Finland's schools flourish in freedom and flexibility | World news | The... http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/05/finland-schools-curricu...

State prescribes the curriculum but leaves teachers alone to

decide how to teach the subject

Jeevan Vasagar in Helsinki

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 5 December 2010 18.18 GMT

Pupils at the Meri-Rastila primary school in Helsinki take a break from lessons. Photograph: Heikki
Saukkomaa/Lehtikuva

At Meri-Rastila primary school in a suburb of Helsinki, pupils shake the snow off their
boots in the corridors, then peel them off and pad into class in socks. After a 45-minute
lesson, they're out in the playground again.

The Finnish school day is short and interspersed with bursts of running around,
shrieking and sledging outdoors. Children start when they're older, the year they turn
seven and there is no pressure on them to do anything academic before then.

The Finnish education system contrasts sharply with England. Every Finnish child gets
a free school meal, and a free education, which extends to university level.

There are no league tables, and no school inspections. There is only one set of national
exams, when children are about to leave school, aged 18. The government conducts
national assessments, sampling the population to keep track of school performance. But
these results are not made public.

Meri-Rastila's principal, Ritva Tyyska, said: "I think it's quite good that they don't rank
the schools because we have good teachers, we have a curriculum and we have to obey
it. In every school we teach about the same things. The methods can be a little bit
different, [but you] get the same education.

"We have these tests, in the fifth or sixth forms, that are the same tests at each and every
school. We get the results and we see where we stand. But that is not common
knowledge. And if it's not good we have to check what are we doing wrong, what we
have to improve."

In Finland, the state decides what should be taught, but not how. If they like, teachers
can take their children outside for "wood mathematics" – where they go into the nearest
patch of forest and learn to add and subtract by counting twigs or stones in the open air.

A typical lesson compresses several disciplines into one; in one class, children who don't
speak Finnish as their first language are taught to identify and name the parts of a
mouse ("ears", "whiskers", "tail") and then mark on a chalk outline of the country where
the animal lives. It's a literacy lesson, but biology and geography as well.

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Meri-Rastila is unusual because of its high proportion of immigrant children. There are
190 pupils in the school and nearly half have foreign backgrounds. They speak 33
languages alongside Finnish – including Somali, Russian, Turkish, Kurdish, Arabic and
Chinese.

Rami Salminen begins his class on the Roman empire by hauling out a boy for tossing a
book at a classmate. It's the last hour of the school day and he decides to give a very
traditional lesson, focusing on the textbook and having them write down key passages
rather than inviting a debate. This class is a relatively big one, with 26 children. But as a
rule classes in Finnish schools tend to be small and teachers usually keep the same
classes as they move through a primary school, getting to know the children well.

Salminen said: "That's the best way, you know the pupils and you know their special
needs, and you get to know their parents as well. Many parents can't do their job
properly and they [the children] need an adult understanding, listening to them, trying
to help and encourage them."

Finland's success is due, in part, to the high status of teaching. Reforms in the 1980s
transferred teacher training to universities and required every teacher to have a
master's degree.

In the corridors at the upper school, teenagers are gathered around computer screens
picking the classes they'll go to for the next few weeks. The school's airy modern
building and casually dressed students give it the atmosphere of a new university.
Pupils design their own timetables, so teachers get classes made up of new faces every
term. But this flexibility is combined with a rigid approach to the curriculum; students
can decide when they will learn and teachers are free to interpret the subject as they see
fit. But, the school has a long list of compulsory subjects and the government prescribes
exactlywhat children ought to know in each field.

The most striking difference between the Finnish system and British is the fact that
Finland has no private schools. There are a handful of privately run religious schools
and Steiner schools, but places at these are state-funded, too.

Timo Lankinen, director general of the Finnish national board of education, said:
"Somehow we have had that kind of social agreement that basic education in Finland
should be provided for all, and take all levels into account, and somehow parties in
Finland have accepted it. If it [remains] so, there isn't any need for private schools."

Instead, there is diversity within the state system, with high schools allowed to select
pupils on the basis of academic merit after 16. There are two separate streams for
post-16 education; academic schools and vocational ones, although both can lead to
higher education.

Makelanrinne is one of 13 schools in the country that specialises in sport, picking its
students on the basis of their sporting record as well as academic test scores. While the
school is state-run and accessible to all, its ambition is to foster a sporting elite. In the
Olympic-size pool it shares with the local community, divers shear into the water as
their coach points out a 19-year-old in a black swimsuit. "She's the best female diver in
Finland at the moment," the coach said. "Her goal is London [2012]".

The Guardian's flight and hotel accommodation costs for the trip to Finland were paid
for by the Finnish government.

Finland v England
Private schools

The vast majority of children attend comprehensive schools in Finland. The country has
a handful of faith-based and alternative schools, which are legally private but funded by
the state. They cannot charge fees but may set their own catchment areas. In England,
7.2% of children attend private schools, which are free to select pupils and charge fees.
A private education costs parents an average of £10,100 a year.

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Exams

Finland has only one set of national exams, the matriculation exam when pupils are
about to leave upper school, aged 18. But children are tested regularly on what they
have learned. In England, children have national tests in English, maths and science at
the end of year 6, aged 11. They sit another set of national exams when they take GCSEs
at 16 and then have A-levels at 18.

Free school meals

Every Finnish child is entitled to a free school meal, in both primary and upper schools.
Finland began providing free school meals 60 years ago, both to encourage children to
attend school and help them learn.

In England free school meals are currently available only for children from families
receiving unemployment benefit. The coalition scrapped Labour plans to extend free
school meals to families below the poverty line, which is calculated as £19,500 a year
for a couple with two children.

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edek
6 December 2010 10:12AM
instead of moving forward in the UK our politicians, with their usually privileged
education backgrounds are stuck in the 50s' syndrome of focussing on uniform, exams,
homework .... schools should be about the enjoyment of learning with the same chances
for everyone regardless of the ability to pay for a "better" education.
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Restre
6 December 2010 10:47AM
This is a fascinating article. But the title and many of the passages within buy into the
Coalition rhetoric blindly and with no good reason. In many of the schools I've been in
teachers do have the power to teach the curriculum how they wish in most areas.
Although its true the content is constrained by NC.
Surely more pertinent detail is the non-demonisation of schools and teachers, the
comprehensive education system and the lack of private schools in equalising
opportunity?
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