Societal Transformation and Educati

Societal Transformation and Education Reform in Finland

The case of Finland provides a contrasting approach to the use of education in support of development, one focused on broad-based, decentralized decision making and collaborative
knowledge creation. Finland has approximately 65,000 teachers and 900,000 primary and secondary students (UNESCO, 2004). According to UNDP (2005) figures, the government
spends 6.4% of its GDP on education, about 12.7% of all government expenditures. Finnish
students scored second to (but not statistically different from) students in Hong Kong, among
40 countries participating in the mathematics portion of the Program for International Student
Assessment, or PISA (OECD, 2004c). (Singapore did not participate in the recent PISA nor did Finland participate in the recent TIMSS.) The country scored first among nations on the science and reading portions of this test of 15-year-olds. Finland also scored first in a special
assessment of students’ problem solving skills that measured students’ ability to analyze problem situations, apply knowledge to solve problems, and evaluate, justify and communicate results (OECD, 2004d).
The Government of Finland places a very high importance on education, viewing it and research and development as the foundation for economic growth and maintenance of the
welfare society (Ministry of Education, 1999, 2004). In contrast with Singapore’s centralized
structure, the school system in Finland is highly decentralized and decision-making is distributed across sectors. Each school writes its own curriculum based on very general guidelines from the National Board of Education and developed through discussions among
teachers and parents. As a result, school curricula may be quite diverse across the country. Schools and teachers are also given the authority to select teaching materials that correspond
to the curriculum. Businesses work closely with schools. Nearly one third of secondary students are enrolled in vocational education. Vocational education is conducted in collaboration with local businesses through apprenticeships and on-the-job training and with
business leaders who participate in school decision making. Students in the general upper secondary program can also choose to participate in work-related study. The purpose of Finnish higher education is to support research and development. And the aging of the Finnish population has increased the importance of adult education and lifelong learning is a
priority in education policies and action plans.
The Ministry attributes the country’s excellent performance on PISA to free, high quality education across the country, high quality teachers with a high degree of autonomy,
development-oriented assessment that gives students feedback on their progress, and a socio-constructivist approach to learning that treats students as autonomous learners who are guided
to develop their study skills and plan their life career. The Ministry conceptualizes learning as
an individual and community process of knowledge creation, a skills- and goal-oriented process that includes independent and collective problem solving.
The education policy is coordinated with the national vision of an information society. As part of this the Finnish Information Society Program, the Ministry of Education developed the Information Strategy for Research and Education (Ministry of Education, Finland, 1995,
1999, 2004; Kankaanranta & Linnakylä, 2004). Like Singapore’s master plan, Finland’s Information Strategy also integrates ICT with other components of the system but the focus is
much more on supporting knowledge production and use. Among the goals of this policy are
the following:
• Assuring the development of information products and services;
• Assuring that all students have information society skills and are able to access, use,
and provide information society services;
• Developing learning-centered instructional approaches that focus on collaboration,
individual styles of learning, learning difficulties, alternative ways of learning, and
multidisciplinary approaches to learning;
• Moving from “once-and-for-all” training to lifelong learning;
• Ensuring that teachers achieve a high level of professional skills;
• Building education and research networks into an open, global network;
• Increasing Finnish language content on the Web.

The Information Society Program has helped schools purchase computers, link them to the Internet, promote the introduction of ICT as a tool for teaching and learning, and carry out in-service training for teachers. The program’s aim is for all schools to be connected to
networks and for all teachers to use ICT-based tools in their teaching. The purpose of the inservice training program is to provide teachers with the knowledge and skills needed to reform the pedagogical practices in their schools, especially with regard to collaborative teaching and learning, networking, and teamwork. The program also encourages the production of Finnish language instructional materials on the Web and this is now one of the
industrial clusters that the Government is developing in the country.