Finland is not only a great and extremely beautiful country, but it is also among the leading ones in many areas. For example, in different years it was named “The best country of the world” by a Newsweek magazine and “The most stable country” by the “Fund for Peace”. If you are looking for a country where you can go for an exchange program or get an entire higher education, Finland would be the great choice! Finnish educational system was reformed around 45 years ago and has proven to be one of the best ones ever since. Here are only some things that make Finnish education so great.
Foreign languages
Finnish children start learning English as early as in the third grade; they choose a second foreign language (most often French, German or Russian) in the fourth. In the seventh grade everyone has to start learning Swedish. It is proven by many researches that studying foreign languages develops a person’s learning ability, memory, raises his level of IQ.
Breaks between the lessons in primary school can be as long as 75 minutes, children do not have homework until the fourth grade and get marks for their ability to work in groups or alone, politeness and desire to help others.
Essays
There are a lot of essays on every level of Finish education, everyone writes a lot – from a first grader to someone, who is studying on his last year of college. A big attention is put on essays in order for young people to be able to clearly state their own thoughts using literary language, as it is considered to be an extremely important ability for a well-educated person.
No losers
It is not a common practice for teachers to divide the students into categories because of their levels of knowledge, it is considered to be a teacher’s job to help those who are behind the others. Around 30% of students get an extra help from the teacher, it is absolutely free of charge and is initiated by the teacher himself, as a result – there is the smallest gap in the world between the most and the least successful students.
Respected teachers
Every teacher is obliged to have at least Master’s level, the government itself gives subsidies and grants for that. Teachers can spend only as much as 4 hours a day in class, they also get a certain number of paid hours in a week that they are supposed to spend on their professional development. You must be among 10% of the best students in your class in college or university in order to become a teacher, whose social status is equal to the doctors` or lawyers`. The salaries in this sector are quite high, someone who has worked in this area for 15 years gets 102% of an average salary of a person with a higher education in other fields.
Free education
The Finnish government pays for education of its people. Students receive everything for free: books, notebooks, stationery, food. As a result – around 66% of young people are studying in colleges or universities and around 93% of Finns have diplomas about higher education. These are ones of the highest levels in the world.