 1,100 students and took part in a pilot programme last year. Around 50 students completed the course in its first year. This year’s course starts in the second semester, but about 100 students have already expressed interest, said drone teacher Karl Läll.

“Interest has increased dramatically, making it difficult to keep up with demand, but that is a good problem to have,” Läll said. He noted that drones are used for a range of purposes, from making wedding videos to mapping forests and illegal buildings.

The 35-academic-hour course was developed with the Ministry of Education and Research, the Estonian Aviation Academy and the Defence League. It combines theory and practical training, said Aare Jamnes, head of the Defence Resources Agency’s national defence education bureau.

Students study theory through an online course, then take an exam administered by the Transport Administration. Defence League instructors lead a practical day that includes simulator flights, flying a drone and carrying out a reconnaissance flight.

There are not yet enough instructors to offer the course in every school, Jamnes said. Running practical days at 53 schools over two and a half months would require two or three training days each week, with about 10 instructors for every 20 students. Instructors also need to be released from their regular jobs on school days.

Schools do not need to buy drones to run the course. The instructors bring the equipment needed for practical training, and the state currently has enough drones to deliver the programme, Jamnes said. Schools have been advised that they could invest in simulator capacity in their computer labs.

Arte Upper Secondary School has bought its own drones and lets students try flying them while studying the theory. The school also plans to add simulator training this year, Läll said.