Education is a key factor in personal and professional development and effective education is the key to success.
To wish to start a new life far from your country is not an easy decision but once you make it you have to consider several factors. One of them is obviously education. People planning to start a family or to move to a new country with their children should keep it in their focus.
Having this idea of moving to another country still at its initial phase, I somehow got involved in talks concerning education in Finland. Finland has always pulled me as to a certain extent it appears to me as a country of magic, where Santa lives, where the Northern Lights are best seen but never had I thought about how effective and productive Finnish education is.
A research helped me have a better notion and it turned out that the education system Finland has developed and adopted is one of the best ones in the world. Many countries look up to it to improve their own ones, to make changes and enhance the overall system. It’s true. And going back to what I said in the beginning, education is the key to success and thus, perhaps that is one reason why Finland is one of the most leading and straightforward countries in the world.
Perhaps that is why Finland is one of the successful countries in the world. And perhaps that is why a look at Finnish people is enough to conclude that their education system has not failed as it has managed to bring up generations who are not only book-smart (which is observed in a myriad of countries) but also life- smart.
The first step to building an educated environment is to value the teacher’s profession. Overall, the European education system or the U.S. education system are said to be at a high level. But the world is not limited to only these two continents and in majority of countries the teacher’s profession is unfairly underrated and devalued despite the huge responsibility and mission it bears.
As of today most countries are trying to raise the significance of the teacher’s profession and place it in its worthy place. Some manage others don’t. What Finland has managed to do is to realize its significance and it simply has to be noted that teachers are given the status of doctors and lawyers, which are the two most important professions in the world, especially the first one. All teachers in this amazing country should have their Master’s Degree obtained.
The school system is 100% state funded. Despite that schools enjoy full autonomy. It should be said that just like Rome was not built in one day neither the Finnish education system was. It’s a result of decades of consistent and systematic work. The Finnish government came to realize that to educate generations they need educated teachers and therefore the stress was put on highly competitive and skillful teachers. Effective school education should start with teacher education in the first place. Perhaps this is the cornerstone of the Finnish education.
If you go to a Finnish school today you will be surprised by the interior and the exterior of those schools. They look elegant and modest. And children seem to lack that “crazy” behavior observed in most schools around the world.
Finnish schools are quite small. They include minor or less 300 students with 20 in each class. This allows teachers to pay more attention to each of the students and show more care to them. Unlike most classes with like 30 or 40 students, Finnish classrooms enjoy some harmony and solidarity which is kind of typical of all Finland, including of its nature and wildlife.
Students do not need to ask for money from their parents not to starve at school. They get free meal every day. In addition, they have free healthcare and transportation. While in most countries getting the learning materials costs money, here children perhaps do not even know there is such a thing as all learning materials are given free of charge.