Finland is at the top of the PISA ranking of educational achievements (PISA stands for Programme for International Student Assessment) – without paying more for education than other OECD countries do.
A chapter in the recently (2019) published book by James R. Breiding on “Too Small to Fail: Why Some Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and HowThey Are Reshaping the World” explains how Finland does this. The following text is an excerpt of this chapter on Finland:
In 1963, the Finnish Parliament made the bold decision to choose public education as the key propellant of the country’s economic recovery.
Observers were surprised to learn that Finland achieves more with less. As previously mentioned in our chapter on education, Finland spends 30 per cent less on primary education per child than many large countries, and its teachers are paid less than teachers in most OECD countries (OECD Data 2019). Similarly, Singapore, one of the world’s top PISA performers, spends less per capita on primary education than twenty-seven of the thirty countries in the OECD (Barber and Mourshed 2007).
Finland prefers to spend money on learning than administration. Finnish classrooms have the technological feel of the 1950s. There are no fancy digital whiteboards costing $4,000 each, and classrooms have an austere, unpretentious feel.
The Finns start school at age seven, a year or two later than most developed countries, and children are encouraged to enjoy their childhood.
A typical middle school teacher in Finland teaches just under 600 hours annually. In the US, a teacher at the same level typically devotes 1,080 hours (Sahlberg 2011).
Fun is a superior motivator for learning than fear and that the joy of learning is enhanced if children and teachers learn how to think critically and solve real-life problems. Intrinsic motivation, not external pressure, is what matters most to encourage learning. Boredom is an enemy of learning anywhere and anytime, especially among high school students.
Finland adopted ‘phenomenon-based learning’, in which teaching is based on topics and context rather than classical subjects for some aspects of its curriculum. The Finnish system is based on collaboration, not competition; on support, not rivalry; on a sense of comfort, not fear; and on trust, not authority. The absence of fear also means that pupils say whatever comes to their minds rather than repressing their views, because they feel (safe).
Four children with mixed abilities normally sit at a table and the brightest students are expected to help the laggards. This is fundamental to minimizing the variation in levels of education. The variance of student performance between schools in Finland was the narrowest in the world. This fosters a sense of belonging and social cohesion. Pupils work in small groups to solve problems, which improves their communication skills. They call their teachers by their first names. This collaborative, uninhibited, learning-by-doing approach is a far cry from the traditional lecture-style format, in which pupils are often too afraid to ask questions. The differences between weakest and strongest students in Finland are amongst the smallest in the world.
The average Finn checks out sixteen books a year from their public libraries, which is among the highest in the world.
Educational reforms require at least one generation to have an impact. Finland, Singapore and Korea demonstrate that school systems can go from low to high performance within a few decades, but there are no quick fixes.
Finland’s decision in 1957, which required foreign television shows to include subtitles, as a key ingredient to the success story; it meant children were required to read while watching interesting films.
What Finland does perhaps better than anywhere else is make better teachers. Teachers enjoy an extraordinarily high level of esteem in Finland. The profession is consistently ranked among the most desired careers by Finnish high school students.
Social status is ironically more important than wages. Teachers earn very close to the national average salary level for all occupations, typically equivalent to what mid-career middle school teachers earn annually in the OECD nations – about $41,000.
Since becoming a primary school teacher in Finland is a very sought-after profession, the selection of teachers is a highly competitive process. Applicants must hold a master’s degree from one of the top universities. Annually, only about one in ten applicants will be accepted to study to become a primary school teacher (Sahlberg 2015).
Only Finland’s best are accepted on the course and this means having a whole host of skills alongside the necessary academic requirements. Successful candidates must have not only good scores and excellent interpersonal skills, but also a deep personal commitment to teach and work in schools (Sahlberg 2011). The candidates go through observed clinical activity replicating school situations, where social interactions and communication skills come into play.
Key characteristic of the work environment in Finnish schools is that teachers have a lot of freedom. They are left to decide on everything from lesson plans to the frequency of homework, which means they can tailor their teaching style to suit the needs of the class.
Furthermore, when new teachers are employed in a school in Finland, they usually stay for life. An official estimate suggests that only 10 to 15 per cent of teachers leave the profession during their entire career. This is about the annual attrition rate in the UK and in the US.
Knowledge improves competitiveness. Finland has harnessed this principle not by doing the same thing better, but by throwing out orthodox methods and replacing them with a novel and effective approach.
Who would have believed spending less time in class, assigning less homework, dismantling school inspectorates, rarely testing pupils and refusing to publish exam results helps you find education’s holy grail?
The Finnish miracle is, to some extent, culture specific.One irony is that the country has become more competitive by being more collaborative. It has succeeded by doing more with less and proved that money doesn’t actually buy a better education.
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