This week Learning World is looking at Finland, which is recognised worldwide for its top ranking education model. Foreign delegations frequently visit the country to try and discover the secret of its success. We spent a day at a school in the capital Helsinki to find out more about the philosophy behind the Finnish system.
Finland has the shortest formal teaching hours in Europe and the best educational results. Finnish children stay with the same class and the same teacher for at least six years – which makes school like an extension of home.
In Finland, competition to become a teacher is so fierce that all teachers have a Masters’ degree.
Heljä Misukka, the Secretary of State for Education, told euronews: “What is also maybe quite special in Finland is that teachers are quite autonomous in what they do, so they can, for example, choose the materials they like or the pedagogy they use. They have a lot of freedom in their work.”
Children learn by playing and experimenting in groups, like in the science class. Playtime is an important part of learning. There are lots of breaks and even in winter children are encouraged to play outdoors. The children are trusted – even in the canteen, they are allowed to help themselves. There are no dinner ladies.
The accent is on music, sport and the arts. And the school that euronews visited is not an exception – let me tell you it is a typical Finnish school and the results they get are replicated all over the country.
However, Charles Leadbeater, a global education analyst told us , that it is not a case of one size fits all.
“Finland is an enormously impressive place, but there are other aspects to Finland that might not be so great and there are certain aspects of Finnish society that always make it difficult to learn from. The small scale, it’s very consensual and its culturally homogeneous, and what we shouldn’t think is that it is the only model that we should follow; it’s one very effective model in teaching, learning and schooling, but it’s not necessarily the only, or in some cases the best, model to improve education.”
He concluded: “I think parts of the Finnish system are really good – they get very good people into teaching – they only take 10% of people who apply to become teachers – And as a result the ethos in Finnish schools is very open to people using their time creatively to get better results with students.”
In Abu Dhabi they are building schools modelled on Finnish ones. We visited a school in Abu Dhabi. It has separate areas for boys and girls. It also has prayer facilities. For the next school in Abu Dhabi, they want a whole package from Finland including teacher training, technology and materials, and supplying services.
Since everyone wants a slice of Finland’s success, why not sell the elements of their education system?
Juha Seppänen, a business consultant, said: “We can change the world, make it more democratic, maybe with fewer wars, maybe less hunger, and if we can do that with education, let’s then do it through education, and exporting the educational values and education itself.”
www.euronews.net/2010/11/05/finland-first-in-class/Why do Finland's schools get the best results?
By Tom Burridge
Last year more than 100 foreign delegations and governments visited Helsinki, hoping to learn the secret of their schools' success.
In 2006, Finland's pupils scored the highest average results in science and reading in the whole of the developed world. In the OECD's exams for 15 year-olds, known as PISA, they also came second in maths, beaten only by teenagers in South Korea.
 | Education in South Korea  In South Korea, the school day is long and pupils have a much stricter study regime.  |
This isn't a one-off: in previous PISA tests Finland also came out top.
The Finnish philosophy with education is that everyone has something to contribute and those who struggle in certain subjects should not be left behind.
A tactic used in virtually every lesson is the provision of an additional teacher who helps those who struggle in a particular subject. But the pupils are all kept in the same classroom, regardless of their ability in that particular subject.
Finland's Education Minister, Henna Virkkunen is proud of her country's record but her next goal is to target the brightest pupils.
''The Finnish system supports very much those pupils who have learning difficulties but we have to pay more attention also to those pupils who are very talented. Now we have started a pilot project about how to support those pupils who are very gifted in certain areas.''
Click to play
The BBC's Tom Burridge talks to Henna Virkkunen, the Minister of Education and Science in Finland.
Late learners
According to the OECD, Finnish children spend the fewest number of hours in the classroom in the developed world.
This reflects another important theme of Finnish education.
 Children walk around in their socks at Torpparinmäki Comprehensive |
Primary and secondary schooling is combined, so the pupils don't have to change schools at age 13. They avoid a potentially disruptive transition from one school to another.
Teacher Marjaana Arovaara-Heikkinen believes keeping the same pupils in her classroom for several years also makes her job a lot easier.
''I'm like growing up with my children, I see the problems they have when they are small. And now after five years, I still see and know what has happened in their youth, what are the best things they can do. I tell them I'm like their school mother.''
Children in Finland only start main school at age seven. The idea is that before then they learn best when they're playing and by the time they finally get to school they are keen to start learning.
Less is more
| | Education in the United States  "If education is expensive, try ignorance" |
Finnish parents obviously claim some credit for the impressive school results. There is a culture of reading with the kids at home and families have regular contact with their children's teachers.
Teaching is a prestigious career in Finland. Teachers are highly valued and teaching standards are high.
The educational system's success in Finland seems to be part cultural. Pupils study in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.
Finland also has low levels of immigration. So when pupils start school the majority have Finnish as their native language, eliminating an obstacle that other societies often face.
The system's success is built on the idea of less can be more. There is an emphasis on relaxed schools, free from political prescriptions. This combination, they believe, means that no child is left behind.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8601207.stm
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