Another characteristic of Finnish education is the culture of trust. Education authorities
and national level education policymakers trust teachers who know, together with
principals, headmasters and parents, how to provide the best education for children and
youth in a certain district. Schools and teachers have been responsible for choosing learning
materials and teaching methods since the beginning of the 1990s when the national level
inspection of learning materials was terminated. Moreover, there have been no national or
local school inspectors since the late 1980s. Teachers are valued as experts in curriculum
development, teaching, and assessment at all levels (FNBE, 2004). Also, the parents trust
teachers. According to PISA School Questionnaire data only 1.4 per cent of the schools
reported constant pressure from many parents, who expect schools to help the students
more to achieve high academic standards (In OECD the corresponding percentage was 26.1
per cent; OECD, 2007). It is no wonder then that the teaching profession in Finland has
always enjoyed great public respect and appreciation (Simola, 2005). The teaching
profession, especially at the primary level, is also very popular and teacher-education
departments can select from among the nation’s best students with the highest scorers in
the upper secondary schools