do you get homework in finland

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What Finland is really doing to improve its acclaimed schools

Finland has been paid outsized attention in the education world since its students scored the highest among dozens of countries around the globe on an international test some 20 years ago.

And while it is no longer No. 1 — as the education sector was hurt in the 2008 recession, and budget cuts led to larger class sizes and fewer staff in schools — it is still regarded as one of the more successful systems in the world.

In an effort to improve, the Finnish government began taking some steps in recent years, and some of that reform has made for worldwide headlines. But as it turns out, some of that coverage just isn’t true.

A few years ago, for example, a change in curriculum sparked stories that Finland was giving up teaching traditional subjects. Nope .

You can find stories on the Internet saying Finnish kids don’t get any homework. Nope.

Even amid its difficulties, American author William Doyle, who lived there and sent his then-7-year-old son to a Finnish school, wrote in 2016 that they do a lot of things right:

What is Finland’s secret? A whole-child-centered, research-and-evidence based school system, run by highly professionalized teachers. These are global education best practices, not cultural quirks applicable only to Finland.

‘I have seen the school of tomorrow. It is here today, in Finland.’

Here is a piece looking at changes underway in Finnish schools by two people who know what is really going on. They are Pasi Sahlberg and Peter Johnson. Johnson is director of education of the Finnish city of Kokkola. Sahlberg is professor of education policy at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. He is one of the world’s leading experts on school reform and is the author of the best-selling “ Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn About Educational Change in Finland ?”

No, Finland isn’t ditching traditional school subjects. Here’s what’s really happening.

By Pasi Sahlberg and Peter Johnson

Finland has been in the spotlight of the education world since it appeared, against all odds, on the top of the rankings of an international test known as PISA , the Program for International Student Assessment, in the early 2000s. Tens of thousands visitors have traveled to the country to see how to improve their own schools. Hundreds of articles have been written to explain why Finnish education is so marvelous — or sometimes that it isn’t. Millions of tweets have been shared and read, often leading to debates about the real nature of Finland’s schools and about teaching and learning there.

We have learned a lot about why some education systems — such as Alberta, Ontario, Japan and Finland — perform better year after year than others in terms of quality and equity of student outcomes. We also understand now better why some other education systems — for example, England, Australia, the United States and Sweden — have not been able to improve their school systems regardless of politicians’ promises, large-scale reforms and truckloads of money spent on haphazard efforts to change schools during the past two decades.

Among these important lessons are:

• Education systems and schools shouldn’t be managed like business corporations where tough competition, measurement-based accountability and performance-determined pay are common principles. Instead, successful education systems rely on collaboration, trust, and collegial responsibility in and between schools.
• The teaching profession shouldn’t be perceived as a technical, temporary craft that anyone with a little guidance can do. Successful education systems rely on continuous professionalization of teaching and school leadership that requires advanced academic education, solid scientific and practical knowledge, and continuous on-the-job training.
• The quality of education shouldn’t be judged by the level of literacy and numeracy test scores alone. Successful education systems are designed to emphasize whole-child development, equity of education outcomes, well being, and arts, music, drama and physical education as important elements of curriculum.

Besides these useful lessons about how and why education systems work as they do, there are misunderstandings, incorrect interpretations, myths and even deliberate lies about how to best improve education systems. Because Finland has been such a popular target of searching for the key to the betterment of education, there are also many stories about Finnish schools that are not true.

Part of the reason reporting and research often fail to paint bigger and more accurate picture of the actual situation is that most of the documents and resources that describe and define the Finnish education system are only available in Finnish and Swedish. Most foreign education observers and commentators are therefore unable to follow the conversations and debates taking place in the country.

For example, only very few of those who actively comment on education in Finland have ever read Finnish education law , the national core curriculum or any of thousands of curricula designed by municipalities and schools that explain and describe what schools ought to do and why.

The other reason many efforts to report about Finnish education remain incomplete — and sometimes incorrect — is that education is seen as an isolated island disconnected from other sectors and public policies. It is wrong to believe that what children learn or don’t learn in school could be explained by looking at only schools and what they do alone.

Most efforts to explain why Finland’s schools are better than others or why they do worse today than before fail to see these interdependencies in Finnish society that are essential in understanding education as an ecosystem.

Here are some of those common myths about Finnish schools.

First, in recent years there have been claims that the Finnish secret to educational greatness is that children don’t have homework.

Another commonly held belief is that Finnish authorities have decided to scrap subjects from school curriculum and replace them by interdisciplinary projects or themes.

And a more recent notion is that all schools in Finland are required to follow a national curriculum and implement the same teaching method called “phenomenon-based learning” (that is elsewhere known as “project-based learning”).

All of these are false.

In 2014, Finnish state authorities revised the national core curriculum (NCC) for basic education. The core curriculum provides a common direction and basis for renewing school education and instruction. Only a very few international commentators of Finnish school reform have read this central document. Unfortunately, not many parents in Finland are familiar with it, either. Still, many people seem to have strong opinions about the direction Finnish schools are moving — the wrong way, they say, without really understanding the roles and responsibilities of schools and teachers in their communities.

Before making any judgments about what is great or wrong in Finland, it is important to understand the fundamentals of Finnish school system. Here are some basics.

First, education providers, most districts in 311 municipalities, draw up local curricula and annual work plans on the basis of the NCC. Schools though actually take the lead in curriculum planning under the supervision of municipal authorities.

Second, the NCC is a fairly loose regulatory document in terms of what schools should teach, how they arrange their work and the desired outcomes. Schools have, therefore, a lot of flexibility and autonomy in curriculum design, and there may be significant variation in school curricula from one place to another.

Finally, because of this decentralized nature of authority in Finnish education system, schools in Finland can have different profiles and practical arrangements making the curriculum model unique in the world. It is incorrect to make any general conclusions based on what one or two schools do.

Current school reform in Finland aims at those same overall goals that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development — which gives the PISA exams every three years to 15-year-olds in multiple countries — as well as governments and many students say are essential for them: to develop safe and collaborative school culture and to promote holistic approaches in teaching and learning. The NCC states that the specific aim at the school level is that children would:

• understand the relationship and interdependencies between different learning contents;
• be able to combine the knowledge and skills learned in different disciplines to form meaningful wholes; and
• be able to apply knowledge and use it in collaborative learning settings.

All schools in Finland are required to revise their curricula according to this new framework. Some schools have taken only small steps from where they were before, while some others went on with much bolder plans. One of those is the Pontus School in Lappeenranta, a city in the eastern part of Finland.

The Pontus School is a new primary school and kindergarten for some 550 children from ages 1 to 12. It was built three years ago to support the pedagogy and spirit of the 2014 NCC. The Pontus School was in international news recently when the Finnish Broadcasting Company reported that parents have filed complaints over the “failure” of the new school.

But according to Lappeenranta education authorities, there have been only two complaints by parents, both being handled by Regional Authorities. That’s all. It is not enough to call that a failure.

What we can learn from Finland, again, is that it is important to make sure parents, children and media better understand the nature of school reforms underway.

“Some parents are not familiar with what schools are doing,” said Anu Liljestrom, superintendent of the education department in Lappeenranta. “We still have a lot of work to do to explain what, how and why teaching methods are different nowadays,” she said to a local newspaper. The Pontus School is a new school, and it decided to use the opportunity provided by new design to change pedagogy and learning.

Ultimately, it is wrong to think that reading, writing and arithmetic will disappear in Finnish classrooms.

For most of the school year, teaching in Finnish schools will continue to be based on subject-based curricula, including at the Pontus School.

What is new is that now all schools are required to design at least one week-long project for all students that is interdisciplinary and based on students’ interests. Some schools do that better more often than others, and some succeed sooner than others.

Yes, there are challenges in implementing the new ideas. We have seen many schools succeed at creating new opportunities for students to learn knowledge and skills they need in their lives.

It is too early to tell whether Finland’s current direction in education meets all expectations. What we know is that schools in Finland should take even bolder steps to meet the needs of the future as described in national goals and international strategies. Collaboration among schools, trust in teachers and visionary leadership are those building blocks that will make all that possible.

20+ Cool Things to Know about the Finnish Education System

Finland’s education system fascinates most people interested in the best approaches to learning. Our schools are known for high-quality teaching and inclusive learning environments and aim to offer each student the same opportunities to succeed, whatever their background.

In this article, I will explore some of the features that have set the Finnish education system apart and what is so cool about it that people worldwide want to study it.

Table of Contents

What makes Finland’s education system successful?

What is the finnish approach to early childhood education, what is the finnish approach to education in comprehensive school, how long is the school day in finland, what is the typical school day like in finland, do finnish students really have little to no homework, what is the role of standardized testing in finnish education, how are students assessed in finland’s education system, what subjects are taught in finnish schools, what are the differences between finnish and american education systems, how do finnish schools accommodate students with special needs, is education free in finland, how are finnish schools funded, how much do finnish teachers get paid, teacher training in finland, what is the dropout rate in finland’s education system, what is the literacy rate in finland, why is finland’s education system considered one of the best in the world.

The idea that Finland’s education system outperforms many others in the world comes from excellent outcomes like success in the international PISA test.

In previous years, Finnish pupils and students have done remarkably well in these tests despite the lack of standardized testing in Finnish schools. At the same time, they enjoy more freedom and less homework than many of their counterparts.

This has been a subject of a lot of debate. Is the success because of well-trained and motivated teachers who are valued? Is it because of the national curriculum?

According to the World Economic Forum, Finland’s education system is the best in the world , at least partly because of

• No standardized testing
• Teacher training and requirements
• Making the basics a priority
• Starting age

You can dive deep into the topic as there are a number of books available and countless expert opinions you can explore. But these things are something most Finns can agree are good about the Finnish system.

One of the things many Finns remember from their early school years and kindergarten is playing outside.

Serious school work starts relatively late in Finland, and early childhood education (ECEC) focuses on the right to play, learn, and participate.

Children usually start their first school year at the age 7. They then continue to attend comprehensive school between the ages 7-16 through classes 1-9.

All municipalities in Finland offer preschool education, which consists of at least 700 hours of learning skills in creativity, language, and other areas that will help at school. There are no specific subjects or tests but different competence areas. 4 hours of preschool education a day is provided for free at kindergartens for every 5- and 6-year-old.

Learning at this level differs greatly from countries where school starts at ages 4-5. For example, in the UK, 6-year-olds take part in national curriculum assessments, while Finnish children don’t generally take part in national tests during comprehensive school.

