Nor are schools left entirely to their own devices. The Finnish National Agency for Education promotes self-evaluation and improvement for both schools and their teachers. In terms of basic education, it's true that Finland does not use national standardized tests; however, they do implement national evaluations of learning outcomes. However, Finland's evaluations are sample-based, not comprehensive. They are also not tied to school funding nor used to rank schools.
Instead, the evaluation looks to assess the school's qualifications and are then provided to the administrators for developmental purposes. Oh, did we mention that school meals are free to all children? And that guidance and counseling are built in as part of the curriculum?
Because they are. After basic education, your child can choose to continue to upper-secondary education. While not compulsory, 90 percent of students start upper-secondary studies immediately after basic. Because of Finland's devotion to no dead ends, the other 10 percent can choose to return to their education later at no cost.
Upper secondary is split into two main paths, general and vocational, and both take about three years. General education takes the form of course work, but students have a lot of freedom to decide their study schedules. At the end of general, students take the national matriculation exam, Finland's only standardized test.
Their scores are used as part of their college applications. Vocational education is more job focused and incorporates apprenticeships as well as school learning. About 40 percent of students start vocational education after basic. This path ends with competence-based qualifications after the student completes an individual study plan. It's worth noting that students aren't locked into these paths. As part of Finland's devotion to education and decision-making, the two are permeable so students can discover new interests or create a path that threads between the two.
With your child exceling in upper secondary, you're probably worrying that your child's nest egg may not be sufficient for higher education. Not to worry. Higher education, like basic and upper secondary, is free. Remember, equal access to education is a constitutional right in Finland. Students are only required to pay for books, transportation, and other school supplies — and student financial aid is readily available.
Finnish colleges are divided into two types: universities and universities of applied sciences. Today just as people of any background, social class, and income level can gain equal access to information at libraries, they can do the same thing at universities.
Attitudes like these can lead to higher levels of crime, substance abuse, depression, and racial divides. While picking up important life skills, students can also read up on a range of subjects at the university library or take elective classes for everything from politics to pop culture, to gain a deeper understanding of the world.
They can study what they love without the fear of entering the workforce deep in debt. We and our partners use cookies to better understand your needs, improve performance and provide you with personalised content and advertisements. To allow us to provide a better and more tailored experience please click "OK". Sign Up. Travel Guides. Why stress them out? Finland provides three years of maternity leave and subsidized day care to parents, and preschool for all 5-year-olds, where the emphasis is on play and socializing.
In addition, the state subsidizes parents, paying them around euros per month for every child until he or she turns Ninety-seven percent of 6-year-olds attend public preschool, where children begin some academics.
Schools provide food, medical care, counseling and taxi service if needed. Even so, Rintola said her children arrived last August miles apart in reading and language levels. By April, nearly every child in the class was reading, and most were writing.
The national goal for the past five years has been to mainstream all children. There are exceptions, though, however rare. The wispy 7-year-old had recently arrived from Thailand speaking not a word of Finnish. It is designed to help children keep up with their subjects while they conquer the language. Rintola will teach the same children next year and possibly the next five years, depending on the needs of the school.
English begins in third grade, Swedish in fourth. By fifth grade the children have added biology, geography, history, physics and chemistry. Not until sixth grade will kids have the option to sit for a district-wide exam, and then only if the classroom teacher agrees to participate. Most do, out of curiosity. Results are not publicized. We know much more about the children than these tests can tell us.
I had come to Kirkkojarvi to see how the Finnish approach works with students who are not stereotypically blond, blue-eyed and Lutheran. They argue that the United States has little to learn from a country of only 5. Yet the Finns seem to be onto something. Neighboring Norway, a country of similar size, embraces education policies similar to those in the United States.
The year-old boxy school building sat in a wooded area, around the corner from a subway stop flanked by gas stations and convenience stores. Half of its first- through ninth-grade students have learning disabilities. All but the most severely impaired are mixed with the general education children, in keeping with Finnish policies.
Working in teams, the 7- and 8-year-olds raced to see how quickly they could carry out their tasks. They really learn with it. In the coming weeks there will be visits from New Zealand and Lithuania. Last month a school opened in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam based on the Finnish curriculum and pedagogical approach, with Finnish staff on the teaching team.
He is baffled when I try to explain that some state schools in England are so strapped for cash that they are asking parents for donations. There is just one fee-paying school in the country, the International School of Helsinki, which has mainly catered for international employees of Nokia and other industries. Otherwise, charging fees is illegal and parents are happy by and large to send their children to their local school.
In class children are listened to and respected, school lunches are free, detentions are rare and exclusions pretty much unheard of. We are responsible for these children and their lives.
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