Population:
5425553 people live in Finland and the country´s capital is Helsinki.
Language and its status
Finland’s national language is known as Finnish and, as it appears in Ethnologue (2013), it is established like a statutory national language in the country, although Swedish is also considered an official language. That is why Finnish is used in Finland in the administration, in the court or at the school.
Development of the education system throughout history
In order to understand how Finland’s education has become one of the most commented education models in the world, it is important to know that in the early 1970s, Finland had an underperforming education system and a pretty poor agrarian economy. As Sirota (2011) says, that’s way In 1970s they started transforming the preparation of future teachers. Every teacher got a masters degree, and every teacher got the very same high quality level of preparation, becoming the most highly esteemed profession. Besides, the teaching mode was changed giving the school more importance than ever.
Education system structure
As it is mention in the text Ministery of education and culture (n.d.), there are many stages in the Filand´s education system. To following, we are going to explein this stages, public and private educations and bilingual forms according to the text.
Private vs. public education
There are very few private schools in Finland and most of them are religious schools. That is to say that, the majority of Finnish children go to public education centres. Besides, it is important to underline that education in Finland is free to all beginning at the no compulsory pre-primary level and continuing until the secondary education and this is because funding responsibilities are divided between the federal and municipal governments. However, both public and public schools are required to use the same admissions standards and provide the same services
Pre-school
Compulsory education does not start until a child becomes seven years of age, but during the year before compulsory education begins,about 96% of the six years old children attend to the pre-primary education. The aim of this stage is to develop children's learning skills as part of early childhood education in order to prepare them for school. Therefore, each pre-primary education provider is who makes the decisions about the timetables of pre-primary education and other practical arrangements.
Basic education
This is a compulsory education stage given in comprehensive schools, which starts at the age of seven and lasts at the age of nine. In addition, young people who have completed their compulsory schooling can opt for one extra year, in order to encourage young people to continue their studies at the upper secondary level. This basic education in Finland can be taught in Finnish or Swedish, since both are official languages in this country.
The basic education in Finland is divided into grades. On the one hand, the basic education from years 1 to 6, are mainly taught by class teachers and on the other hand the years 7 to 9 specialized subject teachers are introduced, which are very good qualified. Besides, the schools themselves draw up their own school curriculum for pre-primary and basic education within the framework of the national curriculum established by the Finnish ministry of education.
General upper secondary education
After finishing the compulsory education, an upper secondary level is offered for those students between 16 and 19, who want to continue studying. The aims of this stage is the comprise of general and vocational education forms, which usually take three years and give eligibility to enter in a higher education.
Moreover, the general upper secondary school ends with a matriculation examination. According to this matriculation examination, passing the exam gives the possibility of continuing with the studies in universities, polytechnics or vocational institutions.
Vocational training
Annually about 40,000 students enter in the vocational training, where the principal aim is to improve the skills of the studied work, to respond to the needs required in the world of work. Furthermore, this stage is intended both for young people and for adults who are already working, giving general eligibility to choose between polytechnic and university studies.
Higher education:
The Finnish higher education system consists of polytechnics and universities sectors. According university, it is imperative to say that the mission of universities is to guide scientific and artistic researches and educate students to serve their country and humanity. Moreover, Finnish universities are independent corporations or foundations that are under public law. This is to say that, since 2010 university operations in Finland are built on the freedom of education and research.
Adult education
The studies known as adult education are designed to provide study opportunities for adults, in order to enter in the labour market. In addition, more than 1.7 million of people attend to different types of adult education each year in Finland. However, what is really conducted with this education is the increment of the employment rate, the improvement of productivity and implementation of the conditions for lifelong learning.
Bilingual education forms:
In the Finnish education foreign languages have always occupied a prominent role, having a multilingual ideology in this almost monolingual country which is Finland. Furthermore, Finnish, Swedish and English are the minimum languages that are learned in the Finnish schools giving languages a great value.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
A language of Finland (2013) [internet version] Ethnologue. available from: https://www.ethnologue.com/language/fin: last view: 24 March 2014
Opetus- ja kulttuuriministerio (n.d) [internet version] Ministery of education and culture. available from: http://www.minedu.fi/OPM/Koulutus/koulutusjaerjestelmae/koulutuksen_hallinto_ja_paeaetoeksenteko/?lang=en: last view: 24 March 2014
Sirota, D. (2011) [internet version] Salon. available from: http://www.salon.com/2011/07/18/tony_wagner_finland/: last view: 24 March 2014
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