Ambassador unveils secrets of education in Finland

By Gao Yinan (People's Daily Online) 08:15, November 20, 2013

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Beijing, Nov.20 (People's Daily Online) -- Education in Finnish is world-renowned for itshigh-quality educational system. The secrets lie in equal learning opportunities and all welltrained teachers with university degrees.

"Throughout years, Finnish government has always elevated education system. "The newFinnish ambassador to China, Mr. Jari Gustafsson told People’s Daily Online in theexclusive interview.

"Education system is something that Finland never try to cut down because of saving costs,instead, we kept enhancing education system all the time, even in the difficult years."

Basic education is free and compulsory for children between the ages of 7 and 16. Itincludes tuition, books and supplies, the midday hot meal, and transportation in caseswhere the student lives more than 5 kilometers from the school.

Education in Finland offers a wide variety of educational programs, from short-termcourses to full degree programs. The Finnish higher education system comprises twoparallel sectors: universities and polytechnics.

"The key is that teachers have to be in good quality." Ambassador Gustafsson said in theinterview, "Teachers in Finland are well trained and they all have university degrees."

"Unlike many other western countries," Ambassador Gustafsson said that teachers inFinland are allowed only to teach, not take care of things beyond curriculum. For example,sports games and communicating between families and schools.

"Teachers only teach. Once they focus on what they do best, also they get also betterresults."

Teacher’s social status is very high. Ambassador Gustafson said "In some towns, teachersget elected as municipal officials because they are respected by people."

"Schools and teachers can quite openly choose the material they used in teaching children."Ambassador told People’s Daily Online another mystery of Finnish education is thatteachers have lots of say to curriculum of the young children.

Even given to the freedom, schools have narrower difference than any other counties in theworld, Ambassador said.

Therefore, teachers in Finland have a personal and lifelong learning skill in self-graduating,in ambassador’s words, "They really are allowed to take care of improving ownprofessionalism."

"This is one of big secrets in Finnish education system," Ambassador Gustafson toldjournalist that school hours are shorter than many other countries and students don’t haveso much homework even.

Instead, schools and teachers in Finland have responsibilities to take care of students’learning and are supporting children to study more and leanings more after school.

It is worth mentioning that the Finnish education is doing an interesting attempt accordingto Mr. Ambassador that Finnish universities is now try to bring together engineers,business people and arts students. They work, study and do different projects together.They inspire and communicate with each other and creativity helps make the find finalproducts.

Ambassador also mentioned that, in recent years, more and more outstanding Chinesestudents has been to Finland for higher education. "Finnish universities welcome studentsfrom China and hopes to attract more" Ambassador said.

"Academic level of Chinese university is so high," Ambassador Gustafson sees China’s hugedriving force to the world’s economic growth and he supports university-level cooperationwith China.

There are 20 universities in Finland: ten multifaculty institutions, three technicaluniversities, three schools of economics and business administration, and four artsuniversities. Their operations are based on academic and personal freedom. Eachuniversity defines its own regulations governing curricula and degrees, and sets its ownannual admission limits.

And there are 29 polytechnics in Finland. The special feature of the polytechnics is theirclose link with working life and their aim of providing vocational skills in different sectors

However, gaining admission to college in Finland is not easy. In 2011, a total of 66,000people applied for college and only 17,000 people were admitted. For the pol,technics,there were a total of 70,000 applicants but about 22,000 people passed exams accordingto the data provided by Finnish embassy on its website.

（Editor：GaoYinan、Chen Lidan）