Finnish Lessons Proves that the World’s Best System is Based on Excellence and Equity

In fact Finland’s education system proves that a system primarily based on equity leads directly to excellence and clearly outperforms systems based on competition, privatization and testing. For many years, Finland has led the PISA reading results from the OECD to the point where education tours to Finland are creating a tourism boom.

Finnish Lessons by Pasi Sahlberg is a one source punch to the solar plexus of the corporate reform movement. Finland is famous for the lack of standardized testing except for a matriculation exam. There are almost no private schools and almost no streaming until after 16 years age, roughly grade 10. This works like compound interest when combined with free post-secondary education, free nutritious meals served in schools, and a situation where almost all teachers have at least one master’s degree and most have two.

Sahlberg points out that the Finnish system concentrates on instruction not on assessment standards. There is almost no grade level repeating or ability grouping below grade 10. In order to make sure that math and science are not afterthoughts, 16% of teachers have their MA in math and 10% have an MSc.

There is a 4% child poverty rate compared to Canada at 12% and the USA at 20%. There is very little SES or social class difference between schools.

Schools themselves have more autonomy than almost anywhere else. The slogan “teach less learn more” encapsulates the independent, project oriented ‘Deweyesque’ approach. Finland’s teachers work 600 instructional hours per year while Canadian teachers average 900 hours and Americans average 1 080 hours. Finns have very light but very focussed critical thinking homework as a principle.

As a touch of humour the Finnish education minister was asked “what is the goal of Finnish education?” The answer was “to beat Sweden.” LOL.

Corporate reform detractors have looked at the Finnish evidence, seen the existential threat to their core argument and tried every conceivable argument to discredit the Finnish example of equity of outcomes.

The corporate reformers like to say Finland is almost unicultural. Fair enough but the same standard must be maintained for Korea, Japan, Shanghai and so on. Finland in fact is trilingual with Finnish, Swedish and Sami.

The second attack is that Finland is too small to provide a model for North American reform. The problem here is that the 5.5 million Finns compare directly to many states and provinces in the USA and Canada where the education policies are really made.

Sahlberg provides a table in his book that outline the difference between highly successful Finland and the failing corporate reform model.

Finnish Lessons is a manifesto for a progressive equity oriented educational system as an antidote to the corporate reform movement. It demonstrates that, not only does a progressive equity oriented not give up anything on the excellence agenda; Finland proves that an equity oriented educational system actually creates the world’s most successful educational system. It is a must read for education activist.

http://www.amazon.ca/Finnish-Lessons-Educational-Change-Finland/dp/0807752576

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxkyU2BCzbM

http://www.firstpost.com/topic/place/finland-dan-rather-reports-finnish-first-tease-for-january-17-2-video-jaOZR58GQdQ-109-1.html

　

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