[By: Ashwini]
Finland’s education system underwent major reforms 40 years ago. Since then, it has consistently been at the top of the international rankings for school systems. The Finnish system has many singularities. The national curriculum has only broad guidelines. Children start school at the age of seven. Until they enter teenage, homework and exams are rare. For the first six years, students are not measured at all. At the age of 16, they take the only standardized mandatory test in the country. Regardless of aptitude, all children are taught in the same classrooms. Finland’s expenditure on individual students is lesser then the US. But 30 percent of the children receive additional help during the first nine years. Thus, the disparity between the strong and weak students is the least in the world. The high school graduation rate is 93 percent. 66 percent of the students enter college- the highest in the world. 43 percent of the high-school students go to vocational schools. Science classes in the country have an upper limit of 16. Consequently, practical experiments can be performed every day! Elementary school students get an average recess of 75 minutes a day- more than twice that of the US. Teachers, too, spend only 4 hours a day in class. In addition, they spend 2 hours a week on “professional development”.
Finland has an amazing student-teacher ratio. It has the same number of teachers as the New York City. But while the NYC has 1.1 million students, Finland has just 600,000. The teachers are selected with care. All teachers must have a master’s degree, which is fully subsidized. Teachers are picked only from the top 10 percent of the graduates. They enjoy the same social status as doctors and lawyers. Not surprisingly, teaching is a coveted job. In 2010, 6600 applications were received for 660 primary school teaching posts. The average starting salary for a teacher in Finland, in 2008, was $7000 dollars less than that in the US. But high school teachers with 15 years of experience make 102 percent of what other graduates make- compared with 62 percent in the US. There is no merit pay for teachers.
To top it all off, the school system is 100 percent state funded. Since 2010, Finnish students have consistently been at the top of an international standardized measurement of science, mathematics and reading. Finland easily defeats countries with a similar demographic. The Finnish system, thus, beats all others. Norway, which has a similar size and homogenous culture, follows similar strategies similar to the US and achieves similar positions in international rankings.
Thanks to: thefishbowlnetwork.com
Source : businessinsider