In Finland, all children must receive comprehensive education, and this consists of years 1 to 9 of comprehensive school.

Recent changes now require students to also attend school until they either complete their secondary education like upper secondary school or vocational training in a vocational college, or turn 18, which ever comes first.

The vast majority of schools in Finland, including around 80 private schools, follow the national core curriculum. Pupils attend a local school in their assigned catchment area, and “school shopping” is harder and less common than in some other countries.

The purpose of basic education is “to enable pupils to evolve into humane and ethically responsible members of society as well as to provide them with the knowledge and skills needed in life”, according to the ministry of education and culture . Comprehensive school covers a total of 20 subjects, and learning some languages is also compulsory.

How does Finland’s education system compare to other countries?

In general, the Finnish education system stands out because of

• Master’s level teacher training
• More chances to play and take breaks
• Shorter school days and less homework
• No fees, free meals and free books

There are also downsides. Since students learn in the same groups regardless of being talented in a subject, some find there are no opportunities to make fast progress. It is often possible to attend a weighted-curriculum education emphasizing languages, maths, music, or arts, for example.

The same goes for children requiring more time or attention to help them learn. In many cases where the child has special needs, they can get a personal assistant.

The maximum length of a Finnish school day is determined by grade. For 1st and 2nd grade, when the children are 7 and 8 years old, they can have a maximum of five hours of school a day. From there on, the maximum is 7 hours a day, with a little extra allowed if they attend a class that follows a weighted curriculum.

There are also guidelines for the minimum amount of teaching each student has the right to receive weekly.

Each lesson consists of around 45 minutes of teaching. There are breaks between learning, but they can have different lengths. 15-minutes between lessons is common, and the lunch break is at least 30 minutes long.

For your 15-minute break, you always head outdoors – unless it’s -15 degrees Celsius or colder. I have fond memories throughout the primary school of how fun the breaks were. Playing outdoor games or soccer until the bell rang.

A typical school day usually starts sometime between 8 am and 9 am. After some lessons and a few short breaks, a free lunch is served, usually between 11 and 12. Lunch breaks are usually long enough for the children to play outside after lunch.

Lessons continue into the afternoon before it’s time to go home. Cities provide after-school activities for young pupils.

If you live far away from your school, the school provides you with free bus or group taxi rides that take you closer to home.

Despite what you might have heard, Finnish pupils get homework.

It may be a little less than in some countries, with some studies citing an average of 30 minutes of homework a day. Since the days are relatively short, there is plenty of time to get it done before hobbies and play.

Finnish students usually take their first standardized test, the matriculation examination, at 18 and only if they attended an upper secondary school and in their chosen topics.

Together with subject-specific entrance examinations, the results from this examination are used to apply to study a University degree.

That doesn’t mean that pupils have no tests, though.

Since the schools follow the national core curriculum, students have regular tests and exams based on learning goals.

Students get grades on each subject they study based on their performance throughout the year from 4th grade onward. For the youngest pupils, the teacher usually writes notes on how they did at regular intervals.

At the end of year 9, students get a final grade for each subject they studied. These grades are used to apply to upper secondary schools and vocational training.

All pupils in Finland study

• Finnish or Swedish (mother tongue and literature)
• The other national language (Swedish or Finnish)
• At least one other foreign language
• Environmental studies
• Health education and physical education
• Religion or ethics, history, and social studies
• Mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, and geography
• Music, visual arts, crafts, and home economics

These differences are often mentioned about Finland:

• Finns start school at age 7
• Less homework and shorter school days
• Goal of testing is to see if the child needs help with learning, not comparisons
• No great differences between schools
• Schools are publicly funded and free to attend
• Schools follow the national core curriculum
• Books and free lunch provided

Some other differences that might be interesting include that teacher requirements in the US vary from state to state. In contrast, Finnish teachers need a specific Master’s degree and most people value the profession. Only 34% of US teachers feel the general public values their profession.

How does Finland’s education system promote equity and equality?

Finland’s education system is based on the idea that everyone should be able to have a basic level of skills and learning regardless of their background.

That’s why schools are publicly funded, and students get books, free school meals, and, in some cases, even devices they might need for their studies. Finnish schools don’t have school uniforms.

There are guidelines for what the schools and cities need to provide to help children with special needs, but each case is assessed based on the circumstances. The aim is to provide support while the child attends normal classes. Different levels of support can be arranged depending on what the situation calls for.

Primary education is free in Finland. Higher education is also free, but students have to do well in the matriculation examination and often take an entrance examination to be accepted to study for a degree. Students from outside the EU have to pay fees for higher education programmes.

Finnish schools are publicly funded through the government, municipalities, and the European Union (mostly higher education).

What is the role of teachers in Finland’s education system?

Finnish teachers are valued professionals with Master’s degrees and meet the requirements to teach their subjects. The degree focuses on skills for independent problem-solving.

Teachers design the classes they teach according to the national core curriculum. Their role is to support and advance the development, learning, and skills of children and young people.

The average salary of a teacher in Finland ranges from 3680 to 4090 € depending on what grades they teach. The number of years they have worked affects how much they are paid, and 10% make 2990 € or less a month.

Most teachers in Finland have long paid vacation times: 14 weeks annually.

There are two routes to becoming a teacher in Finland. You can start studying the subject matter at University and add pedagogical studies to become qualified to teach that specific subject or you can apply directly to study to become a subject teacher.

The same Master’s level education is required to become a classroom teacher for a comprehensive school. To teach at the preschool level, teachers must have a bachelor’s degree in educational science.

Finland’s education system became well known after success in the PISA surveys from 2000 onward. While the results have declined since then – some say partly due to challenges like digitalization which takes some time to adapt to – there are still many positive outcomes worth pointing out.

For comprehensive school, the number is below 1% compared to 25% in the US.

Finland’s literacy rate has been 100% for over 15-year-olds. Finland has also been ranked as the most literate nation in the world.

Do you have more questions about Finland’s education system? I will answer them in the comments!

Here are some other facts about Finland that you might find interesting:

Finnish Culture: Discovering Everything You Need to Know

50 Cool Things Finland is Known for

Moving to Finland: Living in the 20 Largest Cities

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About Varpu I’m the founder of Her Finland. I love cultural tidbits, aha moments, Finnish folklore, and cinnamon buns. My newest interest is learning bird songs. Read more about me..

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Saturday 15th of July 2023

Congratulations, Varpu! I'm excited for you, and I know your students will be lucky to have you as a teacher. It makes sense that the frequent and lengthy breaks outside would be conducive to learning - our brains need relaxation time in order to really absorb new information. Sadly, here in the U.S., our students don't get as many or as lengthy breaks, especially in areas where principals/administrators are afraid long breaks might give students time to start fights or misbehaving. I think our students' brains might be a little stressed out.

I'm a science teacher myself, having taught science in elementary school, middle school, and high school (biology), and I have a master's degree. I was wondering whether my degree would transfer over there. However, I am more interested in teaching younger kids these days, and I'm working on my multiple subject credential, as well as taking early childhood education (ECE) classes. Do you think the Finnish government would accept this kind of training from the U.S.? I would love to know your opinion!

Wednesday 12th of July 2023

I know several Finnish teachers and every one one of them were of good reputation and wanted the best for their students.Here in the United states,many states have looked at the Finnish school model,but I can bet the teachers union would not go along with it.

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10 reasons why Finland's education system is the best in the world

From tests to teachers, here are 10 reasons why Finland’s education system is dominating America and the world stage. Image:  REUTERS/Attila Cser

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Time and time again, American students continually rank near the middle or bottom among industrialized nations when it comes to performance in math and science. The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) which in conjunction with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) routinely releases data which shows that Americans are seriously lagging behind in a number of educational performance assessments.

Despite calls for education reform and a continual lackluster performance on the international scale, not a lot is being done or changing within the educational system. Many private and public schools run on the same antiquated systems and schedules that were once conducive to an agrarian society. The mechanization and rigid assembly-line methods we use today are spitting out ill-prepared worker clones, rudderless adults and an uninformed populace.

But no amount of pontificating will change what we already know. The American education system needs to be completely revamped – from the first grade to the Ph.D. It’s going to take a lot more than a well-meaning celebrity project to do that…

Many people are familiar with the stereotype of the hard-working, rote memorization, myopic tunnel vision of Eastern Asian study and work ethics. Many of these countries, like China, Singapore, and Japan amongst others routinely rank in the number one spots in both math and science.

Some pundits point towards this model of exhaustive brain draining as something Americans should aspire to become. Work more! Study harder! Live less. The facts and figures don’t lie – these countries are outperforming us, but there might be a better and healthier way to go about this.

Finland is the answer – a country rich in intellectual and educational reform has initiated over the years a number of novel and simple changes that have completely revolutionized their educational system. They outrank the United States and are gaining on Eastern Asian countries.

Are they cramming in dimly-lit rooms on robotic schedules? Nope. Stressing over standardized tests enacted by the government? No way. Finland is leading the way because of common-sense practices and a holistic teaching environment that strives for equity over excellence. Here are 10 reasons why Finland’s education system is dominating America and the world stage.

No standardized testing

Staying in line with our print-minded sensibilities, standardized testing is the blanket way we test for subject comprehension. Filling in little bubbles on a scantron and answering pre-canned questions is somehow supposed to be a way to determine mastery or at least competence of a subject. What often happens is that students will learn to cram just to pass a test and teachers will be teaching with the sole purpose of students passing a test. Learning has been thrown out of the equation.

Finland has no standardized tests. Their only exception is something called the National Matriculation Exam, which is a voluntary test for students at the end of an upper-secondary school (equivalent to an American high school.) All children throughout Finland are graded on an individualized basis and grading system set by their teacher. Tracking overall progress is done by the Ministry of Education, which samples groups across different ranges of schools.

Accountability for teachers (not required)

A lot of the blame goes to the teachers and rightfully so sometimes. But in Finland, the bar is set so high for teachers, that there is often no reason to have a rigorous “grading” system for teachers. Pasi Sahlberg, director of the Finnish Ministry of Education and writer of Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland? Said that following about teachers’ accountability:

"There's no word for accountability in Finnish… Accountability is something that is left when responsibility has been subtracted."

All teachers are required to have a master’s degree before entering the profession. Teaching programs are the most rigorous and selective professional schools in the entire country. If a teacher isn’t performing well, it’s the individual principal's responsibility to do something about it.

