Finland's education system was recently ranked as the 5th best education system in the world. However, in the 1970's, Finland's student achievement levels were at an all-time low. In fact, at the time, statistics showed that only 30 percent of the adults in Finland had completed secondary school. How did this country manage to turn around their entire education system to become one of the best in the world?
The average Finnish child does not start school until the age of seven; whereas, the average American student starts school at the age of five. This is because the first seven years of a child's life are an essential time period for them to develop a connection with their family and maintain their physical and emotional health by playing and exercising with friends. In fact, Finland takes the importance of emotional health a step further: the average student in Finland only spends approximately 2.8 hours on homework each week. As an American student, I can certainly say that most of my peers, including myself, spend at least 1.5 hours on homework every night. In fact, an average American student who does not take AP or honors courses will still end up spending around 6 hours on homework every week which is more than double that of Finland. With American college admissions getting more competitive each year, most students will end up taking a variety of advanced courses which leads to an even heavier workload than the standard 6 hours. The average school day in Finland is 5 hours long, in which approximately 3 hours and 45 minutes are spent in lessons and 20-25 minutes of recess are given in between lessons as a break. Students end school between 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM and then have 20-30 minutes of homework which gives them the rest of the day to spend with their family and friends. These students spend approximately half the time as American students on homework yet they outperform American students on international exams. The motto of the Finnish education system is "Work less, learn more."
Teaching is a more highly respected occupation in Finland than it is in the USA. In fact, Finnish teachers earn close to the same salary as Finnish doctors and lawyers. Teachers in Finland are highly trained professionals, and a master's degree is required for the job. Teachers are trained to value a student's happiness and mental health above all tests and lessons. They are taught to establish a friendship with the students to make them feel more comfortable and close to the teacher. Instead of forcing students to respect teachers, the teachers work hard to gain the trust and support of every student because students will be more inclined if they see teachers as their friend rather than someone to be feared. Teachers believe that students must be able to find happiness within themselves before they will be able to find happiness in the things they learn. Being a child and being a student are two separate things, and importance should be given to both aspects of our youth.
There are almost no standardized tests in Finland. In fact, most students will not take a single standardized test until the age of sixteen. Teachers give "self-assessments" in which students will write about what they found interesting and what they struggled to understand so that teachers can focus more on teaching what the students need help with. Lessons in Finland are based on truly comprehending the concept rather than simply memorizing it to perform well on a test. Students do not feel pressured to force themselves to memorize concepts the night before a big test because there are almost no "big tests." The relationship between students and teachers is much more relaxed than in most other countries. Students feel more comfortable asking for help and genuinely enjoy learning since they are not as stressed.
Finnish students have repeatedly proven to score high on international exams such as PISA. Finland was the 4th highest scoring country in reading and 5th for science and 13th for math on the PISA exam in 2015. For comparison, the United States scored 24th in reading, 25th in science and 41st in math. Although American students spend more time in school and on homework than Finnish students, they do not perform nearly as well as them on tests, which is ironic because American students take a lot more standardized tests than Finnish students.
Other countries should look to Finland as a role model in terms of its education system. It is important to realize that although youth is an important time for education, it is also an important time for children to build emotional strength and many of the things they need to learn at that age are life lessons that are not taught through textbooks and rapid memorization.
