Tomorrow’s Information Society needs to be a learning society, a society which invests in knowledge, a society in which each individual will build up his or her own qualification on a basis of life-long learning.

The idea of Tiger Leap Foundation dates back to 1996 when the former Estonian Ambassador in the United States Toomas Hendrik Ilves and Minister of Education Jaak Aaviksoo exchanged views regarding new information and communication technology that changes not only way of life but whole educational paradigm. Symbolizing the designed radical changes and technological leap the prorgramme was named Tiger Leap as an allusion to the “East Asian Tigers”, the countries whose economy boomed, in part as a result of information technology use. The programme principles were formulated soon, also the President of Estonia Lennart Meri agreed to become the Patron of the programme. On February 21, 1996 President Lennart Meri announced in the Estonian State Television broadcast Tiger Leap project officially open. Actual activity began 1997 when the Tiger Leap Foundation started work with the 35,5 MEEK funded from the national budget.

The Tiger Leap programme is a national specific programme launched by the Estonian Government with an aim to increase Estonian school education quality utilizing modern information and communication technology. The programme is funded from the national budget via Ministry of Education. By today the Tiger Leap programme 1997–2000 and Tiger Leap Plus development plan 2001–2005 are put into practice. The objective of Tiger Leap programme (1997–2000) was to modernize ICT infrastructure of educational establishments, but the next programme Tiger Leap Plus already highlighted ICT competency assurance for all students and teachers. Both programmes supported innovative e-learning initiatives of schools, universities and other institutions.
Focus of the Learning Tiger development plan 2006-2009 is mainly on e-learning and various e-learning related content services development. Main objective of this development plan is to increase curriculum quality and effectiveness utilizing ICT and introducing e-learning as a part of daily curriculum.