Finland's education system: something for Ireland to aspire to?

goose2005

Helmet wrote: »

"Streaming" is what you're talking about. It has led to serious social issues in the states and the UK.
Streaming reinforces the idea that you are predestined to a particular position in society and will never achieve above your station. As a democratic, modern republic we'd be very ill-informed to follow this archaic programme.
It follows along the same lines as "The rich get richer, the poor get poorer".
Times have changed, for the better.

Odd that no-one complains that in school sports, the bad players are told to go home and the mediocre players are left on the bench. But when it comes to academic performance, making any differenciation is evil.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

goose2005 wrote: »

Odd that no-one complains that in school sports, the bad players are told to go home and the mediocre players are left on the bench. But when it comes to academic performance, making any differenciation is evil.

Not really. Well, it would be odd if people got into universities and got jobs based on there sporting performances, but they don't so it isn't.

Dionysus

There seems to be growing acknowledgement in Ireland of the achievements of the Finnish education system.

Following on from the Fine Gael proposal, in today's Irish Times there is a very informative article by Seán Flynn entitled 'How the Finns got it so right':

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/education/2010/0511/1224270129062.html

Hopefully more policymakers and members of the public will become aware of this system and major educational reform will follow not too far behind.

bijebarrett

I think we could take a lot from Finnish educational system and the level of autonomy of the teacher and the student.
It integrates an academic and a vocational education from 16 years onward. (At senior cycle)
It provides a diverse range of the subjects to senior cycle students. In fact the vocational education experience is outperforming the more academic experience by the choices made by even the very high achievers.
I firmly believe we could start to achieve this here in Ireland if we had an ETB led integrated learning platform (ILP) that provided a diverse range of subjects on line in new and exciting ways to students, with teachers trained as facilitators.
This platform could also provide online training for teachers in a cost effective manner and provide constant support for the changing nature of the reform required for the future in education in Ireland.
The transfer of Training Centers to the newly established Education and Training Boards (ETBs) with their suite of courses could be adapted for 16 to 19 year age group, to provide for a vocational senior cycle for more student choice instead of the present one track system.
Our students may then choose whether to undergo occupational training to develop vocational competence to prepare them for technological colleges and the workforce or to enter an academic track focusing on preparation for university studies.
I have always felt, for a lot student that the postponement of the pursuit of a strategy for their future learning and career, until after the leaving cert, is a waste of precious time.
‘Education and training partners now have an opportunity to work together and to learn from each other to utilise and build on their combined expertise to strengthen the sector and provide more integrated services to learners.’ Dr Fionnuala Anderson, Manager, DDLETB Training Center

jonnie45

I would be careful here - the French not so long ago decided that they wanted to model themselves on a Scandanavian system. I must admit to a certain amount of mirth.

I have lived in Denmark and I have lived in the South of France. Denmark is the most organised country I have ever lived in and its not just the authorities, everyone takes responsibility for making sure that everything works efficiently in their own patch. The Danish model works at all levels because there is a fundamental desire in the people to do things well and do them efficiently - its not something government ordered - its in the people and society.

My experiences in France were the exact opposite - disorganisation and frankly chaotic at times. The proposal that the French could remodel themselves on the Scandanavian model seemed a vain hope to me because I could not see any willingness in the people to change themselves, to become more organised and deal with issues collectively. Its as people think that they can cherry pick the best bits of an idea without understanding where the idea comes from and the psychology of the average citizen which is an important part of the whole model.

You cannot snip out one bit of a culture you like and in isolation expect it to grow on your soil, it does not work that way, you have to take on the whole philosophy and everyone or at least most people have to buy into it - that means the guy on the street not only buying into an idea but also changing his way of going about things as well.

One characteristic I would say stands in the way in Ireland is that everyone seems to want to blame government for everything rather than accept that we are all part of society and everyone can do their bit to improve things. The socities being looked at as role models are based on everyone buying into the effort and everyone accepting some part of the responsibility when things go wrong.

I do admire those who are interested enough to want to improve things and look around to see what everyone else is doing, the Irish do seem to have some desire to re-invent themselves and that I can only applaud. Just be wary of cherry picking and look a bit deeper into other societies to see what is at the root of the thing you admire - you have to dig a bit deeper if you want to understand whats really going on in another society.

It took me around 3 years of living in Denmark to "get it" and thats being married to a Dane as well!