The Finland School System

Why is American amongst the lower rating school system? It is ranked by Newsweek as number twenty six (qtd. in The Finland Phenomenon). Why is Finland school system ranked as number one, according to many different sources? Throughout the centuries school systems have changed drastically. In today’s time the world’s school systems are very competitive. Global competitiveness has encouraged the United States to change the way the education system works to become smarter as a country. Finland has taken a similar stance on improving their school systems, and has successfully made it to the top. The United States has not had such luck. While America is continuously changing their school system to try and compete with global competitors like Finland, …show more content…
It is about the size of Minnesota (The Finland Phenomenon). Finland first declared its independency from Russia December 6, 1917 (Morehouse 438). It was not until 1963 when Finland decided to reevaluate their school systems for the sake of their students and global competitiveness. They created a new curriculum and established public school system. Prior to this, there school systems were the same systems the Russians had in place, and most children had stopped going to school by the age of six. Then in 1979 they made it mandatory that teachers have a master’s degree before they start teaching and that they have to go to one of eight designated teaching schools in the country. In 2006 Finland placed number one in science against fifty six other countries, and since then they have only increased (Hancock). Since 2009 Finland has been considered the top ranking school system in the world. From there they have only continued to work on and the curriculum and better their schools (The Finland Phenomenon). Their schools are split up into four parts; preprimary which is like daycare and is not mandatory, primary education starting at age seven (grades one through six), lower secondary which is equivalent to grades seven through nine, and upper secondary which is equivalent to grades ten through twelve. Children are required to go to school from age seven to age sixteen. Generally most students graduate at the age of …show more content…
Working as a teacher is a respected profession. Teachers are paid and treated as doctors and Lawyers. In the United States people say that those who can’t do teach. A person might have majored in history but they cannot get a job as a historian so they decide to teach history. This is not how it works in Finland. Their teachers are trained by master teachers to teach their subject matter properly. For example they have an upper secondary level physics class dealing with electricity. The teacher was an electrician for twenty years and became a teacher because he was a master of the field. In Finland to be a teacher you have to go to school to become a teacher, the field is not a fall back plan if their true intentions do not work out (The Finland Phenomenon). To become a teacher you have to go through extensive college programs. The teaching field is much more exclusive then is here in the United States. Only about 10% of the applicants make it in to University to become teachers. Getting into the program requires a lot of studying and a series of test to get in to the program in the first place. It is very rare for the education students to leave the program after they have been accepted (Malinen, Vaisanen, and Savolainen 571). In the United States it is a common thing for students to drop out, switch programs, and even return to college to major in