The concept of the pupil-teacher dynamic that was once the master to apprentice cannot be distilled down to a few bureaucratic checks and standardized testing measures. It needs to be dealt with on an individual basis.

Cooperation not competition

While most Americans and other countries see the educational system as one big Darwinian competition, the Finns see it differently. Sahlberg quotes a line from a writer named Samuli Paronen which says that:

“Real winners do not compete.”

Ironically, this attitude has put them at the head of the international pack. Finland’s educational system doesn’t worry about artificial or arbitrary merit-based systems. There are no lists of top performing schools or teachers. It’s not an environment of competition – instead, cooperation is the norm.

Make the basics a priority

Many school systems are so concerned with increasing test scores and comprehension in math and science, they tend to forget what constitutes a happy, harmonious and healthy student and learning environment. Many years ago, the Finnish school system was in need of some serious reforms.

The program that Finland put together focused on returning back to the basics. It wasn’t about dominating with excellent marks or upping the ante. Instead, they looked to make the school environment a more equitable place.

Since the 1980s, Finnish educators have focused on making these basics a priority:

• Education should be an instrument to balance out social inequality.
• All students receive free school meals.
• Ease of access to health care.
• Psychological counseling
• Individualised guidance

Beginning with the individual in a collective environment of equality is Finland’s way.

Starting school at an older age

Here the Finns again start by changing very minute details. Students start school when they are seven years old. They’re given free reign in the developing childhood years to not be chained to compulsory education. It’s simply just a way to let a kid be a kid.

There are only 9 years of compulsory school that Finnish children are required to attend. Everything past the ninth grade or at the age of 16 is optional.

Just from a psychological standpoint, this is a freeing ideal. Although it may anecdotal, many students really feel like they’re stuck in a prison. Finland alleviates this forced ideal and instead opts to prepare its children for the real world.

Providing professional options past a traditional college degree

The current pipeline for education in America is incredibly stagnant and immutable. Children are stuck in the K-12 circuit jumping from teacher to teacher. Each grade a preparation for the next, all ending in the grand culmination of college, which then prepares you for the next grand thing on the conveyor belt. Many students don’t need to go to college and get a worthless degree or flounder about trying to find purpose and incur massive debt.

Finland solves this dilemma by offering options that are equally advantageous for the student continuing their education. There is a lesser focused dichotomy of college-educated versus trade-school or working class. Both can be equally professional and fulfilling for a career.

In Finland, there is the Upper Secondary School which is a three-year program that prepares students for the Matriculation Test that determines their acceptance into a University. This is usually based off of specialties they’ve acquired during their time in “high-school”

Next, there is vocational education, which is a three-year program that trains students for various careers. They have the option to take the Matriculation test if they want to then apply to University.

Have you read?

Finland has the most effective universities in the world, finland has one of the world's best education systems. here's how it compares to the us, how equal are the world’s education systems, finns wake up later for less strenuous schooldays.

Waking up early, catching a bus or ride, participating in morning and after school extracurriculars are huge time sinks for a student. Add to the fact that some classes start anywhere from 6am to 8am and you’ve got sleepy, uninspired adolescents on your hands.

Students in Finland usually start school anywhere from 9:00 – 9:45 AM. Research has shown that early start times are detrimental to students’ well-being, health, and maturation. Finnish schools start the day later and usually end by 2:00 – 2:45 AM. They have longer class periods and much longer breaks in between. The overall system isn’t there to ram and cram information to their students, but to create an environment of holistic learning.

Consistent instruction from the same teachers

There are fewer teachers and students in Finnish schools. You can’t expect to teach an auditorium of invisible faces and breakthrough to them on an individual level. Students in Finland often have the same teacher for up to six years of their education. During this time, the teacher can take on the role of a mentor or even a family member. During those years, mutual trust and bonding are built so that both parties know and respect each other.

Different needs and learning styles vary on an individual basis. Finnish teachers can account for this because they’ve figured out the student’s own idiosyncratic needs. They can accurately chart and care for their progress and help them reach their goals. There is no passing along to the next teacher because there isn’t one.

A more relaxed atmosphere

There is a general trend in what Finland is doing with its schools. Less stress, less unneeded regimentation and more caring. Students usually only have a couple of classes a day. They have several times to eat their food, enjoy recreational activities and generally just relax. Spread throughout the day are 15 to 20-minute intervals where the kids can get up and stretch, grab some fresh air and decompress. This type of environment is also needed by the teachers. Teacher rooms are set up all over Finnish schools, where they can lounge about and relax, prepare for the day or just simply socialize. Teachers are people too and need to be functional so they can operate at the best of their abilities.

Less homework and outside work required

According to the OECD, students in Finland have the least amount of outside work and homework than any other student in the world. They spend only half an hour a night working on stuff from school. Finnish students also don’t have tutors. Yet they’re outperforming cultures that have toxic school-to-life balances without the unneeded or unnecessary stress.

Finnish students are getting everything they need to get done in school without the added pressures that come with excelling at a subject. Without having to worry about grades and busy-work they are able to focus on the true task at hand – learning and growing as a human being.

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Why Are Finland’s Schools Successful?

The country’s achievements in education have other nations, especially the United States, doing their homework

LynNell Hancock

Photographs by Stuart Conway

It was the end of term at Kirkkojarvi Comprehensive School in Espoo, a sprawling suburb west of Helsinki, when Kari Louhivuori, a veteran teacher and the school’s principal, decided to try something extreme—by Finnish standards. One of his sixth-grade students, a Kosovo-Albanian boy, had drifted far off the learning grid, resisting his teacher’s best efforts. The school’s team of special educators—including a social worker, a nurse and a psychologist—convinced Louhivuori that laziness was not to blame. So he decided to hold the boy back a year, a measure so rare in Finland it’s practically obsolete.

Finland has vastly improved in reading, math and science literacy over the past decade in large part because its teachers are trusted to do whatever it takes to turn young lives around. This 13-year-old, Besart Kabashi, received something akin to royal tutoring.

“I took Besart on that year as my private student,” Louhivuori told me in his office, which boasted a Beatles “Yellow Submarine” poster on the wall and an electric guitar in the closet. When Besart was not studying science, geography and math, he was parked next to Louhivuori’s desk at the front of his class of 9- and 10-year- olds, cracking open books from a tall stack, slowly reading one, then another, then devouring them by the dozens. By the end of the year, the son of Kosovo war refugees had conquered his adopted country’s vowel-rich language and arrived at the realization that he could, in fact, learn .

Years later, a 20-year-old Besart showed up at Kirkkojarvi’s Christmas party with a bottle of Cognac and a big grin. “You helped me,” he told his former teacher. Besart had opened his own car repair firm and a cleaning company. “No big fuss,” Louhivuori told me. “This is what we do every day, prepare kids for life.”

This tale of a single rescued child hints at some of the reasons for the tiny Nordic nation’s staggering record of education success, a phenomenon that has inspired, baffled and even irked many of America’s parents and educators. Finnish schooling became an unlikely hot topic after the 2010 documentary film Waiting for “Superman” contrasted it with America’s troubled public schools.

“Whatever it takes” is an attitude that drives not just Kirkkojarvi’s 30 teachers, but most of Finland’s 62,000 educators in 3,500 schools from Lapland to Turku—professionals selected from the top 10 percent of the nation’s graduates to earn a required master’s degree in education. Many schools are small enough so that teachers know every student. If one method fails, teachers consult with colleagues to try something else. They seem to relish the challenges. Nearly 30 percent of Finland’s children receive some kind of special help during their first nine years of school. The school where Louhivuori teaches served 240 first through ninth graders last year; and in contrast with Finland’s reputation for ethnic homogeneity, more than half of its 150 elementary-level students are immigrants—from Somalia, Iraq, Russia, Bangladesh, Estonia and Ethiopia, among other nations. “Children from wealthy families with lots of education can be taught by stupid teachers,” Louhivuori said, smiling. “We try to catch the weak students. It’s deep in our thinking.”

The transformation of the Finns’ education system began some 40 years ago as the key propellent of the country’s economic recovery plan. Educators had little idea it was so successful until 2000, when the first results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a standardized test given to 15-year-olds in more than 40 global venues, revealed Finnish youth to be the best young readers in the world. Three years later, they led in math. By 2006, Finland was first out of 57 countries (and a few cities) in science. In the 2009 PISA scores released last year, the nation came in second in science, third in reading and sixth in math among nearly half a million students worldwide. “I’m still surprised,” said Arjariita Heikkinen, principal of a Helsinki comprehensive school. “I didn’t realize we were that good.”

In the United States, which has muddled along in the middle for the past decade, government officials have attempted to introduce marketplace competition into public schools. In recent years, a group of Wall Street financiers and philanthropists such as Bill Gates have put money behind private-sector ideas, such as vouchers, data-driven curriculum and charter schools, which have doubled in number in the past decade. President Obama, too, has apparently bet on compe­tition. His Race to the Top initiative invites states to compete for federal dollars using tests and other methods to measure teachers, a philosophy that would not fly in Finland. “I think, in fact, teachers would tear off their shirts,” said Timo Heikkinen, a Helsinki principal with 24 years of teaching experience. “If you only measure the statistics, you miss the human aspect.”

There are no mandated standardized tests in Finland, apart from one exam at the end of students’ senior year in high school. There are no rankings, no comparisons or competition between students, schools or regions. Finland’s schools are publicly funded. The people in the government agencies running them, from national officials to local authorities, are educators, not business people, military leaders or career politicians. Every school has the same national goals and draws from the same pool of university-trained educators. The result is that a Finnish child has a good shot at getting the same quality education no matter whether he or she lives in a rural village or a university town. The differences between weakest and strongest students are the smallest in the world, according to the most recent survey by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). “Equality is the most important word in Finnish education. All political parties on the right and left agree on this,” said Olli Luukkainen, president of Finland’s powerful teachers union.

Ninety-three percent of Finns graduate from academic or vocational high schools, 17.5 percentage points higher than the United States, and 66 percent go on to higher education, the highest rate in the European Union. Yet Finland spends about 30 percent less per student than the United States.

Still, there is a distinct absence of chest-thumping among the famously reticent Finns. They are eager to celebrate their recent world hockey championship, but PISA scores, not so much. “We prepare children to learn how to learn, not how to take a test,” said Pasi Sahlberg, a former math and physics teacher who is now in Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture. “We are not much interested in PISA. It’s not what we are about.”

