A Tale of the Finnish Education Miracle

I came across an interesting article last week. The article mentioned how Finland, despite not following many of the globally standardised education norms, still was among the top performing countries in the PISA. PISA, conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), evaluates the critical thinking of 15-year old students across the world in maths, science and reading.

This mammoth three yearly exercise’s idea originated in the 1990s acknowledging that governments across the world were being compared basis the spend on education rather than the achievements or learning outcomes.  Over time, PISA evolved as among the most important global exams. Recently, the tide has turned over to Asian, South-East Asian schools topping the charts with Europe and other developed economies including the US dropping consistently. This is where the consistent performance of Finland and its unique education system,  termed an ‘education miracle’ comes as a pleasant surprise.

The system is known to provide more emphasis on Quality and less on Competition and Control. Factor this – Finland doesn’t conduct standardised tests. It provides a comprehensive flexible education that ensures equity and inclusion in education through its publicly-funded school system.  This, without selecting, tracking or streaming students during their basic education until grade 9! Most children go to the nearby public school where kids from all walks of life learn together.  

Another key differentiator is the learning methodology. Teachers, customise their teaching approach as per each learner requirement. Teachers are also supported by other specialists like psychologists, special education teachers and management. Teaching is also considered as a highly valuable profession. Only 10 per cent of applications get through for the elementary teacher education program – a five-year master’s degree program. Remarkably, there aren’t school inspections conducted. So, while there are national quality standards, there are no evaluation tests pitting one school against the other. But, the reliance is on ‘intelligent accountability’, based on periodic self-evaluation of schools/education providers.

Though Finland is renowned for its comprehensive education system, it is even more remarkable that there are consistent efforts being put in to revisit the model and check the students’ preparedness in the future. It is proposed to introduce fresh initiatives to aid further in the globalisation of education – encouraging innovations, teacher professional development, ‘globalisation’ of education, increasing student physical activity etc.

The most remarkable take-away is the intent of the entire community to provide quality education – the school authorities, parents, students, government – all are actively engaged towards a vision which makes it so potent. This model is therefore, an important case study to the world, especially India. The keyword as mentioned is intelligent accountability.

To Spin or Not to Spin?!

There is an inherent advantage when you deal with children and young adults – you are probably among the first to know of the latest ‘trend’ doing the round and your experiences will ensure you have enough ‘am sure you haven’t heard this one’ stories at those dinner party tables! There is also an apparent disadvantage when you deal with ‘bacchas’ – you are probably the first who needs to ‘tackle’ and/or put up with these trends!

Now, add to this the fact that one is an educationist, a school principal at that and you will see why I utter a silent prayer in my head before stepping out for the day! Oh yes, then there are also the worried parents who always approach you for knowing if ‘it is okay’ for kids to indulge in whatever has seemed to caught their attention. They cite contradictory studies listing reasons for and against and then ask you to be the judge while the little one, wide eyed, stares at you, eyes almost pleading for approval.

Take the latest fad that has the world spinning in tizzy for example – the fidget spinner.  If you are a parent to a child of 6 years or above, it is highly probable you would have come across one! For the uninitiated, fidget spinner is a ‘toy’ (purportedly used as a medical aid to help relieve nervous energy or psychological stress though no scientific evidence has been found so far linking any benefits). It is usually a multi-lobed flat structure with a bearing in the centre designed to spin along its axis at high speed with hardly any effort. Many schools in the U.S. had to ban the toy since the children had grown addicted to spinning them!

Confiscated spinners at school

Although it marked a much later entry into our schools in India, nevertheless, it has been some fad and continues to be so! Only recently with recent social media updates associating the toy with treatment for stress, anxiety or neurological disorders and problems in children, have made the parents suddenly take notice since it implied that it is a medical tool and hence shouldn’t be used without discretion. While there has yet to be any substantial study done yet to establish these claims, there are also other reports of how and why the spinner may actually help in some relaxation.

Spinners are banned in our school simply because we don’t like to encourage distraction among students, considering their attention is almost always fleeting! As an educator, I feel it is a tough call when deciding to take a strong stance about any trend but, to be on the safe side, anything that can seem to interfere with a student’s commitment or disrupt in any way the smooth functioning of a class or simply be a nuisance to the immediate environment, is not acceptable in our school. Of course it isn’t to say it is the only way to go about it. A lot depends upon the temperament of the child and if the trend isn’t all-consuming my advice would be to let children be. The battle is when and how do you draw a line which can easily be breached and that too when it is not within ones’ control. As far as the spinners go, while there is no medical or scientific proof yet linking any benefit or any side effects from playing with it, it looks like it will be a while before the bacchas move on from this spinning frenzy!