Is Finland finished as an educational role model?

A response to Donald Clark

On January 18th 2015, Donald Clark posted a blog about why Finland was finished as an educational role model - 

This is my response which can also be found in the comments of his blog.

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A thought-provoking blog post about Finland, it will be interesting to see how people react to it. Certainly the headline and the vocabulary are provocative. There is so much to respond to in the post that I am not sure where to start, but I thank you for raising so many important issues.

For those who do not want to read the longish reply in full below here are some key points to my response;-

• It is true; Finns are concerned about their education system.

• We all know that there are many faults with PISA.

• You are quite correct that no education system can be duplicated in another context because of the societal, cultural, historical and political variables that surround the system. This is about more than just teacher education and most people in Finland know that. But please do not blame Finns because other governments want to take the parts that suit their agendas.

• Pupils here start school at age seven and before that have day care and preschool based on play. No sitting in rows and no academic curriculum.

• Finnish pupils have more breaks (recess), more play, more time outdoors (even in the cold Finnish winter), more exploration and PBL, no school uniforms, less homework, longer holidays, no private school option, no tuition fees, full support of mother tongue for non-Finnish speakers, free hot meals for everyone.

• There is a strong vocational sector, so Upper Secondary (Sixth form) can be either academic or vocational with plenty of bridges across one to the other. In higher education this vocational focus continues with the Universities of Applied Sciences, which are the vocational HE providers. In these Universities of Applied Science you have to go to work in real jobs doing real tasks to get a degree, which is why they are called ‘applied’.

Given your own posts about uniforms, vocational education and private schools, do you still feel Finland is finished as a role model?

The longer reply -

As you know I have worked in education for over 25 years, in the UK, Middle East and for the last two years living and working in Finland. So here is my perspective –

I think most educators and many citizens in Finland are worried about the education system, no matter what the results in PISA. That is surely a sign of a developed and well educated society; they recognise that education impacts everyone. In my time here working in teacher education I have met plenty of educators critical of PISA for all the reasons that you list. We all know it is a not good measure, but we did not choose it or develop it and I really think that the vast majority of Finns were surprised when they did so well in 2000. You mention some possible reasons for that in your post (“be a small, racially homogeneous country that speaks only one language. Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Korea, Macao, Lichtenstein all feature in the Top Ten.”) There is something to that argument certainly – but of course Finland has two official national languages, Finnish and Swedish and three official minority languages, including Sami and Karelian and of course everyone speaks English as well because television and cinema are shown without dubbing. But to be honest that is not really the point and I digress. I do agree with you that it is complex and I do agree that it is difficult for other countries to ‘copy’ or mimic what Finland does.

I am not at all convinced that Maarit Korhonen is a ‘whistleblower’ who has ‘exploded myths’ in her book. I was involved with Finnish education in the year before I lived here and even then in 2011, some of the issues she raises were being discussed. So perhaps it is not as sensational as it would seem? I also really strongly argue that it is not Finland who has promoted the so called myth of the Finnish education system, which would be completely out of character for Finns. They dislike hype, sensationalism so much and really are the most modest people I have worked with. In fact that is a problem, as they really are not so good at promoting themselves and what is good in Finland. Most of the superlative publicity has come from those who have visited from overseas and have an agenda of their own to promote, in fact, apart from Pasi Sahlberg that you mention, there are not too many Finns hyping Finnish education on the professional speaker circuit.

