- Reset +

President’s Cultural Foundation announces Educational Award winners

07.10.2009

The Educational Award 2009 winners are Urmas Kokassaar, who is a biology didactics lecturer at the Science Education Centre of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Tartu. He also teaches advanced biology and chemistry classes at the Hugo Treffner Gymnasium; Terje Varul, a teacher of Estonian language and literature at Kolga Secondary School; and Heli Adamovich, the director of Päikene kindergarten in Narva.

This year the first special sciences award will be given out. It was awarded to Mikhail Gusev, a mathematics teacher at the Tallinn Tõnismäe Secondary Science School.

President Toomas Hendrik Ilves will present the Educational Awards at 16:00 on October 12 in the Office of the President.

Urmas Kokassaare’s main field of research is biochemistry of food and nutrients, and he has compiled many textbooks in biology didactics. Aside from writing 77 scientific publications, he has written 58 different teaching aids. Most pupils currently studying in basic school learn biology from textbooks written by Urmas Kokassaar and his co-writers. Moreover, he has greatly contributed to popularising the subject: he has published many popular scientific articles in different media publications and is a favourite lecturer both among adults and schoolchildren.

Terje Varul has been working at Kolga Secondary School since 1989, where she presently teaches the Estonian language and literature both at basic school and gymnasium level and holds media courses for gymnasium pupils. She supervises the work of a drama club and organises a nationwide pupils’ theatre festival called Põhjafestival (North Festival). Since 2006, Terje Varul has been teaching other teachers of the Estonian language and literature at the Open University Centre for Continuing Education of Tallinn University.

In the 7 years that Heli Adamovich has been the director of Päikene Kindergarten, she has turned it into the most popular kindergarten in Narva. She introduced a language immersion programme in the kindergarten and wrote a project for constructing a new, modern and child-friendly building, which was granted support by the European Regional Development Fund. As the director of the kindergarten, she has created an environment that is well appreciated by employees, children and parents alike.

Mikhail Gusev teaches advanced level mathematics classes at Tallinna Tõnismäe Secondary Science School. He has developed the school’s mathematics study programme and uses a subject syllabus, which he has devised himself, to help pupils learn the subject in depth. Mikhail Gusev uses broad Estonian mathematics terminology in his classes. His pupils have successfully participated in domestic and international Mathematics Olympiads. Furthermore, he has shared his knowledge with peers in Estonia as well as abroad.

The Educational Award, established in 2003, is intended for people at all teaching levels, who have achieved remarkable results in the sphere of education in Estonia as a teacher, a university lecturer, a head or an employee of an educational institution, an author of textbooks and didactical materials, a person who has initiated and implemented practical educational innovations or an official who has taken part in developing education policy.

The Educational Awards are financed by Sampo bank. The sum to be awarded to Urmas Kokassaar is 75,000 EEK, Terje Varul will receive 55,000 EEK and Heli Adamovich 45,000 EEK. The special sciences award of 60,000 EEK is financed by Skype Eesti.

Office of the President
Public Relations Department
Phone +372 631 6229