Anni MyllymakiThe “Finnish Education Miracle” has grasped educators and policy makers across the world in a simultaneous state of frenzy and admiration for years. The nation’s impressive PISA and OECD Education Rankings has sparked commentary from several angles. Is it because Finland has no private schools? Or, is it perhaps due to the delayed start of school at the age of seven which creates a relaxed and productive learning environment? Finnish early education prioritises interaction with nature and every child has a legal right to high-quality pre-school care.
However, Finland has seen a decline in results in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which assesses the learning outcomes of 15-year-olds in mathematics, science and reading. The nation’s performance peaked in 2006 but has since seen a decline in results. It has seen the country take preventative measures, including proposals that hope ban mobile phones from the classroom.
Per Capita’s Anni Myllymaki (Geography, St Catherine’s College, Cambridge) analyses the significance of the latest PISA results and what insights they can provide about the Finnish Education System.
“When Finland is mentioned, its education system is often one of the first things people think of.”
One of reasons stated for Finland’s educational success is the focus on equality of opportunity, so the overall level of education is good.
Finland has a variability of degree length in high schools and universities is due to the independence of students, who largely organise their own schedules. Most of these are state funded, to enable students to get a good education, regardless of how much spend.
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In Brief: The Finnish Education System
Before school age children usually attend a daycare centre followed by preschools for a year. Both are optional, but the vast majority attend them. At the age of seven comprehensive education, comprising nine grades, begins. Education is mandatory until the age of 16, though comprehensive schooling is usually followed by upper secondary school of two to four years, depending on how students organise their schedules.
This can be followed by a research university, which has more scientific research and education or universities of applied sciences which prepare people for specific careers, such as in social services, nursing or being a mechanic. Getting a bachelor’s degree tends to take 3.5-4.5 years. The variability of degree length in high schools and universities is due to the independence of students, who largely organise their own schedules.
Most of these are state funded, to enable students to get a good education regardless of how much they could spend on it. Indeed, one of reasons stated for Finland’s educational success is the focus on equality of opportunity, so the overall level of education is good.
There are additional factors that are attributed to Finland’s Educational success.
Firstly, Finnish school teachers are required to hold masters’ degrees as well as a year of additional training for their profession. This increases high-quality education and ensures it was available regardless of school. Additionally, the national curriculum is seen more as suggestions, with teachers and local school boards being able to set up more specialised teaching plans. Therefore, teachers are highly involved in the organisation of their work, ensuring the curriculum works well in practice.
Moreover, the success of the system begins in pre-schools, where creativity is fostered through outdoor, and group play activities. Therefore, students would already hold valuable skills when entering school.
The Finnish school system values individualisation, seen for example in the lack of standardised testing. The only required standardised test is the high school leaving exam, but until then they could be tailored to each class to ensure effective learning.
Good support systems are also brought up, for example is how much time teachers and teaching assistants were willing to dedicate to individual, especially struggling, students. Teachers would often have the same, quite small, class for a long time, so they would learn how to help each student effectively. An article from the Smithsonian Magazine from 2011, exploring Finnish schools, states: ‘“Whatever it takes” is an attitude that drives not just Kirkkojärvi’s 30 teachers, but most of Finland’s (…) educators.’ These features were noted when the first Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) report was published in 2000. Pisa is a research programme conducted every three years by the OECD, which tests reading comprehension, maths and science skills in 15-year-olds. The first report had 32 participant countries and of them Finland scored first in reading, fourth in maths and third in science. In 2003 it scored first in each category out of all OECD members participating.
Declining PISA Results
Reading comprehension especially has fallen, as Finland’s rank has gone from being 1st in 2000 to 4th in 2015 and 14th in 2021. While the proportion of students getting high scores has remained the same the proportion of students getting notably low marks has increased, as has the gap between the groups. Similar results are visible in the other categories, as Finland ranked 20th in maths and 9th in science in 2022.
Average 2022 results were down compared to 2018 in mathematics, reading and science.
In mathematics, almost all students became weaker, but low-achievers declined by more than high-achievers did.
Analysis: Declining PISA Results since 2010
Since the mid-2010s Finland’s education system has been increasingly struggling.
Several articles have been published in increasing amounts in the past few years, bringing up issues in government defunding, teachers’ increasing workloads and student wellbeing.