Maija Rintola stood before her chattering class of twenty-three 7- and 8-year-olds one late April day in Kirkkojarven Koulu. A tangle of multicolored threads topped her copper hair like a painted wig. The 20-year teacher was trying out her look for Vappu, the day teachers and children come to school in riotous costumes to celebrate May Day. The morning sun poured through the slate and lemon linen shades onto containers of Easter grass growing on the wooden sills. Rintola smiled and held up her open hand at a slant—her time-tested “silent giraffe,” which signaled the kids to be quiet. Little hats, coats, shoes stowed in their cubbies, the children wiggled next to their desks in their stocking feet, waiting for a turn to tell their tale from the playground. They had just returned from their regular 15 minutes of playtime outdoors between lessons. “Play is important at this age,” Rintola would later say. “We value play.”

With their wiggles unwound, the students took from their desks little bags of buttons, beans and laminated cards numbered 1 through 20. A teacher’s aide passed around yellow strips representing units of ten. At a smart board at the front of the room, Rintola ushered the class through the principles of base ten. One girl wore cat ears on her head, for no apparent reason. Another kept a stuffed mouse on her desk to remind her of home. Rintola roamed the room helping each child grasp the concepts. Those who finished early played an advanced “nut puzzle” game. After 40 minutes it was time for a hot lunch in the cathedral-like cafeteria.

Teachers in Finland spend fewer hours at school each day and spend less time in classrooms than American teachers. Teachers use the extra time to build curriculums and assess their students. Children spend far more time playing outside, even in the depths of winter. Homework is minimal. Compulsory schooling does not begin until age 7. “We have no hurry,” said Louhivuori. “Children learn better when they are ready. Why stress them out?”

It’s almost unheard of for a child to show up hungry or homeless. 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 150 euros per month for every child until he or she turns 17. 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. Stu­dent health care is free.

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. Boys had been coaxed into literature with books like Kapteeni Kalsarin (“Captain Underpants”). The school’s special education teacher teamed up with Rintola to teach five children with a variety of behavioral and learning problems. The national goal for the past five years has been to mainstream all children. The only time Rintola’s children are pulled out is for Finnish as a Second Language classes, taught by a teacher with 30 years’ experience and graduate school training.

There are exceptions, though, however rare. One first-grade girl was not in Rintola’s class. The wispy 7-year-old had recently arrived from Thailand speaking not a word of Finnish. She was studying math down the hall in a special “preparing class” taught by an expert in multicultural learning. It is designed to help children keep up with their subjects while they conquer the language. Kirkkojarvi’s teachers have learned to deal with their unusually large number of immigrant students. The city of Espoo helps them out with an extra 82,000 euros a year in “positive discrimination” funds to pay for things like special resource teachers, counselors and six special needs classes.

Rintola will teach the same children next year and possibly the next five years, depending on the needs of the school. “It’s a good system. I can make strong connections with the children,” said Rintola, who was handpicked by Louhivuori 20 years ago. “I understand who they are.” Besides Finnish, math and science, the first graders take music, art, sports, religion and textile handcrafts. 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. Finnish educators have a hard time understanding the United States’ fascination with standardized tests. “Americans like all these bars and graphs and colored charts,” Louhivuori teased, as he rummaged through his closet looking for past years’ results. “Looks like we did better than average two years ago,” he said after he found the reports. “It’s nonsense. 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. But I wondered if Kirkkojarvi’s success against the odds might be a fluke. Some of the more vocal conservative reformers in America have grown weary of the “We-Love-Finland crowd” or so-called Finnish Envy. They argue that the United States has little to learn from a country of only 5.4 million people—4 percent of them foreign born. 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. It employs standardized exams and teachers without master’s degrees. And like America, Norway’s PISA scores have been stalled in the middle ranges for the better part of a decade.

To get a second sampling, I headed east from Espoo to Helsinki and a rough neighborhood called Siilitie, Finnish for “Hedgehog Road” and known for having the oldest low-income housing project in Finland. The 50-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 200 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.

A class of first graders scampered among nearby pine and birch trees, each holding a stack of the teacher’s homemade laminated “outdoor math” cards. “Find a stick as big as your foot,” one read. “Gather 50 rocks and acorns and lay them out in groups of ten,” read another. Working in teams, the 7- and 8-year-olds raced to see how quickly they could carry out their tasks. Aleksi Gustafsson, whose master’s degree is from Helsinki University, developed the exercise after attending one of the many workshops available free to teachers. “I did research on how useful this is for kids,” he said. “It’s fun for the children to work outside. They really learn with it.”

Gustafsson’s sister, Nana Germeroth, teaches a class of mostly learning-impaired children; Gustafsson’s students have no learning or behavioral issues. The two combined most of their classes this year to mix their ideas and abilities along with the children’s varying levels. “We know each other really well,” said Germeroth, who is ten years older. “I know what Aleksi is thinking.”

The school receives 47,000 euros a year in positive discrimination money to hire aides and special education teachers, who are paid slightly higher salaries than classroom teachers because of their required sixth year of university training and the demands of their jobs. There is one teacher (or assistant) in Siilitie for every seven students.

In another classroom, two special education teachers had come up with a different kind of team teaching. Last year, Kaisa Summa, a teacher with five years’ experience, was having trouble keeping a gaggle of first-grade boys under control. She had looked longingly into Paivi Kangasvieri’s quiet second-grade room next door, wondering what secrets the 25-year-veteran colleague could share. Each had students of wide-ranging abilities and special needs. Summa asked Kangasvieri if they might combine gymnastics classes in hopes good behavior might be contagious. It worked. This year, the two decided to merge for 16 hours a week. “We complement each other,” said Kangasvieri, who describes herself as a calm and firm “father” to Summa’s warm mothering. “It is cooperative teaching at its best,” she says.

Every so often, principal Arjariita Heikkinen told me, the Helsinki district tries to close the school because the surrounding area has fewer and fewer children, only to have people in the community rise up to save it. After all, nearly 100 percent of the school’s ninth graders go on to high schools. Even many of the most severely disabled will find a place in Finland’s expanded system of vocational high schools, which are attended by 43 percent of Finnish high-school students, who prepare to work in restaurants, hospitals, construction sites and offices. “We help situate them in the right high school,” said then deputy principal Anne Roselius. “We are interested in what will become of them in life.”

Finland’s schools were not always a wonder. Until the late 1960s, Finns were still emerging from the cocoon of Soviet influence. Most children left public school after six years. (The rest went to private schools, academic grammar schools or folk schools, which tended to be less rigorous.) Only the privileged or lucky got a quality education.

The landscape changed when Finland began trying to remold its bloody, fractured past into a unified future. For hundreds of years, these fiercely independent people had been wedged between two rival powers—the Swedish monarchy to the west and the Russian czar to the east. Neither Scandinavian nor Baltic, Finns were proud of their Nordic roots and a unique language only they could love (or pronounce). In 1809, Finland was ceded to Russia by the Swedes, who had ruled its people some 600 years. The czar created the Grand Duchy of Finland, a quasi-state with constitutional ties to the empire. He moved the capital from Turku, near Stockholm, to Helsinki, closer to St. Petersburg. After the czar fell to the Bolsheviks in 1917, Finland declared its independence, pitching the country into civil war. Three more wars between 1939 and 1945—two with the Soviets, one with Germany—left the country scarred by bitter divisions and a punishing debt owed to the Russians. “Still we managed to keep our freedom,” said Pasi Sahlberg, a director general in the Ministry of Education and Culture.

In 1963, the Finnish Parliament made the bold decision to choose public education as its best shot at economic recovery. “I call this the Big Dream of Finnish education,” said Sahlberg, whose upcoming book,  Finnish Lessons , is scheduled for release in October. “It was simply the idea that every child would have a very good public school. If we want to be competitive, we need to educate everybody. It all came out of a need to survive."

Practically speaking—and Finns are nothing if not practical—the decision meant that goal would not be allowed to dissipate into rhetoric. Lawmakers landed on a deceptively simple plan that formed the foundation for everything to come. Public schools would be organized into one system of comprehensive schools, or  peruskoulu , for ages 7 through 16. Teachers from all over the nation contributed to a national curriculum that provided guidelines, not prescriptions. Besides Finnish and Swedish (the country’s second official language), children would learn a third language (English is a favorite) usually beginning at age 9. Resources were distributed equally. As the comprehensive schools improved, so did the upper secondary schools (grades 10 through 12). The second critical decision came in 1979, when reformers required that every teacher earn a fifth-year master’s degree in theory and practice at one of eight state universities—at state expense. From then on, teachers were effectively granted equal status with doctors and lawyers. Applicants began flooding teaching programs, not because the salaries were so high but because autonomy and respect made the job attractive. In 2010, some 6,600 applicants vied for 660 primary school training slots, according to Sahlberg. By the mid-1980s, a final set of initiatives shook the classrooms free from the last vestiges of top-down regulation. Control over policies shifted to town councils. The national curriculum was distilled into broad guidelines. National math goals for grades one through nine, for example, were reduced to a neat ten pages. Sifting and sorting children into so-called ability groupings was eliminated. All children—clever or less so—were to be taught in the same classrooms, with lots of special teacher help available to make sure no child really would be left behind. The inspectorate closed its doors in the early ’90s, turning accountability and inspection over to teachers and principals. “We have our own motivation to succeed because we love the work,” said Louhivuori. “Our incentives come from inside.”

To be sure, it was only in the past decade that Finland’s international science scores rose. In fact, the country’s earliest efforts could be called somewhat Stalinistic. The first national curriculum, developed in the early ’70s, weighed in at 700 stultifying pages. Timo Heikkinen, who began teaching in Finland’s public schools in 1980 and is now principal of Kallahti Comprehensive School in eastern Helsinki, remembers when most of his high-school teachers sat at their desks dictating to the open notebooks of compliant children.

And there are still challenges. Finland’s crippling financial collapse in the early ’90s brought fresh economic challenges to this “confident and assertive Eurostate,” as David Kirby calls it in  A Concise History of Finland . At the same time, immigrants poured into the country, clustering in low-income housing projects and placing added strain on schools. A recent report by the Academy of Finland warned that some schools in the country’s large cities were becoming more skewed by race and class as affluent, white Finns choose schools with fewer poor, immigrant populations.

A few years ago, Kallahti principal Timo Heikkinen began noticing that, increasingly, affluent Finnish parents, perhaps worried about the rising number of Somali children at Kallahti, began sending their children to one of two other schools nearby. In response, Heikkinen and his teachers designed new environmental science courses that take advantage of the school’s proximity to the forest. And a new biology lab with 3-D technology allows older students to observe blood flowing inside the human body.

