The timeline of Finland’s education system

There has been a flurry of news reports of late about Finland’s education process and how the country has seemingly risen from the dark ages to the upper ranks of all PISA rankings. This article explores the background of where Finland was compared to where it is now, and how it got there.

Background

Back in the 1960’s Finland began to mold their education reform. It was in 1963 when the country’s leaders decided that every child would receive a quality public education.

This was born out of a scarred history trying to maintain the country’s independence from Russia, Germany, and even Sweden. But by the 1960’s the wars had settled down and their independence was solid. But the country was struggling and knew that they needed to restore their ability to compete globally. Truth be told, the country wanted to ensure it survived and maintained its independence, thus the driver behind the desire to be competitive.

Laying the Groundwork

It was then that lawmakers decided to simply form the foundation for a comprehensive public school program. Throughout the nation, teachers contributed to the national curriculum that served only as guidelines. All students would attend public school from ages 7 to 16. Finnish and Swedish would be taught across all schools and a third language was required to be taught beginning at age 9. Upper secondary schools for grades 10 to 12 began to see an improvement because of this shift in making sure that every child was educated.

Seeing Results, Ongoing Changes

In 1979 another key change was instituted in Finland’s education system. All teachers were required to earn a master’s degree by attending a fifth year of college - at the country’s expense. Teachers were thus granted a level of respect and status that was previously afforded to only doctors and lawyers.

Additionally, in the 1980’s the former strict and structured programs which had been laid out and in place since the 1960’s was relaxed, so to speak. As far as the government was concerned the control over policies was shifted down to the town councils. The previously recorded national curriculum was dubbed as simply broad guidelines. As a stark example the nation’s math goals were reduced to a mere ten pages of guidelines for grades one through nine. Each child spends grades one to nine with the same teacher. Each teacher has a special teacher or assistant to help with special education needs or immigrant language education.

Rising to the Top

Since these latest changes have finally settled and became the new norm, Finland’s international scores on the PISA rankings have soared to the top. To be fair, the two or three decades before control was passed down to the local regions the education system in Finland was strict and structured, some would even say this is an understatement.

Putting it in Perspective

To provide a comparison, in the 1960’s Finland’s education system was certainly in the poor ranking. To move from a poor ranking to a good one, they spent 20 to 30 years with very tight controls and strict government guidelines. Only after achieving a system filled with good practices that has proven it works and provides the country with young adults ready to help take the country into the next generation, did the country release control to the local governments. This change then allowed the school system to go from good to great. And the results on the PISA tests back up this dynamics. The comparison comes when looking at the Swedish or even the American school systems which are both performing in the lackluster middle range on the PISA tests. America is currently in the relatively early or early-mid stages of their No Child Left Behind mandates. True reform is still elusive. Opponents of this legislation are pointing to Finland’s current education model as a way to turn the country’s scores around. However, that may be a short-sighted approach if you truly look at Finland’s history and how they really got from poor to great, not just from good to great.

Conclusion

Finland’s education process today is a robust and effective one. Being able to state that 93 percent of all students graduate from a vocational or academic high schools is a profound accomplishment in and of itself. This is very high and something that many countries are keeping an eye on, exploring how Finland does it. Additionally, Finland spends quite a bit less per student than, say, the United States does. They are in range with Singapore, spending approximately $11,000 per student per year for education.

However, the other pieces of the entire education system are envious as true reform in whole. Maternity leave in Finland is provided for three years. Day care is subsidized. Preschool for all 5-year-olds is offered for free. And an unheard of subsidy of 150 euros per month is provided for each child through age 17. If other countries wish to turn around their education system, looking at Finland’s entire education system is an excellent first place to start. Treating educators as the key to a country’s success is the way to ensure that success.

