If you don’t already know, the education system in Finland is excellent. The country has been ranked as having the best educational system in Europe and one of the best educational systems in the world. 

Although the education system in Finland is successful, it is not without its problems.  Here are some of those problems:

1. Not enough teachers

This is a problem that is faced by many countries around the world and Finland is no exception to that. There are very few people who want to become teachers and those who do have difficult working conditions and get paid poorly despite their importance to society. This often leads to good teachers quitting their jobs and finding work elsewhere which hurts the quality of education that students receive. 

2. Lack of diversity

In Finland, most of the schools there have an overwhelming number of white students while those from other ethnic groups are left in the minority.  This can be seen as a problem because not only does it provide poor representation for certain ethnic groups but it also means that some of these students might feel out of place in schools due to their lack of representation there. 

3. Lack of resources

The lack of resources is another problem that affects many countries all around the world including Finland. Although public schools in Finland

In the early days of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Finland’s performance was an outlier, ranking top or near top on assessments of reading, mathematics and science. The first test in 2000 set the benchmark of 500 as an average scaled score. Finland performed around half a standard deviation better which is massive. Somewhat inevitably, this prompted a mass pilgrimage of educationalists from across the world who visited Finland, stared long and hard into its magic mirror and saw exactly what they wanted to see. Much of this was misguided or based on the assumption that whatever Finland was doing now, or planned to do in the future, was somehow a cause of its past success.

However, since the mid 2000s, Finland’s PISA results have been in significant decline. This is a key, indisputable fact. And in many ways, it is more significant than any particular ranking in any given year. Why? Education systems vary greatly in terms of their size, demographics and even such factors as the orthography of the language of instruction (more later). When we compare Finland’s performance with, say, Australia, we cannot be sure that it is any particular education policy that has caused the difference because it could be a combination of any of these other factors. However, when we compare Finland with itself over time, we can perhaps make stronger inferences because these other factors are likely to be a little more stable.

We have some good news and some bad news.

First, the bad news: Finland’s rise as a world leader in education was short-lived.

In the 2000s, the country was celebrated around the world for its high test scores and a focus on equity – the idea that all children deserve an excellent education regardless of their background. Its schools were said to be free of standardized testing and focused on developing children’s independence and creativity.

But now Finland has tumbled down one of the biggest international rankings of student performance. In 2000, Finland ranked near the top in reading, math and science literacy among countries that had participated in all three assessments run by PISA (the Program for International Student Assessment), which is designed to evaluate students’ acquired knowledge and skills. Last year’s results showed a different story entirely: Finland placed 14th in reading, 25th in math and 12th in science literacy among 79 countries that participated.

So Finland’s dramatic decline provides an opportunity for learning. What initially appears to be bad news – because we all wish Finland’s students the very best for their education – could be good news in the sense that it potentially provides relatively rare evidence about the impact of educational policies at scale

First of all, however, we need to be able to see it. Just last week, The Conversation, an outlet that is supposed to, “Inform public debate with knowledge-based journalism that is responsible, ethical and supported by evidence,” published an anachronistically breathless piece about Finland. The author, a Canadian education professor, visited Finland, toured schools and spoke to students. He writes of Finland’s PISA success but does not mention its decline and we are invited to believe that a progressivist inquiry learning approach known as ‘phenomenon-based learning’ is somehow associated with Finland’s success, despite it only being around since 2017. It’s all to do with John Dewey or something, even though the Finnish teacher he spoke to didn’t think so.

It was a classic example of the way in which journalists visit Finland or Singapore or Shanghai or whichever education system is flavour of the day in order to decide what they think has worked there and then go on to report it uncritically as if it were true; a patronising form of reportage in which those who actually live in the country are little more than extras in the scene;