It has yet to catch on, Heikkinen admits. Then he added: “But we are always looking for ways to improve.”

In other words, whatever it takes.

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LynNell Hancock | READ MORE

LynNell Hancock writes about education and teaches at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

Stuart Conway | READ MORE

Stuart Conway is a photographer based in southeast England.

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Demystifying the Finnish Education System, Part I: No Tests or Homework?

By Maya Kaul in finland October 31, 2017

When I asked a classroom full of Finnish 9th grade students how much homework they traditionally get every night earlier this month, they literally laughed at me.

Around the world, there are rumors about the non-existence of homework in Finland, but I assumed this had been exaggerated, at least to some degree. The 9th grade students I was with had been speaking candidly with me about their educational experiences though, so I thought they might give me the truth. I had just shown the Finnish students a video about many American high school students spending three or more hours on homework a night, so I assumed they would tell me they had less homework than a lot of American students–but  none? 

Earlier this month, I had the chance to spend a day at the Finnish Upper Secondary School, Karjaan Lukio. I was invited to give a talk in the afternoon to the full school on the topics in American history/culture, and in the morning I did a workshop with a combined group of 9th grade English and History classes on the topic: “A Day in the Life of an American Student.” As I reflected back on my own experience as a 9th grade student in the Bay Area, I thought it might be interesting to talk with them to identify what the primary similarities and differences were between our experiences.

After sharing some stories of my own high school experience with them and showing them a video about the pressure the American system can put on students to achieve, the class broke up into smaller groups to talk about what surprised them about the video, and what they identified as different in the Finnish system. Immediately, one of the students who was visiting on an exchange from the US proclaimed that she never wants to go back to the US system. “I started having all of these health issues,” she said, “without realizing that they all had to do to the stress I was experiencing due to school.”

Another group of students reflected, “In Finland, we don’t have to do anything if we don’t want to, and we still graduate (of course, you don’t get a good education [if you don’t do work]), but in America you have to do A LOT of work no matter what.” This is something that has consistently surprised me since being in Finland: students are truly given more ownership on their learning, for better or worse.

I also spoke with a Chemistry teacher at the school after observing her flipped-classroom model earlier during the day. Accordingly, much of her classroom time is devoted towards students working with each other to complete assignments at their own pace on their computers. She showed me a Google Sheet with each of her students’ names and various colored boxes next to each of them. She explained that each line of the document had some concept her students were learning written down, and the colors were entered by the students to express their self-perceived mastery of each given concept. When she saw a student who needed help, she would go to them in class to offer them one-on-one help.

“So, are the students typically pretty honest about assessing their level of understanding?,” I asked, intrigued by the model. She and the teachers in the Teachers’ Lounge laughed. “Well, if they aren’t, it’s not my problem,” she proclaimed. After observing the commitment she had towards her students in and out of the classroom that day, I understood that this statement was not coming from a place of apathy, but rather the expectation that students that want to learn can and will take ownership over their learning.

I imagined what my high school Chemistry class might have looked like under this model, but had a hard time doing so. Even when I was excited about the material, most of the accountability for retaining the material came down to my desire to perform well on the tests and other assessments in the class. Even beyond just wanting to receive a good grade in the class, I always understood tests or essays as the only real proxies that mattered for knowing how well I understood material. So I asked the teacher how frequently she gives her students tests, again suspicious of what I had heard about Finnish students not being tested, and curious how she held her students’ accountable for their self-assessments.

Again, she surprised me: No tests. Just some online quizzes, that the students scored and reported themselves. No tests, no homework–perhaps the rumors about the Finnish system were true after all?

Later that afternoon, before my presentation to the school, the German/English teacher who had invited me to the school gave me a tour of the campus. I had mentioned to him that I had included some stories about the SAT/ACT in my presentation and some of the prevailing criticisms of their model, and he told me that it sounded quite similar to the Matriculation exam in Finland–their version of the high school final exam/college entrance exam. As we walked around the school, he showed me what had become a sort of testing room. “This must be similar to how you take tests in America, too, right?,” he said as we looked into the room.

It was not what I was expecting. After hearing all day about the lack of testing and stress at the school, and observing less structured classroom set-ups in both of the schools I had seen in Finland thus far (i.e. more grouped tables, less lined-up desks), what I saw in that auditorium surprised me. I had just been reading about the non-traditional, open-plan schools in Finland had been experimenting with  so I was not expecting to see such a traditional classroom layout in this space.

As we talked more about the matriculation test, the teacher shared how stressful of an experience it can be for students. A students’ performance on this exam is critical in their college application process, and which majors they qualify for.

Granted, this is the  only national test in Finland, whereas a recent study found that the average student in the US takes 112 mandated tests between kindergarten and 12th grade. So, the existence of this one test is hardly sufficient to scrap claims that the Finnish education system places less value on testing than systems such as the US. However, it is important to recognize that even this system renowned for their lack of stress and testing is not completely lacking of these features. The question from here becomes: Is Finland facing pressure to shift to a more test-based model of education, or is the matriculation exam the exception to the rule? My experiences so far seem to point to the latter explanation, but it will be interesting to see how the system changes over time.

All of this is to say that there is a lot more to be learned from speaking directly with those who have experienced the Finnish education system than is possible to glean from the myriad of think pieces written idolizing the Finnish system. There are a number of other topics I hope to dig deeper while here, outside of my specific research projects. One of the questions I have been most interested in since I learned about the dynamics of the Finnish system is: How equal is the system, really? Based on my conversations with parents, students, and researchers in Finland, the answer seems to be: Not as equal as we are led to thought.  I am still learning more, and hearing more perspectives on the matter, but the consensus so far seems to be that Finland largely lacks a political vocabulary for  race (and instead insists on notions of “multiculturalism”). The very topic of racism, in or outside of the school system, is extremely taboo, so this can be a hard topic to breach conversationally. I hope though, that after spending more time here, I might also be able to help demystify one of the other proclaimed characteristics of the Finnish education system and society: Equity.

This goes without saying, but it is necessary to note here that this experience represents my direct observations of just one school in one city in Finland, and therefore is not necessarily representative of every school or students’ experiences within the Finnish system. These observations are, however, consistent with what I have learned from talking to many other Finnish coworkers and colleagues about their experiences either teaching and/or as students within the system. 

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No Tests, No Homework! Here's How Finland Has Emerged As A Global Example Of Quality, Inclusive Education

Others/world,  15 may 2022 3:40 am gmt, editor : shiva chaudhary  | .

Shiva Chaudhary

Digital Editor

A post-graduate in Journalism and Mass Communication with relevant skills, specialising in content editing & writing. I believe in the precise dissemination of information based on facts to the public.

Creatives : Shiva Chaudhary

Student-oriented approach to education in finland has been recognised as the most well-developed educational system in the world and ranks third in education worldwide..

"A quality education grants us the ability to fight the war on ignorance and poverty," - Charles Rangel

The uniqueness of the Finnish education model is encapsulated in its values of neither giving homework to students every day nor conducting regular tests and exams. Instead, it is listening to what the kids want and treating them as independent thinkers of society.

In Finland, the aim is to let students be happy and respect themselves and others.

Goodbye Standardised Exams

There is absolutely no program of nationwide standard testing, such as in India or the U.S, where those exams are the decisive points of one's admission to higher education like Board Examinations or Common Entrance Tests.

In an event organised by Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas, RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat remarked, "It is because they teach their children to face life struggles and not score in an examination," reported The Print .

Students in Finland are graded based on individual performance and evaluation criteria decided by their teachers themselves. Overall progress is tracked by their government's Ministry of Education, where they sample groups of students across schools in Finland.

Value-Based Education

They are primarily focused on making school a safe and equal space as children learn from the environment.

All Finland schools have offered since the 1980s free school meals, access to healthcare, a focus on mental health through psychological counselling for everyone and guidance sessions for each student to understand their wants and needs.

Education in Finland is not about marks or ranks but about creating an atmosphere of social equality, harmony and happiness for the students to ease learning experiences.

Most of the students spend half an hour at home after school to work on their studies. They mostly get everything done in the duration of the school timings as they only have a few classes every day. They are given several 15 -20 minutes breaks to eat, do recreational activities, relax, and do other work. There is no regiment in school or a rigid timetable, thus, causing less stress as given in the World Economic Forum .

Everyone Is Equal - Cooperate, Not Compete

The schools do not put pressure on ranking students, schools, or competitions, and they believe that a real winner doesn't compete; they help others come up to their level to make everyone on par.

Even though individualism is promoted during evaluation based on every student's needs, collectivity and fostering cooperation among students and teachers are deemed crucial.

While most schools worldwide believe in Charles Darwin's survival of the fittest, Finland follows the opposite but still comes out at the top.

Student-Oriented Model

The school teachers believe in a simple thumb rule; students are children who need to be happy when they attend school to learn and give their best. Focus is put upon teaching students to be critical thinkers of what they know, engage in society, and decide for themselves what they want.

In various schools, playgrounds are created by children's input as the architect talks to the children about what they want or what they feel like playing before setting up the playground.

Compared To The Indian Education Model

Firstly, Finnish children enrol in schools at the age of six rather than in India, where the school age is usually three or four years old. Their childhood is free from constricting education or forced work, and they are given free rein over how they socialise and participate in society.

Secondly, all schools in Finland are free of tuition fees as there are no private schools. Thus, education is not treated as a business. Even tuition outside schools is not allowed or needed, leaving no scope for commodifying education, unlike in India, where multiple coaching centres and private schools require exorbitant fees.

Thirdly, the school hours in Finland do not start early morning at 6 am, or 7 am as done in India. Finland schools begin from 9.30 am as research in World Economic Forum has indicated that schools starting at an early age is detrimental to their health and maturation. The school ends by mostly 2 pm.

Lastly, there is no homework or surprise test given to students in Finland. Teachers believe that the time wasted on assignments can be used to perform hobbies, art, sports, or cooking. This can teach life lessons and have a therapeutic stress-relieving effect on children. Indian schools tend to give a lot of homework to prove their commitment to studying and constantly revise what they learn in school.

Delhi Govt's Focus On Education

The Delhi model of education transformed under the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) tenure in the capital. In line with the Finnish model, Delhi government schools have adopted 'Happiness Classes' to ensure students' mental wellness through courses on mindfulness, problem-solving, social and emotional relationships, etc., from 1st to 8th classes.

