THE FINNISH EDUCATION SYSTEM

1. THE FINNISH EDUCATION SYSTEM

3. Basic education  • The Finnish school system does not have any actual pre-schools, but pre-school teaching is provided at schools and daycare centres. Pre-school teaching means education provided in the year before children start comprehensive school. • The aim is to improve children's capacity for learning. In practice, children are taught new facts and new skills through play. participation in such teaching is voluntary. Most six-year-olds now go to pre-school.

4. Compulsory education • Compulsory education in Finland really starts with comprehensive school, which generally starts in the year children turn seven. Comprehensive school is a nine-year system providing education for all children of compulsory school age. • Every Finnish citizen is required to complete this education. Comprehensive school lasts for nine years and ends once a young person has completed the curriculum of the comprehensive school or when ten years have passed since the start of their compulsory education.

5. Post-comprehensive school education • Post-comprehensive school education is given by general upper secondary schools and vocational schools.  • The upper secondary schools offer a three-year general education curriculum, at the end of which the pupil takes the national matriculation examination, which is the general eligibility criterion for higher education. The matriculation examination consists of four compulsory subjects and one or more optional ones.

6. TheCompulsory tests • The compulsory tests are in the mother tongue (either Finnish or Swedish), the second official language, a foreign language, and either mathematics or general studies. • There are two levels of examinations in mathematics, in the second official language and in foreign languages; in at least one of the compulsory examinations the more demanding level must be chosen.

7. The general upper secondary school • The general upper secondary school network covers the entire country. The schools follow a national core curriculum, but recently the range of choice has been widened. • Individual schools can cultivate a more distinct image; some upper secondaries have a specialized curriculum, giving emphasis to the arts or some other field. • Upper secondary school has traditionally constitutedthe main channel to university education.

8. Vocational education • Finnish vocational education and training is institution-based to a very large extent. Taught courses form the core of the programmes. • In order to create closer cooperation between vocational education and training and the world of work, efforts are being made to increase the proportion of apprenticeship training to some 10 % of all entrants.

9. Upper Secondary vocational education • Upper secondary vocational education covers some 75 qualifications. The study programmes take  three years to complete. • They are designed for comprehensive school leavers and lead to basic vocational qualifications. • All three years study programmes provide eligibility for institutions of higher education. 

10. Higher education • Higher education system consists of universities and polytechnics. The Finnish higher education system is made up of two parallel sectors: universities and polytechnics. • The universities ( 20 ) rely on the connection between research and teaching. Their basic purpose is to perform scientific research and to provide higher education connected with it. • Students at universities may take a lower (Bachelor's) or higher (Master's) academic degree and also academic further education, consisting of licentiate and doctoral degree.

11. The polytechnics • The polytechnics are usually regional higher education institutions which provide instruction in subjects from several sectors, and which emphasize a connection with working life. •  There are all together 29 permanent polytechnics.  Most of these institutions are multisector establishments. The polytechnics provide instruction in the following sectors: technology and transport, business and administration, health and social services, culture, tourism, catering and institutional management, natural resources, the humanities and education.

12. More general information • In Finland, 99.7 % of the age group complete compulsory schooling, which means that Finland has one of the lowest dropout rates in the world. • There is no school fee in Finland. The government contributes to the financing of all of the schools. For children, the teaching and educational equipment are free of charge. In addition, pupils get one free warm meal a day. This tradition of free school meals goes back fifty years.

13. More general information • Statutes determine the core subjects which all pupils study. The government determines the national objectives for education and the number of classroom hours allocated to each subject. • The school year is divided into the autumn and spring terms, totalling 190 school days

14. More general information • One distinctive characteristic of the Finnish comprehensive school is the number of languages studied. In principle, all pupils learn two languages besides their mother tongue, and have the option of one elective and one free-choice language • As a rule, transportation is arranged by the education provider for distances of 5 km and over. The smallest schools have fewer than ten pupils, and the largest ones 900.

15. Teachers From the first to the sixth yearclass, pupils are mainly taught by class teachers and for the remaining three years by specialist subject teachers. • As a rule, both comprehensive and upper secondary school teachers have university degrees, which take 5-6 years to complete. The qualifications required from teachers are set down in fairly great detail in statutes.

16. Statistics of the academic year 2004/2005 • This spring, 63,500 pupils finished their 9-year compulsory comprehensive schooling, 32,000 students have passed the matriculation examination and 31,000 students took initial vocational qualifications. 21,000 students have finished their polytechnic degrees

17. Statistics of the academic year 2004/2005 • At the end of the academic year, there were 3,694 comprehensive schools (298 Swedish-speaking), 472 upper secondary schools (36 Swedish-speaking) and 270 vocational schools (21 Swedish-speaking). There are 30 polytechnics, three of which are Swedish-speaking. • This autumn, 57,500 new pupils started school at the first grade, 3,800 of them Swedish-speaking.

18. Statistics of the academic year 2004/2005 • 3,500 people earned an initial vocational qualification, 4,000 a further vocational qualification and 2,000 a specialist vocational qualification in apprenticeship training. 48,000 people participated in vocational apprenticeship training during the year.

19. Special-needs education • Pupils with learning difficulties get remedial teaching in addition to normal classes. Since 1997, educational authorities have been responsible for the education of all children, including those with profound developmental disability. • The aim is to integrate special-needs education as far as possible into ordinary schools, but there are those who benefit more from separate special-needs education.