Scores began falling after the 2008 financial crash, when government spending was cut. According to Finland’s Teacher’s Association between 2012-2019 the government cut over 2 billion euros from education. This has led to larger class sizes and cutting back on assisting staff. Teachers’ workloads have increased as they spend time trying to help students with non-teaching-related issues which should be delegated to councilors. From 2018 to 2022, the proportion of schools where principles reported insufficient teachers rose from 7% to 23%
Furthermore, larger classes make individualised teaching more difficult, leading to some students falling behind. Therefore, the lauded equal care and opportunities of Finnish education are worsening as teachers do not have time to help each student sufficiently. A recent push has been for open-concept schools, where classes are taught in larger spaces. However, this move has often just turned to difficulty in concentration and insufficient support. In an article interviewing 92 educational staff, 90% were somewhat or fully against the open-concept model.
There has been an increasing push for quite independent work, where students first try to answer questions themselves, then look at theory in books, then ask for aid. This has led to some teachers not having enough time to help everybody. Some parents have gotten private tutors for their children, but it isn’t a possibility for everybody. If learning motivation is low students may not do their work and are left with limited understanding of their subjects. When this occurs with basic skills like reading or writing it impedes their entire education.
The pandemic has only worsened the issues since students who struggled with self-/distant learning have fallen further behind. According to the 2022 Pisa report 19% of students struggled to find somebody to help with schoolwork.
Technology is brought up as a factor in worsening scores, as some students pay more attention to their phones during classes than to lessons. Young people may also be staying up late playing video games, looking at social media, etc., leading to less sleep and worse school performance. Additionally, depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses have become more prevalent, especially for girls. From 2020-21 the suicide rate of young women increased by 20%. A shortage of mental health services has meant teachers have to try to help on this front too, further increasing their workload.
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Survey: Criticism about the Finnish Education System
A PhD thesis by Aino Saarinen in 2020 examined PISA data from 2012 – 2015 to consider whether scores were correlated with self-learning practices. A key conclusion was the “frequent use of self-directed teaching practices or digital learning materials at school were associated with students’ weaker learning outcomes in several knowledge domains”.
Phenomenon-based Learning is a unique pedagogical approach adopted in Finland, whereby students are led to “ask big questions that don’t have easy answers”. The benefits of such approaches are not obviously emphasised in PISA-based approaches.
“The assessment results don’t provide an exhaustive answer as to how much of the erosion of learning outcomes is due to the pandemic and how much is due to other factors,” noted Minister of Education Anna-Maja Henriksson.
There are Issues to be Fixed, even if the “crisis” is overdramatised.
Helsinki, the capital city, recently unveiled their 2030 strategy for education entitled ‘Helsinki learns – skills of the future’. In it, they outline what needs to be improved in their system. Firstly, the focus should be on teaching children basic skills, such as reading, writing, maths and social skills, in primary school. This may be done with the aid of digital devices, but human interactions and wellbeing remain the focuses. Children of immigrant backgrounds, who don’t speak Finnish or Swedish (the country’s other official language) as their first language, are to be supporter more. Immigration is also proposed as a solution to the labour shortages in primary education. In general, many teachers wish for less focus on self-learning, which has been used to cut funding.
While Pisa scores have lowered from the early 2000s, they are all still above OECD averages, for both high and low scorers. Indeed, 85 countries participated in the 2022 report and Finland’s worst score still placed them in the top 20 of the category. Many other categories, such as the gap in score between high and low-income households and student dissatisfaction in school, are below OECD averages.
However, there are a number of disparities that can be addressed in future.
Boys’ performances, especially in Pisa reading comprehension tests, have fallen below the average girls’ performance, leading to a growing gender gap. Finnish girls are outperforming boys in every metric of Pisa scores, though their averages have also been falling, only more gradually. For example, in 2022 12% of girls scored at the highest levels of Pisa scoring in reading comprehension, compared to 6% of boys. Some articles suggest boys use their devices on average more than girls, which may partly account for their more rapidly worsening scores.
Inequalities between social groups are brought up as an increasingly significant factor. Students from higher socioeconomic groups, on average, fared 83 points better than those from lower in 2022. Additionally, students who are first- or second-generation immigrants did poorer in average, especially in reading comprehension. While the gaps are still relatively small, they have grown, especially considering how equal teaching has been appreciated as a central pillar to the Finnish education system.
These issues are seen in issues of wellbeing for both teachers and students. Teachers have, especially in the past few years, been striking for better working conditions and higher pay. The latter specifically affects daycare teachers and aids, whose average monthly wage fluctuated from 2,409 to 2,868 euros per month, compared with the national average of 3,228 euros (in 2022). Comprehensive and high school teachers’ average wages are from 3,678 to 4,089 euros per month, but many took part in solidarity with their lower-paid colleagues.
Additional Reporting by Suchir Salhan. Cover Image shows Finland’s Education Minister reacting to the 2022 PISA results.
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