Delhi government also introduced 'Entrepreneurial Mindset Classes' in 2019 to instil business and critical thinking skills among students of 9th to 12th classes. The practical approach in this class is indicated in the 'Business Blasters', a competition started by the Delhi government to encourage students to come up with start-up ideas and students were provided with ₹1000. Approximately 51,000 students participated in the first edition of the competition, according to Citizen Matters .

Through these endeavours, India is steadily investing in creating human resources that can get employment and generate employment for themselves.

India is at its demographic dividend stage; more than half of its population is within the working-age group of 14 to 60 years. Education is an essential factor in utilising this considerable advantage to grow economically and socially. Finland's education model is how India can strive closer to its goal and progress as a nation.

Also Read: Connaissance! Delhi Board of School Education Pens MoU To Add French In Government Schools

We are an independent and public-spirited digital media platform for Indian millennials. We report news and issues that matter as well as give you the opportunity to take action.

27 Surprising Finnish Education System Facts and Statistics

There has been a lot of press recently about how the education system in Finland is one of the best in the world and how they are using radical (compared with the UK and the US) ideas to help achieve their status as one of the best.

Anywhere you look the proof doesn’t seem to lie, yet how exactly is the Finnish Education system achieving such greatness? Their students outperform students in the US and the UK in most, if not all areas and their teachers enjoy a much better work life balance. Let’s take a dive into some of the things the Finnish are doing.

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) , a survey taken every three years by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) routinely releases data which shows that Americans and British students are seriously lagging behind in many educational performance assessments.

The Finnish Education System

#1 Finnish children enter education at a later age than in many countries. They start school at age 7 and believe that “starting children in school before they’re naturally developmentally ready has no scientifically proven long-term advantage”.

#2 Prior to age 7, Finnish school children can attend day care/nursery school but they do not have formal education whilst there, Instead, they focus on creative play . “They need time to play and be physically active. It’s a time for creativity”. says Tiina Marjoniemi, head of Franzenia daycare center in Helsinki. The Guardian

#3 For every 45 minutes of learning, students enjoy 15 minutes of play.

#4 School is only compulsory for 11 years, meaning students can leave education at age 18. Everything after that is optional. This idea is thought to prepare Finnish students for the real world.

#5 Finish students are not measured at all for the first six years of their education.

#6 Students in Finland only have to sit for a centralized exam (National Matriculation Exam) at the age of 18-19 years old (after 12 years of school).

Finland School Hours

#7 Finnish students do the least number of class hours per week in the developed world, yet get the best results in the long term. The school day starts between 8-9am and is finished by 2pm.

Finland Education Ranking

#8 The schools in Finland are not ranked in any way, there are no comparisons made between schools, regions, teachers or even students. They believe that cooperation is the key to success, not competition.

#9 Finnish Teachers are some of the most qualified in the world. The requirements for becoming a teacher in Finland are set very high, only around the top 10% of applicants are successful and all of those have a masters degree (which incidentally is fully subsidised!).

#10 Finnish teachers have the same status as doctors and lawyers. ( I wish that was the case in the UK! )

#11 Finnish Teachers are not graded. This is probably a direct result of their rigorous selection process and because of this, in Finland, they don’t feel the need to constantly assess and grade their teachers. If a teacher isn’t performing satisfactorily, it is up to the schools principal/head to deal with it. Pasi Sahlberg, director of the Finnish Ministry of Education and writer of Finnish Lessons, said this about teachers’ accountability:

“There’s no word for accountability in Finnish… Accountability is something that is left when responsibility has been subtracted.”

#12 Schools are not inspected. School inspections were actually abolished in Finland in the early 1990s. They have the ideology that they can help direct and assist through support and funding. Again, they trust the professionalism of teachers and school leaders. Schools are encouraged to self-evaluate along.

#13 There are no selective schools or private schools. One of the reasons why there is no competition between Finnish schools is that all schools are funded through public funds. No competition = level playing field.

#14 All Finnish school children receive free school meals, all of them, all the way through school!. There has been a healthy hot lunch served to all students been since 1943 for the whole 9 years at school. ( Huffingtonpost.com )

#15 Finnish students all have access to support that is individually based on their specific needs from the start of their school career. They believe that every child has some special needs and therefore special education is for everyone.

#16 The Basics are the priority. Rather than focus on increasing test scores and dominating in math, science and English, the Finnish education system focus on creating a healthy and harmonious environment for students and learning. The ideology of the Finnish education system is that education should be an “ instrument to balance out social inequality “.

#17 Finnish students have the same teacher for up to 6 years of their school career. This is one of the pillars of their harmonious education environment ideology. It allows student/teacher relationships to grow year on year, allowing a much deeper level of trust and respect than only having one year.

Finland Education Curriculum

#18 Finnish Students have less homework than any other student on the planet. Even with fewer school hours, they are still getting everything they need to be done whilst at school. This, in turn, builds on a Finnish child’s ability to grow and learn into a happy and responsible adult.

#19 All classes are mixed ability. This is unpopular in a lot of education systems in the UK and the US (I know, my own school recently adopted this policy (Personally, I love it) and there can be a lot of teachers that don’t like it. However, some of the most successful education systems have mixed ability classes, so it does work!

#20 Finnish Students learn more languages. They learn Finnish from their first day at school. At age 9 they start learning their second language (which is usually English). By age 11 they start learning Swedish, which is Finland’s second language. Many students even start learning a fourth language when they are 13. They are only tested on their first two languages in the final exam at the end of high school.

#21 Teachers only generally spend 4 hours a day in the classroom and have 2 hours every week for professional development , thus reducing teacher stress.

#22 The Finnish national curriculum is a broadly based guideline, allowing teachers to use their own style and ideas in the classroom. This builds on the trust that the Finnish education system has in its teachers.

Finland Education Statistics

#23 93% of students graduate from high school. More than in the US.

#24 66% of high school students go on to further education (college or vocational courses).

#25 Finland spends about 30% less per student than the US, the UK, Japan and Germany. ( OECD Indicators )

#26 Just under 100% of 9th-grade students in Finland go on to high school. This figure includes most of the severely disabled children ( smithsonian.com )

#27 43% of those students in further education (16+) attend vocational school.

So there we have it, Finnish students and teachers are part of a great system. Having worked with several Finnish teachers, I can tell you that their ideology and these strategies work, very well!

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2 thoughts on “27 Surprising Finnish Education System Facts and Statistics”

As a student in Finland I realized some of this information is outdated. #1 – It states that children start their education at the age of 7. This is no longer correct because they can start is at the ages of 5, 6 or 7. Typically they do at ages 6 or 7. #3 – It is very school based. some schools do not follow this and it depends a lot. A school can have 45 minute lessons and a 5 min break. #4 – Over resent years it has changed into 9 years of compulsory education (basic education) 2-4 years of upper secondary studies/vocational application. #6 – the matriculation examination is at the age of 18 (typically the last two years of upper secondary studies). Not all students do this because they choose to go to vocational school. #7 – It is again very school based because some schools follow periods (certain subjects for 6 weeks and then the timetable changes). Most schools and students most likely have days from 8am-3pm. It depends a lot what day it is. #16 – To apply to upper secondary school and vocational schools they calculate the average of math, English, Finnish, Swedish, history, civics, religion/ethics, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, health education. #17 – Pert of this is true. Best case scenario they do have the same teacher for six years, but most of the time teachers are only qualified to teach certain grade levels. #18 – The amount of homework totally depends on the teacher. It depends how much the teacher wants them to do. Most times homework is tasks that they did not get done on lessons or ones that deepen the meaning of the subject. #20 – there are a lot of confusing things about this. In most schools the child starts learning Finnish from first grade onwards. From grade 3 onwards they start learning English. From grade 5 onwards they can decide if the want another language (typically French, German or Spanish). From grade 6 onwards they start learning Swedish. In the matriculation examinations the test Finnish and a second home language so either Swedish or English. #21 – Subject teachers can have as many hours a day as the pupils. This all depends how many subjects they are qualified to teach.

According to the Bildung Review the Finnish educational system is failing. Not testing and focusing only on cooperation seems to have failed. I hope Finland will shift in the proper educational focus.

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• Study in Finland /

Finland Education System

• Updated on  
• Nov 22, 2022

Revered as the best education system in the world , Finland has meticulously curated an apparatus for academia and learning that is at par with almost all countries around the globe. Bordering Sweden , Norway , and Russia by land and Estonia by sea, the country is home to a unique mix of modern and natural with its clean and sophisticated towns blossoming with coniferous forests in the countryside. Emerging as an intellectual in the domain of education, the Finnish education system is meant to have cracked the code of imparting quality education and following the motto of eternal learning. Have you ever thought about why Finland has the best education system in the world? Through this blog, let’s explore what makes Finland’s education system unique as well as how it is designed. 

This Blog Includes:

Finland education system ranking, top 10 reasons why finland has the best education system, finland education system facts, finland education policy, schooling in finland, early childhood education and care (ecec), pre-primary education, basic education , upper secondary education, higher education (universities/universities of applied sciences), adult education, finland education statistics, free education in finland, restructuring of higher education in finland , finland education system ppt, list of popular universities in finland, top public universities in finland, cost of studying in finland, best cities in finland, student visas for finland .

Click here to download Finland Education System PDF!

Finland is, no doubt, one of the best countries to study. So, let’s check out some of the rankings that the country has received:

• Finland is the 8th most educated country in the world.
• In Education ranking by Countries, Finland has a total score of 1.631K ranking in 3rd position in 2021.
• Finland has the highest ranking in High School Completion Rate.
• World Economic Forum’s Global Competitive study ranks Finland as having the most well-developed education in the world.

Now being admired as the best of them all, the Finnish education system wasn’t always like this. If we go back in time, it happened almost 50 years ago when the Finnish government examined the education system and added better, progressive though untested reforms that would prove to be imperative in the future years. That’s when the whole structure was redeveloped going from the basic early education stage to the higher education level, it got recreated with the motto to equip students with incremental life skills.