Different Teaching Methods in Education

Since 2007 Singapore’s Ministry of Education has espoused a teaching method commonly known as Teach Less, Learn More. The positive impact of embracing this teaching method has been profound. Currently Singapore spends an average of $11,000 annually on each student. In contrast the U.S. spends about $16,000 annually per child. In even starker contrast Kenya spends only $153 per year. Singapore’s results achieved by their method of Teach Less, Learn More is a shining example of a positive deviant from normal and previously accepted teaching methods. The economic benefits to programs such as Singapore Math, which embrace the Teach Less, Learn More education method, are certainly being realized as Singapore continues to advance as a global competitor along with many other Asian countries over the past 25 years.

Across the world there are several types of formal teaching methods and this article explores several of them along with the pros and cons.

Curriculum

All formal education methods have some sort of curriculum. The curriculum will set the terms by which content and courses are offered at the school. A curriculum based education focuses on the topics, or syllabus, which must be understood to achieve a particular standard of education. Additionally the curriculum will have a goal of what level of knowledge must be achieved in order to receive a passing grade. There are also varying academic disciplines which define the area that may be the focal point of education for a particular school. Examples include mathematics, computer science, natural sciences, applied sciences, social sciences, or even humanities. Additionally there are many fine arts curriculums and disciplines available today.

Methods of Education

Vocational

In a vocational educational method the training will strictly focus on practical and direct training towards a specific trade, or craft. Several industries require internships or apprenticeships and a vocational education usually lends itself to providing these as a part of their overall curriculum and certification requirement. Some examples of vocational training are engineering, architecture, medicine, and even carpentry.

Autodidactism

Autodidactism is characterized as learning on your own. It is a self-directed learning method that typically falls into an informal learning category. However, some advanced classes may engage in allowing a subset of students to go through the course materials at their own pace in order to allow them to feed their thirst for knowledge and as such keep them from getting bored. This allows them to learn at their own, often much faster, pace then the rest of their classmates. Research shows that many highly intelligent students will end up being dubbed as troublemakers simply because they are bored by the class not moving at the same speed they are. Instituting autodidactism in certain environments can be very beneficial to encouraging and fostering genius.

Alternative

Non-traditional education or alternative education is a term that typically defines any and all forms of education that exist outside of traditional education methods. Frequently classes are not structured by age or level and instead courses such as math, science, and language are taught in groups that include students of varying ages together. This is an amazingly effective teaching method for ‘troubled’ students because class sizes are frequently smaller and the interaction between students is much less competitive in nature.

Special Education

Children with disabilities are sometimes not able to participate in a public education environment. Although more and more parents and educators are finding flexibility with including children that have certain disabilities in the mainstream education system. Still, some children do require a special educational method so that they can have focused, individualized instruction. Depending on the school system, special education can be greatly beneficial in helping the student learn the basics to prepare them for transitioning into the public education system. But some children may always require special education, depending on the severity of their disability.

Conclusion

Secondary public schools across the world are now, since the very early 1900’s, focusing primarily on curriculums that teach practical job skills necessary for what is considered white collar work. Math and science education, as well as anything in the technology or computer science area, are the keys to helping our students excel in an ever-changing world. To ensure that a nation can compete on a global scale, finding education methods that reinforce learning of these core skills is critical.

There are many different teaching methods, and many may say that there is no right way and no wrong way to teach. That may certainly be true for the traditional goal of simply learning a core set of skills or courses to get a passing grade. However, the Singapore method of Teach Less, Learn More as exhibited in the Singapore Math program, definitely shows this as an excellent method of achieving the goal of not just having a basic understanding of the information, but rather of building a core foundation of success as the student becomes a young adult and then a leader of a nation or of the world. 

A tale of two countries: Malaysian GE and Singapore education

Blackout!

If you log onto Facebook one day after the release of the results for the General Election in Malaysia, you may notice many of your Malaysian friends have changed their profile pictures to a square of blankness. This move, inspired by the leaders of opposition party PakatanRakyat, who lost the general election, was a display of the anger over the alleged vote manipulation by the ruling party Barisan Nasional. This election was touted was a watershed election, with a change of government at stake. However, the “Ubah” championed by Anwar never came true and the status quo remained, together with a series of discriminatory policies that caused widespread dissatisfaction among the minority groups in Malaysia.

