Finland Plans Educational Reform

Lately, Finland has come up with the reform in its design of schools. The reforms shall not just be restricted to physical infrastructure but also the teaching patterns. It is presumed that students from now on will have more of a say in what exactly they want to learn and what not as compared to other countries. As per CityLab, which is an architecture website, Finland has planned to undergo an ambitious national redesign of around 4800 schools that it consists of.

Around 57 new schools have started construction in the year 2015 and approximately 44 in the year 2016. The rest are being refurbished using open plan principals. This is being done in order to slowly and steadily replace and change the schools by bringing about new innovative ideas in them. This is being done precisely to make schools more flexible educational institutions. The chief architect of the Finland's Department of education stated that the design of the schools shall be such that there shall be no excessive sound and noise as they are going to use soft chairs, big cushions, rocking chairs, along with movable walls and partitions which one can use for having private discussions. The school shall be no more consist of traditional tables and chairs. The students will have a lot of say in what exactly they want to study. Last year, in an interview with Finland education Minister it was revealed that the Finland education system will take up to multidisciplinary learning very soon. The new curriculum would require around one extended period for the Phenomena based teaching and learning (PBL). The schools will have the choice to choose any particular theme for example climate change and one will be able to see the different perspectives of it. This is being done with the idea to inculcate such thinking skills in children wherein they shall be able to think about subjects like climate change from different prospective. The PBL will help the students to build critical thinking skills. Ms. Kirsti Lonka, a professor of educational psychology, at Helsinki University stated that in real life our brain is not sliced into disciplines. We think in a very holistic way. And practically if seen we haven't given our children enough tools to deal and face the problems of the present world. As per statistics although Finland has slipped down according to the International PISA education rankings in the recent years, yet Finland’s freestyle of education has achieved a lot of success. Professor Stephen Heppel stated that the 21st-century education system requires a more modern approach for teaching. He stated that initially the teachers were very amazed at the idea of removing the physical desks and the chairs from the classrooms. They enquired that how will they manage without the desk and a chair. He believes that it is very important to listen to the inside voice of the students and understand what exactly they need. Students of today have good ideas and innovative thinking. They see and visualise things in the manner that we cannot. The BBC has summarised the major differences between Finland system of education as compared to other countries. The major differences include: 

1. Teaching is extremely respectful and well-paid profession is in Finland.

2. Teachers are not evaluated in Finland.

3. The school days are short and summer break is of about 10 weeks.

4. The performance of students are assessed by their teachers.

5. Average size of the class is about 19 students.

6. Success has been attributed to a traditionally high regard for teaching and reading.

Therefore, all these attributes make Finland a better country in terms imparting education. Other countries should also draw inspiration from Finland.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/10/why-finland-is-tearing-down-walls-in-schools