Here are the top 10 reasons why Finland has the best education system in the world:

• Free Education Access (from Pre-Primary to Higher) to Finnish Citizens as well as to those coming from EU /EEA countries because education is considered an equal right for everyone.
• Implementation of a holistic teaching and learning environment that aims to emphasise equity over excellence.
• No standardized testing system as students is graded individually with a grading system created by their teacher. Also, overall progress is mapped by the Ministry of Education by sampling groups of varied ranges of schools.
• Finnish children begin their academic journey at an older age, i.e. only when they turn seven years old do they commence their schooling and before that learning is made free-flowing.
• The “bar is higher for teachers”, i.e. only master’s degree holders (from specialised teaching schools) can opt for teaching positions and even then an individual principal is allotted to every teacher to keep a tab on their progress.
• Exemption from the Artificial Parameters of Academic Progress by removing any kind of competition between academic institutions but rather cooperation is made the norm.
• Better Alternatives to the Same-Old Degree those planning for a college education can choose from professional options, be it vocational schools, university education or training classes.
• Focuses on fostering cooperation over competition in schools by inculcating the skills of teamwork, collaboration and team spirit in students.
• Emphasis on foundational basics is an important reason why Finland has the best education system in the world because students are provided with the time and scope to build the best foundation and basics at their own pace.
• Only 9 years of compulsory education are there in Finland’s education system and after that students are encouraged to find out what’s best for them academically and career-wise.

Explore New Zealand Education System !

Want to know why Finland has the best education system in the world? Well, here are the top characteristics of Finland’s Education System:

• The minimum age for starting elementary education in Finland is 7 years thus Finnish kids get to enjoy their childhood and kickstart their learning with their families rather than spending excessive time in schools.
• Finnish teachers formulate their grading systems for the students rather than relying on class exams and standardised tests.
• The only mandatory test that Finnish students give is at the age of 16.
• Finnish teachers only spend around 4 hours every day teaching in the classroom while they devote 2 hours every week to professional development.
• The school system in Finland is wholly 100% state-funded.
• Graduates from the top 10 percentile can only apply to become a Teacher in Finland.
• Every teacher in Finland is a master’s degree holder which is completely subsidized by the country’s government.
• On average, the starting salary of a teacher in Finland is somewhere around $29,000.
• Teachers are considered equivalent in status to doctors and lawyers in Finland.
• In 2018, the literacy rate in Finland was 99.0% .
• Finnish students spend only 20 hours a week at school.
• Every student in Finland can speak 2-3 languages .
• No competition between Finnish schools since every academic institution has the same facilities as any other.
• Students get to learn new things in schools from baking and industrial works to music and poetry .
• For every 45 minutes of learning in schools , Finnish students get to spend every 15 minutes playing or doing leisure activities .
• Finnish students receive free healthy meals from their schools.
• Every Finnish student is provided special services that fit their special needs and requirements.
• The Finland education system also fosters the teacher-student relationship as every student gets the same teacher for up to 6 years in their school.
• The students get very less homework and almost finish up everything they get during school hours only.
• The Finnish schools have mixed ability classes to nurture diverse interests and hobbies.

Click here to know all about Studying in Finland!

The uniquely created Finland Education Policy is one of the key reasons why Finland has the best education system in the world. Here are the important features of Finland’s Education Policy:

• The main aim of Finland’s Education policy is to ensure that every citizen has equal educational opportunities to avail.
• The most important focus of the education policy is emphasised quality, efficiency, equity and internationalization.
• It is founded on the principles of ‘Lifelong Learning and ‘Free Education.
• Finnish teachers are provided with the autonomy they need but they are fully trained and shortlisted only with higher qualifications which are usually a master’s degree.
• Teachers are also intensively involved in creating the best curricula as well as learning plans for students.
• Finland’s education system fosters an environment of trust between educators as well as the community.
• Students are motivated to work on collaborative projects especially through interdisciplinary projects and specialisations.

The Finnish Education System contains nine years of compulsory basic education, early education and care, pre-primary education, upper secondary education, higher education, and finally adult education. The description of all these levels has been given below.

• Early Childhood Education and Care (Provided to the students before the beginning of compulsory education)
• Pre-Primary Education (1-year duration for 6-year-olds)
• Basic Education (Compulsory 9-year education for children aged 7-16))
• Upper Secondary Education (Vocational Education and Training / General Upper Secondary Education)
• Higher Education (Education offered by Universities / Universities of Applied Sciences )

Now, let’s explore these levels of education in further detail:

This level of education aims to support the development, learning and well-being of a child while giving them plentiful learning opportunities. Local Authorities and Municipalities are tasked with the responsibility of regulating the mechanism of Early Children’s Education and Care. At this level of the Finland Education System, only municipal daycare cover is charged which mainly relies on family income as well as the number of children. Taking approval of the Finnish National Agency for Education, the National Curriculum Guidelines (NCG) is designed for the ECEC level and also constitute of open early childhood education activities which are conducted by municipalities for kids and their families.

Playing a vital role in the continuum expanding from ECEC, this stage aims to enhance the children’s opportunities for learning and development. For the children in the country, participation in pre-primary education has been made compulsory, since 2015. Also, another significant feature of the Finland education system under the stage of Pre-primary education is that the guardian of the kid must ensure their participation in different types of activities at this level. With the approval of the Finnish National Agency for Education, the National Core Curriculum for Pre-Primary Education guides the planning and implementation of the contents of Pre-Education.

In the Finland Education System, Comprehensive Schooling or Basic Education is where the compulsory education of 9 years begins for all children aged between 7 and 16. It strives to support the student’s growth towards becoming an ethically responsible member of society as well as imparting them the essential knowledge and skills needed in life. Further, all the schools providing basic education follow a national core curriculum which constitutes the objectives and core fundamentals of varied subjects, and the local authorities, such as municipalities and other education providers, maintain the Comprehensive Schools and often create their curricula as part of the national framework.

After the basic education stage of the Finland education system, students are given the choice between pursuing general and vocational education. General Education usually takes three years to complete and does not qualify students for pursuing any particular profession or occupation. After completing the General Upper Secondary Education, the students have to take the Finnish matriculation examination to be eligible for various educational universities or universities of applied sciences for bachelor’s degrees. 

The other route which students of Finland can choose is Vocational Upper Secondary Education and Training in which students are provided with basic skills required in their chosen field by allotting them to workplaces through an apprenticeship agreement or a training agreement. The institution facilitating the program curates a personal capability development plan for its students, drafting the content, schedule, and schemes of study. After concluding this level, the students are eligible to opt for further studies at universities or universities of applied sciences to enter the higher education stage in Finland’s education system.

Under the higher level of the Finland Education system, the academic institutions are bifurcated into regular universities and Universities of Applied Sciences. There are various postgraduate degrees as well in higher scientific and artistic education, i.e. licentiate and doctoral degrees. The time duration to complete a bachelor’s degree in regular universities is 3 years and the master’s program is of 2 years. Whereas, the students who pursue their higher education at Universities of Applied Sciences in Finland, are awarded UAS Bachelor’s and UAS Master’s degrees. 

In Finland’s education system, the degrees offered by the Universities of Applied Sciences usually take between 3.5 and 4.5 years to get completed. Those students who want to pursue UAS Master’s program in these universities must have completed their bachelor’s degree or any other suitable degree along with having 3 years of relevant work experience in their field.

Must Read: Finland Student Visa

Adult education and training in Finland’s Education System are added to provide education leading to a qualification, degree studies, apprenticeship training, further and continuing education updating and extending the professional skills, studies in different crafts and subjects on a recreational basis, and much more. For this stage of education, the training is either paid by the student or the employer facilitating apprenticeship training, staff development, or labour policy education. Adult education is provided by educational institutions mainly for working professionals, private companies, and workplaces.

Also Read: Japan Education System

Around 93% of graduates in Finland from academic or vocational high schools, 17.5% points higher than the US, and 66% of them choose to opt for higher education, the highest rate in the European Union. Yet Finland spends around 30% less per student than the US.

Finland does not just boast quality education but also offers free education for many students. The public universities in Finland are divided into regular universities and universities for applied sciences. These universities have no tuition fees for students coming from EU/EEA countries and Switzerland. Although Non-EU/EEA country students have to pay the tuition fees, programs taught in Finnish or Swedish are free for international students as well. 

The Ministry of Education has called for system-wide reorganisation as a result of globalisation and increased competition for dwindling younger age groups. Since 2006, all higher education institutions have started exchanging collaboration methods. Within 10–15 years, the total number of institutions is likely to shrink dramatically. The University of Eastern Finland was formed in 2010 when the University of Kuopio and the University of Joensuu merged to become the University of Eastern Finland. On August 1, 2009, three local institutions in Helsinki, notably the Helsinki University of Technology, Helsinki School of Economics, and Helsinki University of Art and Design, united to form Aalto University. Several applied science universities have also announced mergers. Within universities, new forms of collaboration such as consortia and federations have been introduced (e.g., the University of Turku and Turku School of Economics Consortium). Traditional institutions and universities of applied sciences are forming partnerships (e.g., the University of Kuopio and Savonia University of Applied Sciences formed the Northern Savonia Higher Education Consortium). In general, system-wide change in Central Europe , the United States , Spain , and Hungary follows a similar pattern.

Several universities in the country have earned international accreditation and are on the wish lists of many students. Examine the following list of universities in Finland, along with their respective QS Rankings for the year 2023:

Listed below are the top public universities offering academic degrees to international students –

• University of Helsinki
• Abo Akademi University
• Aalto University
• Tampere University
• University of Jyväskylä

Finland’s public institutions did not charge tuition fees until 2017. However, there have been attempts at the government level since the 1990s to impose tuition fees on students from outside the European Union/EEA . Those ideas have been met with opposition from student organisations. Students from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) have had to pay at least 1,500 euros a year to study in Finland since the autumn semester of 2017, while students from the EEA continue to study for free. Non-European students’ tuition fees typically range from roughly EUR 6,000 to EUR 18,000 (INR 5.19 – INR 15.58 Lakhs) per year, depending on the university and programme.

While planning to pursue higher studies in Finland, students might be confused about the cities. Well, to help you with that, we have listed the best cities in Finland in this section, to help make your university selection process easier –

As an Indian student wanting to study in Finland, you need to have a valid passport and a visa to enter a new country. The Single-entry visa enabled entry to the Schengen zone once and for up to 90 days in any 180 days while the Double-entry visa increases your entry to twice. Other than this, there is a Multiple-entry visa granted for various consecutive visits to the Schengen area and the total duration of the stay cannot exceed 90 days in 180 days and this is valid for a maximum of 5 years. In case you wish to extend the validity of your visa while in Finland, you need to contact the local police authorities there.

Finland ranks third in the Education Ranking by Countries in 2021, with a total score of 1.631K. Finland has the highest rate of high school completion in the world. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report, Finland has the best-developed education system in the world.