Educational discrimination

One of the major causes of dissatisfaction lies with the discriminatory policy in education, where the Malays are given preferential consideration in admissions into institutions such as public universities. A Chinese Malaysian student has to score much higher to stand a chance to get into the same university as a Malay Malaysian student; even such a chance is not guaranteed, subject to the size of quota. Such an education policy, brought into prominence by the general election, has much implication for the future of Malaysia and its neighbor, Singapore.

An unjustified rationale

The rationale for the preferential treatment of the Malays is the need for affirmative action. Because a substantial portion of the Malays in the past did not receive good education, they lost out to other races, particularly the Chinese, in areas such as business or other professional jobs that led one to higher income and social status. To correct the wrongs of the past and to put the Malays on an equal footing with their counterparts, the government lowered the admissions standard for the Malay students, hoping that the new generations of the Malays could improve their education level and social standing collectively.

Granted the good intention of the government to ease racial inequality, the affirmative action in Malaysia is not being done in an acceptable way. In the United States where affirmative action originated, the use of quota is explicitly forbidden by law. Race is a factor taken into admissions consideration, but it is never the factor that largely determines outcomes. In Malaysia, implicit or explicit quotas exist for university admissions, leading to a wide gap between the admission cut off scores for the Chinese and the Malays, a gap that cannot be explained by affirmative action in its proper practice alone. 'Reverse discrimination' must be used to explain the situation, where by trying to help one group, the government disadvantages another group as a result. Reverse discrimination, an often unintended outcome of affirmative action, is being intentionally used by the ruling party in Malaysia because of the need to gather votes from the Malays who benefit from current policy.

The impacts on Singapore

Considering the official discrimination, it is not surprising to see many Malaysian Chinese coming to Singapore for education. Many of the students are talented, ambitious and hardworking. By driving away a significant portion of its young talents, Malaysia suffers from brain drain. The universities are not benefitting from an otherwise more vibrant and more competitive academic culture. The majority of university students, who know that their places are protected by the government, may not work hard enough in their pre-U institutions, leading to a less competitive schooling population in general. Moreover, many of the Malaysians studying overseas do not wish to go back, where discrimination in employment, particularly in civil service, is but a continuation of discrimination in education. Because of the entrenched racial discrimination and the disappointment created by the unfair election results, Malaysian students are likely to continue to flow to Singapore to study where their talents and abilities are recognized and rewarded.

The lessons for Singapore

Lastly, the education policy in Malaysia has lessons for Singapore to learn as well. We have three reasons for our confidence in educational equality in Singapore. Firstly no ethnic group is significantly disadvantaged in the past, so there is no sufficient justification for affirmative action. Secondly Singapore is a nation built on racial equity in various aspects, and the government and the general society recognize the critical importance of fairness that motivates citizens to work hard so as to unleash the potential of human resources that are considered the only “natural resources” in the tiny city-state. Lastly, the Malaysia experience in education has demonstration effect for Singapore, as it shows how divisive unfair racial policy can become. Such racial division will be amplified during the general election where people use their votes to express their dissatisfaction. Because of the three reasons above, students studying in Singapore have little to worry about educational inequality. Quite on the contrary, the Malaysian example serves as a lasting reminder to the Singapore government not to let its education go astray along a similar line. Hence, students can rest assured that they will be treated equally in a meritocratic system where race is not a factor of admission, despite living in a multi-ethnic society. 

The attraction of Singapore's education lies with its fairness. The government appeals to all segments of society for political support.  Financial assistanceand bursary are given to needy students, based on household not on race. While Singapore should not interfere with the domestic affairs of Malaysia, it should always remember the critical importance of meritocracy, which is an open secret behind the Asian Tiger’s success story.