THE FINNISH EDUCATION SYSTEM

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THE FINNISH EDUCATION SYSTEM
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Basic education 

• The Finnish school system does not have any
  actual pre-schools, but pre-school teaching is
  provided at schools and daycare centres.
  Pre-school teaching means education provided in
  the year before children start comprehensive
  school.
• The aim is to improve children's capacity for
  learning. In practice, children are taught new
  facts and new skills through play. participation
  in such teaching is voluntary. Most six-year-olds
  now go to pre-school.

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Compulsory education

• Compulsory education in Finland really starts
  with comprehensive school, which generally starts
  in the year children turn seven. Comprehensive
  school is a nine-year system providing education
  for all children of compulsory school age.
• Every Finnish citizen is required to complete
  this education. Comprehensive school lasts for
  nine years and ends once a young person has
  completed the curriculum of the comprehensive
  school or when ten years have passed since the
  start of their compulsory education.

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Post-comprehensive school education

• Post-comprehensive school education is given by
  general upper secondary schools and vocational
  schools. 
• The upper secondary schools offer a three-year
  general education curriculum, at the end of which
  the pupil takes the national matriculation
  examination, which is the general eligibility
  criterion for higher education. The matriculation
  examination consists of four compulsory subjects
  and one or more optional ones.

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The Compulsory tests

• The compulsory tests are in the mother tongue
  (either Finnish or Swedish), the second official
  language, a foreign language, and either
  mathematics or general studies.
• There are two levels of examinations in
  mathematics, in the second official language and
  in foreign languages in at least one of the
  compulsory examinations the more demanding level
  must be chosen.

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The general upper secondary school

• The general upper secondary school network covers
  the entire country. The schools follow a national
  core curriculum, but recently the range of choice
  has been widened.
• Individual schools can cultivate a more distinct
  image some upper secondaries have a specialized
  curriculum, giving emphasis to the arts or some
  other field.
• Upper secondary school has traditionally
  constituted the main channel to university
  education.

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Vocational education

• Finnish vocational education and training is
  institution-based to a very large extent. Taught
  courses form the core of the programmes.
• In order to create closer cooperation between
  vocational education and training and the world
  of work, efforts are being made to increase the
  proportion of apprenticeship training to some 10
  of all entrants.

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Upper Secondary vocational education

• Upper secondary vocational education covers some
  75 qualifications. The study programmes take 
  three years to complete.
• They are designed for comprehensive school
  leavers and lead to basic vocational
  qualifications.
• All three years study programmes provide
  eligibility for institutions of higher education. 

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Higher education

• Higher education system consists of universities
  and polytechnics. The Finnish higher education
  system is made up of two parallel sectors
  universities and polytechnics.
• The universities ( 20 ) rely on the connection
  between research and teaching. Their basic
  purpose is to perform scientific research and to
  provide higher education connected with it.
• Students at universities may take a lower
  (Bachelor's) or higher (Master's) academic degree
  and also academic further education, consisting
  of licentiate and doctoral degree.

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The polytechnics

• The polytechnics are usually regional higher
  education institutions which provide instruction
  in subjects from several sectors, and which
  emphasize a connection with working life.
•  There are all together 29 permanent
  polytechnics.  Most of these institutions are
  multisector establishments. The polytechnics
  provide instruction in the following sectors
  technology and transport, business and
  administration, health and social services,
  culture, tourism, catering and institutional
  management, natural resources, the humanities and
  education.

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More general information

• In Finland, 99.7 of the age group complete
  compulsory schooling, which means that Finland
  has one of the lowest dropout rates in the world.
• There is no school fee in Finland. The government
  contributes to the financing of all of the
  schools. For children, the teaching and
  educational equipment are free of charge. In
  addition, pupils get one free warm meal a day.
  This tradition of free school meals goes back
  fifty years.

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More general information

• Statutes determine the core subjects which all
  pupils study. The government determines the
  national objectives for education and the number
  of classroom hours allocated to each subject.
• The school year is divided into the autumn and
  spring terms, totalling 190 school days

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More general information

• One distinctive characteristic of the Finnish
  comprehensive school is the number of languages
  studied. In principle, all pupils learn two
  languages besides their mother tongue, and have
  the option of one elective and one free-choice
  language
• As a rule, transportation is arranged by the
  education provider for distances of 5 km and
  over. The smallest schools have fewer than ten
  pupils, and the largest ones 900.

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Teachers

• From the first to the sixth yearclass, pupils
  are mainly taught by class teachers and for the
  remaining three years by specialist subject
  teachers.
• As a rule, both comprehensive and upper secondary
  school teachers have university degrees, which
  take 5-6 years to complete. The qualifications
  required from teachers are set down in fairly
  great detail in statutes.

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Statistics of the academic year 2004/2005

• This spring, 63,500 pupils finished their 9-year
  compulsory comprehensive schooling, 32,000
  students have passed the matriculation
  examination and 31,000 students took initial
  vocational qualifications. 21,000 students have
  finished their polytechnic degrees

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Statistics of the academic year 2004/2005

• At the end of the academic year, there were 3,694
  comprehensive schools (298 Swedish-speaking), 472
  upper secondary schools (36 Swedish-speaking) and
  270 vocational schools (21 Swedish-speaking).
  There are 30 polytechnics, three of which are
  Swedish-speaking.
• This autumn, 57,500 new pupils started school at
  the first grade, 3,800 of them Swedish-speaking.

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Statistics of the academic year 2004/2005

• 3,500 people earned an initial vocational
  qualification, 4,000 a further vocational
  qualification and 2,000 a specialist vocational
  qualification in apprenticeship training. 48,000
  people participated in vocational apprenticeship
  training during the year.

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Special-needs education

• Pupils with learning difficulties get remedial
  teaching in addition to normal classes. Since
  1997, educational authorities have been
  responsible for the education of all children,
  including those with profound developmental
  disability.
• The aim is to integrate special-needs education
  as far as possible into ordinary schools, but
  there are those who benefit more from separate
  special-needs education.