Finland has been named one of the world’s happiest and most prosperous countries, and The Economist just named it the best country in the world for higher education.

In Finland, for example, students spend just around 5 hours per day in school and have little homework outside of school. Students in many Asian countries, however, attend school for longer days, and many attend private “cram schools” for hours each day outside of official school hours.

Regular universities and universities of applied sciences are the two types of public institutions in Finland. They are all tuition-free for students from the EU/EEA and Switzerland. Non-EU/EEA students enrolled in English-taught degrees must pay tuition.

The fact is that in a country with one of the best education systems in the world, there is hardly any homework. Finnish people think that, aside from homework, several other factors might improve a child’s academic achievement, such as eating supper with their family, exercising, or getting a good night’s sleep.

Thus, the Finland education system strives to emphasize equal educational opportunities imparting every pupil with the essential life skills and core knowledge of basic disciplines while giving them the necessary liberty at the latter stages to experiment, explore and follow their callings.

If you are intending to study in Finland but are confused about how to go about it, let our Leverage Edu experts guide you in finding a suitable program and university as well as kickstarting the application process promptly so that you get to embrace an incredible experience in the intellectual land of opportunities.

Team Leverage Edu

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I wish to get my children admitted in Finland schools…matriculation and lower. Can you guide me for next steps please

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• Education System
• Fins and Fun

10 Facts About Education in Finland

Finland is a small country, famous for its fantastic education system, one if the best in the world. To be specific, Finland takes the 6th position in the world with its system of education. We provide you with some facts about education in Finland that can blow your mind.

• The first thing to mention is that children in Finland do not go to school until the age of 7. It means that they have enough time to enjoy their childhood, to spend time with their families and to get ready for school. It may surprise you, but you will not find a child in Finland who will cry because the time to start school has come.
• There is no standardizing test in Finland, no competition between children, no pressure. Sounds great, right? In Finland, all pupils are equal and there is not differentiation between students who are good in studying and those who are not.
• The third thing to mention derives from the two previous: there is a strong belief in equality in Finland. Furthermore, they do care about children and their happiness. A surprising fact is that each newborn gets presents from the government. Yes, it is not a mistake, each.
• Do you remember how much time you spent to complete your homework? Did you like it? 99% of people will say that they do not. So how about no homework? In Finland it is not a dream of a student, it is a reality, beautiful and happy reality.
• Now let us talk about time. Week school time in Finland is no more than 20 hours. Once again, why not to provide you kid with a happy childhood?
• Previously mentioned point means, that children in Finland spend no more than four hours in school a day. What is more, this time includes a lunch break. It is important provide children with enough time to relax and enough time to learn something besides school. As you can see, people in Finland follow this easy rule.
• Teachers in Finland have to get a master degree. It means that all of them are highly qualified. As they provide some kind of a bridge between childhood and adult life, it is very important to hire professionals who know their job. It makes a lot of sense, right?
• Teachers in Finland are highly respected. They are standing next to such professions as doctors and lawyers. Finally somewhere people understand the importance of education!
• Considering all the above mentioned, this fact can surprise you a lot, but every Finnish student knows at least two foreign languages. The most popular ones are English, German, French, Spanish and Swedish. Yes, Finnish people value the importance of communication.
• There are no private schools in Finland. Discrimination is evil and in Finland you probably will not see it anywhere, especially when it comes to schools.

System of education in Finland

School System in Finland

Finland Education Reform

Homework in Finland School

Fins and Fun: Distinctive Features of Education in Finland

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10 things you need to know about Finland’s highly praised education model

Reading time: 4 minutes

1. Finland has a flexible national curriculum, and teachers have the freedom to design their own lessons.

Schools in Finland follow the national curriculum but are given plenty of opportunities for tailoring it to match their facilities and students. After each school has made their modifications to the curriculum, teachers are then given complete liberty to implement it as they see fit.

Teachers are encouraged to use creativity – they can choose their learning materials, lesson plan contents, teaching methods and environments as they see fit based on the needs of the students. Teaching and learning can happen anywhere – in the classroom, museums, libraries, outside, at home or in a digital environment. Many teachers share their own learning materials in teacher communities (social media) and use free learning materials provided by other teachers, publishers, international material providers.

2. Finland has a strong emphasis on early childhood education and children start school at the age of seven.

Recent studies on neuroplasticity show that the human brain is most susceptible for learning during ages 0 through 7. This is an age period when a child’s interests and curiosity should be provided with a wide range of different experiences, stimulus and learning possibilities. This is why Finnish children start their learning path with mostly non-academic methods such as play and exploration.

3. Nearly all Finnish teachers have master’s degree.

In addition, teacher students in primary and secondary schools get to apply their skills in actual learning environments during their studies as Universities in Finland have teacher training schools that ensure a close relationship between theory and practice. Teacher training schools provide a fertile ground for getting more confidence, testing new ideas and innovative teaching methods. Professional feedback and mentoring is also provided from senior teachers during the practical training. Fun fact, all teachers study handcrafts, woodwork, music and arts during their studies.

4. Every student is equal regardless of their background.

School in Finland have a strong emphasis on equity and social justice and all students, regardless of their background receive the same quality of education. Finland does not have private school system (just a few of them). Teachers are paid equally across the nation, and teachers do not gravitate towards the “best schools” as all schools have the same high standards. Education is free for every student from pre-school to the end of secondary school, and higher education is also free for the most part.

5. Learning through play and exploration are the bases for life-long learning.

Finland has a long history of having strong emphasis on play and giving children responsibility and self-governance age-appropriately. Students are allowed to explore and experiment – learning often happens through play and creating new projects, presentations and tasks of motivating topics. Teachers help students attain a growth mindset in which they learn from their own mistakes and how to overcome obstacles. Learning not to be discouraged by initial failure at an early age helps to develop important life skills and have resilience for e.g., work and relationship related challenges later in life.

6. Education has a strong focus on individualized learning and support.

Finland has a class teacher system in which one teacher teaches most if not all subjects in grades 1 through 6. The teachers often are assigned to the same class for several years. This means they get to know their students well, also their strengths, and weaknesses, and can help them learn more efficiently based on their interests and motivations – suggesting for external support for learning difficulties or providing advanced assignments for talented students.

7. Finnish schools have a relatively low amount of homework.

Finnish teachers have the liberty to determine the need for homework individually. Required subjects are most often covered during the school day which reduces the need for homework. Homework is seen more as a recap of what has been learned in the class but it is not supposed to take a hours of time at home. Usually students finish the rest of the assignments that was covered during the lesson and read through the next chapter. It is good to focus on the basic skills at home such as writing, reading and calculating. It is not expected to have after-school tutoring or even parents to be heavily involved in homework.

8. Finnish schools have a strong focus on physical activities.

Multiple studies show that physical activity is highly beneficial for learning. Some form of exercise during a school day has a pronounced effect on brain stimulation compared to sitting in place. Biological neural networks are formed and reorganized much more effectively, and it becomes easier to recollect learned subjects later.

Finnish schools have a 15 minutes of break time per hour. Usually students spend their breaks outside in the school yard e.g. playing yard games, football, or swing. School yards are well equipped for physical activities, but students are also very innovative to invent their own games. Teachers often integrate exercise into their lessons in a form of movement, dance, or moving around the classroom to different activity spots. Physical education is an important part of a school day – and nowadays different physical activities are more in the focus as students don’t move so much anymore during their free time. Most schools and municipalities also offer a wide range of extracurricular activities – often organized at school facilities.

9. Every Finnish student knows at least two foreign languages.

In fact, most Finnish children study up to four languages during primary school – compulsory ones are Finnish, Swedish and English. The most popular ones are German, French, Russia and Spanish, but a wide selection of other languages is available. Learning a foreign language starts early in Finland. Instead of grappling grammar or writing, children begin learning new languages through active teaching methods, for example by playing, through games, songs and poems. The human brain is most susceptible for learning new languages during ages 0 through 7 which makes it quite easy for small children to learn even three languages at the same time.

10. A secondary degree enables to apply for almost every higher education program in Finland.

Vocational education is very popular in Finland: almost 50 percent of students apply for vocational schools after their basic education at the age of 16 years. The other 50 percent choose the academic path of deepening general knowledge in secondary school. Either way is a great option, but vocational education ensures the variety of trained professionals in all Finnish industries and domains. Most popular industries have recently been e.g. Social and Health Care, Business and Economy, Beauty Care, Vehicles and Logistics and House Construction. Vocational education is attractive to many students because of it practical approach to learning – learning by doing in an authentic working environment, not just learning theory in the classroom. Finnish vocational schools are working closely with the industry and school learning environment have all the latest equipment and tools for learning the profession.

Bonus fact: The Finnish education model continues to evolve, with ongoing efforts to incorporate digital technology and ensure that the system remains relevant and responsive to the needs of students in the 21st century.

Finnish education embraces a research-oriented approach. If something doesn’t work, the matter is researched, reconsidered and improved. Digital skills are no longer considered a separate subject in Finland but are incorporated into every subject and everyday practices.

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Finland, the happiest country in the world for 7 years running, to offer second free happiness masterclass—here’s how to apply

Finland has been the happiest country in the world for seven years in a row. Now, it's inviting people to learn the ways of the Finnish and how everyone can "hack their happiness."

After hosting a successful 2023 masterclass in happiness , the country's tourism sector, Visit Finland and Helsinki Partners, are welcoming a new group of people to learn the ways of the Finnish people.

During the five-day masterclass , participants will learn from a team of three "Happiness Hackers" who will share hacks they can apply to their everyday lives, according to a press release shared with CNBC Make It.

The happiness hacks will highlight four key themes of Finnish happiness:

• Nature and lifestyle
• Health and balance
• Design and everyday
• Food and well-being

"Finnish happiness boils down to the simple things in life: connecting with nature, caring for one's mind and body, and appreciating design and art around us," Heli Jimenez, Senior Director of International Marketing at Business Finland, stated in a press release.

Examples of what participants might get up to during the masterclass include wild swimming and taking a walk through a forest.

To be considered, applicants must complete a social media challenge and fill out a sign-up form on the campaign's page. The social media aspect involves posting a video on Instagram or TikTok explaining your happiness hack and why you should be chosen to visit Helsinki this summer.

The press release states that people can apply individually or with one other person.

Visit Finland and Helsinki Partners are accepting applications for this masterclass until April 4, 2024. Participants will enjoy a trip to the Finnish capital from June 9-14 that is entirely free of charge — all travel expenses to and from will be covered.

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