March 1, 2013
WINNIPEG, MB, Mar. 1, 2013/ Troy Media/ ? Heavy public debate around a number of recent announcements ? including Bill 115 in Ontario, the possibility of merit pay in Alberta, and education funding increases in Manitoba ? indicates Canadians care deeply about the state of their schooling system.
Not surprisingly, of course, parents want their kids to acquire the skills they need to lead successful lives as they grow up. Yet, considering the importance of education, it is somewhat disappointing that we hear so little about how Canadian pupils fare when measured up against their international counterparts ? or what Canada can potentially learn from countries with the strongest students. And while Canadians might correctly assume most of the nations to beat are found in Asia, there is one northern outlier that may be especially worth examining.
Back in the 1970s Finland undertook a substantial overhaul of its education system to ensure it remained competitive in a changing global economy. Unlike other countries that focused on competition in education, however, the foremost emphasis of the new Finnish model was on equity: that every child had the same opportunity to learn, regardless of where they lived or their family situation. The school system was seen not as a way to produce star performers, but an instrument to reduce social inequality.
Officials believed a single approach would be ineffective for meeting the needs of the nation?s diverse communities. As such, they did not implement a top-down approach to education, but allow schools and teachers to choose how to utilize their time and resources as they see fit. With the exception of one matriculation exam that high school students write to qualify for post-secondary studies, they also eliminated standardized tests, preferring to give teachers the authority to design their own forms of assessment.
To cope with such responsibility and autonomy, Finnish teachers are highly qualified. All educators have a Master?s degree, and only about 10 per cent of applicants are accepted into the extremely competitive faculties of education. Because citizens recognize teachers play such a critical role in child development, these learned professionals are accorded as much respect as the country?s doctors.
None of this would be particularly remarkable, perhaps, were it not for the fact that the system the Finns created today produces some of the best students in the world. Finland has consistently been the top-rated Western nation on the world?s foremost educational test, the OECD?s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), since its inception in 2000.
Admittedly, a handful of Asian countries rank higher than Finland in mathematics, and Shanghai, China, is first across the board in math, science, and reading. Yet, recently, some Asian teachers have begun to lament the fact extracurricular activities like music and sports are pushed aside as children endure hours of exhaustive cramming and rote memorization. The result, according to these educators, is a student body good at writing exams, but that struggles to excel in other areas.
In contrast, Finns spend the least amount of time in the classroom of all OECD students ? just 640 hours a year between the ages of nine and 11, as opposed to the OECD average of 810 hours. Teachers also assign less homework, and strongly encourage extracurricular activities. Finland is thus in the enviable position of developing incredibly well-rounded pupils, who can nevertheless best almost all their international counterparts on scholastic tests.
Finnish officials view education as an investment in productivity. And due in no small part to their strong school system, the country has become one of the most specialized nations in telecommunications technology. What may be even more impressive, however, is just how well Finland has achieved its goal of educational equality. Finnish PISA scores are the most consistent across the country of all participating nations. No matter where they live, Finnish children can attend an excellent school. Thanks in part to this early equality of opportunity, the country?s poverty rate is just 3.4 per cent (versus Canada?s 13.6 per cent).
Certainly, Canadians should be proud of their own education system, which also holds up well when ranked internationally. Still, Finland continues to outperform us, and does so while actually spending about 13 per cent less per student than Canada does. As such, though we are different countries with separate cultures, perhaps there are lessons for Canada to learn from this successful Nordic state and its approach to education ? that focused on equity, but ended up with excellence.
Troy Media columnist Benjamin Gillies is a political economy graduate from the University of Manitoba, where he focused on urban development and energy policy. He works as a consultant in Winnipeg.
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Source: http://www.troymedia.com/2013/03/01/finland-can-teach-us-a-thing-or-two-about-quality-education/
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