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Please provide a summary of the school system in Finland, focusing on a list of the thought leaders behind the system, and a detailed summary of the results of the education system.
Hello! Thanks for your question about the thought leaders and results of the Finnish education system. The short version is that Finland's education system is based on a principle of equality and cooperation, which has resulted in very enviable academic performance. Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
METHODOLOGY
As you have identified that you would like comprehensive, rather than filtered, information, I have concentrated on providing a variety of information regarding the thought leaders. While I have picked out some of the more interesting information in my detail below, there is more information to be found in the sources. I have also included a detailed summary of the results of the education system.
JUKKA SARJALA
Jukka Sarjala "spent 25 years in the Ministry of Education" in Finland, between 1970 and 1995, when the country "rarely appeared on anyone’s list of the world’s most outstanding education systems." However, during that time, and later as the Director General of the National Board of Education, Sarjala was defining the principles that would lead to the success of the system. In his own words, "Equality in opportunities and outcomes is what drives the first nine years of schooling" and "Cooperation is what makes equality possible." It is these core principles of equality and cooperation that have formed the basis of the schooling system.
PASI SAHLBERG
Pasi Sahlberg is the author of "Finnish Lessons 2.0: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland?" and is Finland's former "chief inspector of schools". Sahlberg is another advocate for equality in education, and is "dismissive" of the idea of academies and free schools.
Sahlberg is well known internationally as an education expert, often speaking on the subject of "enhancing equity and excellence in schools", and "has been a central figure in planning innovation and implementing education reforms in Finland since the 1990s".
REIJO LAUKKANEN
Another "veteran of Finland's Board of Education", Laukkanen is a widely cited thought leader behind the Finnish education system. His principle idea is that teachers should be given "space for innovation, because they should try to find new ways to improve learning."
One highly interesting quote from Laukkanen that I found in the sources is from an interview, where he states his insight that "if you set minimum objectives for the schools you'll always reach low objectives."
TAPIO KOSUNEN
Kosunen gained his doctoral degree in Education in 1994 with a dissertation that "focused on primary school teachers as curriculum implementers and curriculum makers". He believes that "Nurturing innovation is an important priority for [Finland] in our school system". As the "Director General, Department for Higher Education and Science Policy at Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland", Kosunen is an important thought leader on the education system as it stands and going forward.
HENNA VIRKKUNEN
In 2010, Henna Virkkunen, Finland's then Education Minister (now a member of the European Parliament), indicated that she felt the Finnish system needed to "pay more attention also to those pupils who are very talented" as the system at the time was very good at helping those who were falling behind.
This is interesting to note, since Finland was, at the time, second only to Korea in the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment). In contrast, the same study from 2015 ranks Finland in 4th place.
Virkkunen is a proud advocate of the Finnish education system as a whole, particularly the fact that the teaching profession is very highly regarded in the country and "young people want to become teachers".
RESULTS OF THE SYSTEM
Finland's unique approach to education has had some remarkably effective results. The most reliable source of data on the quality of education around the world is the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) Test, which ranks performance of 15 year old students worldwide in various subjects: "science, mathematics, reading, collaborative problem solving and financial literacy."
The results in focus for 2015 makes for interesting reading. Finland is noted as the only country surveyed where "girls are more likely to be top performers than boys" in science subjects. Finland ranks extremely well against the other countries across the board, with a "mean performance/share of top performers above the OECD average" and a "share of low achievers below the OECD average".
For further details of how Finland's results are viewed, and how they compare, please see this article.
What's seen as most remarkable internationally is the consistency in terms of the results produced by the education system, with "the gap within schools between the top and bottom-achieving students [being] extraordinarily modest."
Further results of the Finnish education system can be seen in what happens when compulsory schooling is over. According to the Education and Training Monitor for Finland in 2015 (a European Commission publication), Finland consistently performs well compared to the rest of Europe for all areas except early childhood education (Finnish children don't begin education until the age of 7). Finland has a low level of "Early leavers from education and training" and a high level of "Tertiary education attainment". Additionally, the percentage of Finnish adults participating in lifelong learning is markedly above the European average, at 25% in 2014 compared with an average of just above 10%.
In terms of employment following education, the OECD's Education at a Glance publication for 2013 (the most recent to mention employment statistics) rates Finland very highly. The overall employment rate in Finland in this year was only slightly above the European average, but what's interesting is that while other countries had taken a hit from the slowdown in the global economy, in Finland "the unemployment rate increased at a much slower pace".
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, the Finnish education system is based on a principle of equality and cooperation, advocated by Jukka Sarjala. The results of this system speak for themselves, with Finland regularly performing enviably in international tests.
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