First Impressions of Finland Educational System

outubro 28, 2017

First Impressions of Finland Educational System

Since the beginning of Gira Mundo´s selection process we felt curious about Finnish educational system. Why are they the best? How could they develop this great system? Is it possible for us, Brazilian teachers, do the same in our country?

When we arrived in Finland, we could see that people face education as the best solution to make a better nation. In the 70’s they started to change their educational system and it has been changing the entire country. There are no private schools in Finland and education is a right for every child. There’s totally equality of opportunities in the system because rich and poor can be together at school. Social inclusion does not depend on the right to have a good quality of education. Everybody has got the same opportunity to study from the basic school until university.

The teacher is the main character to this change and he/she has got plenty of autonomy in his/her position as leader. Being a teacher in Finland is a noble career and to be one you need to take at least a Master’s degree. High respect and status are some of the features of a teacher in Finland and they are also very well paid. To be a teacher here is much more competitive than to be a doctor, a lawyer or an architect. Students do not have much homework, do not do many tests, and memorizing is not used here.

Innovation and entrepreneurship are important subjects taught since early school. Finnish education system is a role model in education all over the world. One of the differences between Finnish and Brazilian education system is the equal and free access to education for all in all levels. Variety of pedagogical methods as the student centered approach as a central role in internationalization and prevention of social exclusion.

The main objective is to provide all citizens with equal opportunities. As exposed in the book called "Finnish Education in a nutshell" produced by Ministry of Education and Culture, Finnish National Board Education and CIMO these are the points that guides education in Finland:

1- Equity in education;

2- Education system based on trust and responsibility;

3- Early childhood and basic education as part of life-long learning;

4-General and vocational pathways at upper secondary level;

5-Higher education with a dual structure;

6- Highly educated teaching personnel.

Thus, so we are so grateful for the opportunity of studying at Hamk. We arrived in Hämmenlinna full of curiosity and hope, but needless to say that, due to the b

arriers of unequality we have experienced in Brazil, we were also kind of skeptical about changes in our realities. Surprise, surprise! We have been pleasantly discovering that changing is not only good. It is also possible. All we should understand is that changes begin with small seeds growing in a rich ground. We Brazilian already have the rich ground. Paraíba has a rich ground. We can be the seeds.