Educating the Nation

During my aimless surfing last night, I somehow pounced onto a very interesting topic, which then led me to spend almost 2 hours just reading related articles and concepts. The topic was on the education system in Finland – touted to be the best in the world.

I visited a few websites, but the most valuable resource I felt was this 22 minute audio streaming on BBC’s News Program – “Top of the Class”. It’s rather dated (first broadcast September 2007), but arguably a lot of the ideas inside are still relevant to our school systems now.

The school system has been touted to be the best because more than 60% of the population have a university degree (I went hunting around for statistics at the MOE website and Singapore’s percentage is about 23.6%). The Finns are leading the charts in literacy rates. They have achieved all this while only starting formal schooling only at the age of 7 and kids only spend 4-5 hours to school each day.

Finland – 60% of the population is university educated

All the above statistics did not wow me that much – the most amazing fact for me was the fact that there is only a 4% difference in achievement between the students at the country’s best and worst school. Arguably though, from what I understand, they do not ‘stream’ students into different schools based on their grades,  unlike what happens in Singapore. Singapore could easily reduce the gap between the best and the worst schools if we did not “group” students in schools based on PSLE scores.

A few success factors were highlighted in the BBC audio:

• Learning through play. Although students do not enter formal education until 7, many of them enter nursery as early as 9 months old. These years are apparently formative for them as they build much of their foundation through nursery and most importantly – they build up confidence. One of the teachers interview remarked that kids leave nurseries with a great sense of self-worth – indeed something lacking in many of our students in Singapore and I can see why there’s a buzz in the past few months over upgrading our preschool education.
• High quality of teachers. All teachers in Finland have a Masters degree. They do not have a teachers’ training college in Finland. Teachers all have to go through five years at the University to get a Masters degree. Many would argue of course that it’s the passion that counts, but a great case can be made for educating your teachers at a higher level so that they gain greater intellectual independence and creativity, which is ultimately more important than any knowledge gained. Also, unlike Singapore where teaching is frequently seen as a ‘back-up’ job for many, teaching is the most popular job in Finland with only one out of thirty applicants getting the job. I have no idea about the statistics in Singapore, but if someone has them, I would really love to know.
• Education about individuals, not about the country. Now, this is the point which I found to be the most interesting. At the end of the video, one of the teachers interviewed said that education in Finland is all about the individual – it is about how education can best benefit the individual and grow him. She added, “It is about the individual, not about the country. It is not about getting the best on to develop the country.” There is just something so pure and simple in the kind of education mentioned and something that I can’t really imagine in Singapore too. How this actually takes place in Finnish schools I have no idea, but there is a certain truth that resonated. Need to find out more about this.
• Expenditure on education. Amazingly – even though the nation’s education is top-ranked, it spends less on education than other nations, including the US and South Korea, which apparently also have one of the better education systems.

After I listened to the audio clip, I was left with more questions than answers, in a very good way. Here are just some:

1. Measuring an education system by the percentage of the nation entering University. Is this the best measurement of the education system of a nation?
2. The idea of learning by play. Something we touched on briefly in NIE through game-based learning – how can I bring this into my classroom? Is this effective only for younger learners and not adult learners?
3. Are our kids spending too much time in school? Given that many top schools are going in the direction of boarding schools – a holistic educational experience – we seem to be driving towards the belief that “more time in school = better education”?
4. Does education really have to be tied in with nation-building goals or other ‘bigger goals’?

Questions I hope one day I will have the answer to.….