Public Schools in Finland are outperforming that of much of the rest of the developed world. From statistics, Finland's high school graduation rate is 93%, 66% of high school graduates attend college and 43% of graduates attend vocational school. Finland's students have also among the highest scorers in the PISA exams for reading, science, and mathematics. While Finland is a much smaller country than the US with very different politics, cultural norms, and economic situations, there are still a number of lessons that we can learn from their education system, so we can improve our own.
The class schedules are one aspect that can greatly affect how students perform. In Finland, elementary school students are required to have 15 minutes of recess after every 45 minutes of lessons, which adds up to 75 minutes of recess in a school day. Students across all grades have minimal to no homework. While the average high school student in the United States may have over an hour of homework each night, the average high school student in Finland only has around 15 minutes each night. The average school day is around four hours including lunch and recess. You may ask, how are these students even learning with so little instructional time and so many breaks? The answer is: play. Having a 15-minute break each hour allows kids to stay better focused during the instructional time. Playtime gives kids the opportunity to enhance their social skills and cooperation with each other. Play can even be learning, as people converse and learn from each other or explore something that they are fascinated about. Minimal to no homework is given because the Finnish believe that home is for family time and learning life skills.
Schools in Finland also have a greater level of equality than those of the United States. With very few exceptions, private schools are not allowed in Finland. Even those private schools are publicly financed and no tuition is charged. Unlike the United States where school quality can be a determining factor of where people choose to live, schools in Finland are all supposed to be just as good as one another. Classes are not differentiated by learning capabilities so students who accel, about average or need special education all learn in the same room. Classes sizes are kept small and a teaching aid is available for special needs students. Learning with diverse students of very different strengths, weaknesses and economic backgrounds can encourage better acceptance of diversity in general. Both the diverse classrooms and lack of differences in quality between schools provide equality for learning.
In addition to having more breaks and better equality among schools, Finnish Schools have higher standards for teachers. Compared to many other countries, the teaching profession in Finland is very respected and looked up to. Teachers are admired just as much as doctors and lawyers. The higher view of the profession could give teachers more pride in their careers and encourage a greater level of responsibility among them. Only the top 10% of college graduates are permitted to become teachers and all teachers must have a master's degree. These high standards help ensure that only the most qualified individuals are allowed to teach in schools. Teachers in Finland receive an average of two hours of planning within their workday. This planning time allows them to develop better and more engaging lessons for students. Due to the lack of homework and time in class, they have to be more efficient with how they use class time. They also teach the same group of students for more than one year, which gives them a chance to get to understand their students better while developing stronger connections.
Last but not least, Finland doesn't place emphasis on standardized tests. Finland's educational standards are very broad, which gives individual teachers more room to experiment with how and what to teach. Since the only major standardized test isn't taken until the age of 16, there is no urge to overemphasize on testing-taking skills. In addition to teaching "core academic subjects" (math, reading/writing, science and social studies) schools also incorporate arts and music into their curriculum across all grade levels. Foreign language is usually started in elementary school. By the time students graduate high school, most of them will be fluent in two or three languages other than Finnish. Students are given the freedom to learn what they are interested in rather than what a group of people in power want them to learn. The Finnish believe that the arts and languages are just as important as all of the other subjects because it expands a person's creative and expressive boundaries.
While Finland is on a different side of the world and has a much smaller population than the United States, there are some aspects of their educational system that we can adopt. Perhaps school districts should make breaks longer in between classes and increase recess time for elementary school students. Perhaps more sophisticated and specific requirements for teaching certifications should be set in states throughout the US. Perhaps administrators should stop taking funding away from music and arts programs in low-income and poor performing schools. Instead of starting foreign language in 8th grade, perhaps public schools should start them in elementary school to give students a better opportunity to be fluent in languages other than English. With the growing interest in reducing standardized testing and improving K12 education, Finland's public schools could be a model for how we could restructure the K12 public school system in the United States.
