At the beginning of the 20th century Estonian intellectuals such as Jakob Hurt, Oskar Kallas, Jaan Tõnisson and many others decided to tackle the problem by founding a secondary school for girls.

It was caused by the unanticipated costs of building a suitable school house and political conflicts.

Thus, it was adjusted by the engineers Aleksander Raudsepp and Fromhold Kangro to fit the budget of financiers.

Instead of letting the school to move in, the authorities decided to place there the Austrian prisoners of war.

Since the school operated several years without a building of its own, it had to rent rooms in a number of places.

In 1919 the whole school moved to the building of Hugo Treffner Gymnasium in Rüütli St.

Students who have reached the final round in a national olympiad are not required to take the entrance test.

Although the school has aptitude for languages, it still lets students pick from four departments: social, humanities, life sciences and IB programme.

In addition the school provides a wide variety of extracurricular activities such as choir and folk dancing.

[2][3] Together with the Ministry of Education and Research and Tartu City Government, Miina Härma Gymnasium is preparing to implement the continuum of International Baccalaureate programmes (Primary Years, Middle Years and Diploma) to serve the educational needs of children who temporarily visit Tartu and neighbouring counties due to their parents' mobility.

The first was published from 1929 to 1940 and was named Karuohakas after Hans Karu, the school's headmaster during that period.