Now I have to pick up on a few things, both as a teacher educator and parent –

You talk about the ‘picture presented’ of the education system - I really do not think the Finns present a picture Donald - visitors just get taken to visit schools and see how it is. The visitors create the ‘picture presented’ in their own heads. I say this as I was guilty of doing that before I came to live here – I imagined what the system was like, but the reality is very different, something I see as a parent as well as an educator. This is not some flashy, high tech learning environment, many buildings are quite old and the spaces designed when there was a different view about how learning took place. However, the picture painted in the blog post of teachers tied to fixed curriculum and focused on academic excellence is not quite a true picture either. How can it be? Finland has no school inspections, no OFSTED or its equivalent and thus no direct political meddling either. Teachers are professionals who are free to teach and assess how they feel is most appropriate for their learners. Does that mean each teacher is perfect? Of course not, there are kids in rows I am sure – but is it better than over assessment via standardized tests and a focus on ranking pupils, teachers and schools? By a million miles I would say. I am sure that there may be teachers constrained by the curriculum guidelines as Maarit claims, perhaps she is one of them, but that is not what I have seen so much when I have been into schools. I am going to be ageist here (and I feel can as I am in my 50’s myself) but I think it is teachers of my age group who might feel constrained, but that is because they were trained at a different time and have not perhaps updated or changed over time. I have heard some admit that they feel overwhelmed by technology and the pace of change, but that is hardly a Finnish phenomenon is it?

I also want to say something about living in Finland, the reality is that it seems quite old fashioned in many nice ways. Kids still walk and ride bikes to school, the nearest school, because that is pretty well as good as any other school. You cannot buy a ‘better education’ unless you choose to go overseas. Kids walk on their own (like we used to Donald?) at age 7. There is no school run in the car to the local academy staffed with fast tracked teachers who have never learned how to create an authentic assessment. When children go out on school trips they go on public transport, on the bus, even at nursery and preschool age and they go out a lot. This is because there is no bureaucratic overload for a trip. Parents are also welcome in school, you just drop in, no pass, no security, no vetting. I really hope it stays that way as well and that here the media do not create the all-pervasive culture of fear that exists for example in the UK.

I mention this last part because I think that is also important as far as education is concerned. Kids take risks here and are allowed to. In winter play grounds become ice rinks on purpose (imagine that in England) and parents do not have to sign indemnities. I honestly think children are more independent because of this (and not full of fear) have less of a sense of entitlement; they solve a lot of problems themselves.

So yes, Finland is small, in some ways old fashioned and quite conservative. It is quite socialist and people generally are not hierarchical, there really is not a class system as we know and understand it. There is a large public sector and most of us are quite happy about that because really, I like using public transport and having health care and a good education system for my kids.

I lived in a country with no tax system and no social system for nearly 2 decades and I now live in the opposite. When I left the Middle East I could have taken up a job offer in the UK, in London. Instead we chose to bring my 2 and 5 year olds (then) here because it has more of the things that we think lead to a happy quality of life. Sure it can be a drag having day light for only 4 hours a day in winter (if you are lucky) – and I would say that is a factor on the suicide rate you mention, rather than schooling - but then again the white nights in summer are great. But that is not a man-made thing that can be changed. However we came here because although things are not perfect there are still more things that I think they do right than they do wrong. Come on Donald, in my situation would you choose to put young children back in the UK system under Gove (at the time) or any of that lot you have there, or come here and burn their uniforms and ties!

I think Maarit has done Finland a big favour with her book and her motives are good, real debate is a good thing when it does not become a polarized shouting match with no listening. But would she prefer to work say in England and send her own kids to a system in any other country she could think of? Has she ever lived and worked in another system for an extended period of time? Sometimes you cannot see what is good about a system that you work in, you only see the negative.

One thing I like here is that education is generally valued by everyone and there is, by and large, a recognition that society as a whole benefits from a well educated population, even if we all pay for it with taxes. I like that.

I am not sure any policy maker in the UK is a member of the (real) Finland Fan Club you describe – I really do not see anyone in the UK arguing for vocational education, no uniforms or ties, shorter school hours and the abolition of the private sector, with free meals for everyone and more respect for teachers as professionals with no OFSTED - so I do not even see a Finland fan club at all to be honest.

I really do thank you for raising this, I mean it, because it has provided an opportunity to set the record straight from the hype. I agree Finnish education is not a Super Power system, no one here really claims it is, but it has some pretty neat aspects as well, that many could learn from.

*Note. I have chosen for this post not to open the debate about the economy as this is too long already – perhaps another time, but again, I agree that the outlook is not good.