EQUITY IN EDUCATION THEMATIC REVIEW FINLAND COUNTRY NOTE Norton Grubb (Rapporteur) Hanna Marit Jahr Josef Neumüller Simon Field Review visit: 11-21 April 2005 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Finland Review took place between 11 and 21 April 2005. The Review Team wishes to express its gratitude to the national co-ordinator and author of the Country Analytical Report – Osmo Lampinen. We would also like to express our profound thanks to the very many people in different parts of the country who, during our visit, gave up their time to meet us, welcome us at their schools and other institutions, and provide us with hospitality. We are also grateful to Petra Packalen, who while on secondment to the OECD from the Finnish National Board of Education gave invaluable advice on factual matters. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................................................ 2 LIST OF POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS................................................................................................. 5 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 7 1.1 The OECD thematic review of equity in education .............................................................................. 7 1.2 The visit to Finland and the approach to the country note .................................................................... 8 1.3 The context of equity in Finland ........................................................................................................... 8 1.4 The structure of this report.................................................................................................................. 13 2. THE POLITICAL CULTURE AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATION IN FINLAND......... 15 2.1 Political culture ................................................................................................................................... 15 2.2 A strong welfare state.......................................................................................................................... 16 2.3 The structure of national and municipal government..........................................................................16 2.4 The “soft touch” approach to regulation and institutional approaches to improvement ..................... 17 3. COMPREHENSIVE EDUCATION IN FINLAND: THE MULTIPLE MECHANISMS OF ENHANCING EQUITY............................................................................................................................... 19 3.1 Equity practices in comprehensive education ..................................................................................... 19 4. TRANSITION, ACCESS, AND SELECTION: UPPER SECONDARY AND TERTIARY EDUCATION ............................................................................................................................................... 23 4.1 The transition to upper secondary education....................................................................................... 23 4.2 The transition to tertiary education ..................................................................................................... 26 5. TOOLS TO ADDRRESS EQUITY ISSUES SYSTEMATICALLY....................................................... 30 5.1 Early childhood education: The day care/pre-primary split................................................................ 30 5.2 The equity approach in comprehensive education: Its consistency and extension to upper secondary32 5.3 The variety of second-chance programmes......................................................................................... 32 5.4 Urban/rural differences and the need for economic development....................................................... 35 5.5 Data analysis and evaluation............................................................................................................... 36 6. FAIRNESS IN FUNDING ....................................................................................................................... 38 6.1 Spending differences across municipalities ........................................................................................ 38 6.2 Performance-based funding for vocational education......................................................................... 39 6.3 Support for tertiary and upper secondary education............................................................................ 39 6.4 Funding across the education system .................................................................................................. 41 6.5 Who shall pay? Equity and the priorities for government funding ..................................................... 41 7. THE EXPERIENCES OF IMMIGRANTS IN FINLAND....................................................................... 44 3 8. CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................... 46 8.1 Day care and pre-primary education ................................................................................................... 46 8.2 The consistency of equity efforts in comprehensive education........................................................... 47 8.3 Extending equity efforts to upper secondary education ...................................................................... 48 8.4 Guidance and counselling and the transition to upper secondary and tertiary education.................... 49 8.5 The division between general upper secondary and vocational education: Strategies for improving vocational education.................................................................................................................................. 50 8.6 Tertiary education: Access, transition and completion .......................................................................51 8.7 Preparing for increases in immigrants................................................................................................. 53 8.8 Improvements in data and evaluation.................................................................................................. 53 8.9 The need for an integrated economic development/education policy................................................. 54 8.10 Setting national priorities for areas of state support.......................................................................... 54 8.11 Conclusion......................................................................................................................................... 55 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................. 56 ANNEX 1: OECD REVIEW TEAM............................................................................................................ 59 ANNEX 2: PROGRAMME OF THE VISIT................................................................................................ 60 ANNEX 3: THE EDUCATION SYSTEM IN FINLAND........................................................................... 64 4 LIST OF POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS We recommend: 1. that co-ordination of day care and pre-primary education should be more fully developed. To this end both national and local discussion should take place to assess the state of coordination, and to ensure consistency between the two practices to determine if children who might benefit are being excluded. 2. that an investigation be undertaken of the background of those children who do not participate in the pre-primary year of education, and in the light of that information consideration should be given to options for ensuring that all those who could benefit from the pre-primary year of education do so. 3. that the Ministry of Education commission a study of the variation across municipalities in equity practices, including the availability of support such as special needs teachers, classroom assistants, social workers and psychologists. 4. that the Ministry of Education should actively monitor and sustain the virtuous circle which supports the high quality and equity of basic schooling in Finland. 5. that the Ministry of Education establish a working group of individuals from basic education, upper secondary general education, and secondary vocational education, to examine how the good equity practices of basic education could be extended into upper secondary education. 6. that in the light of the Ministry of Education’s own evaluation and our findings, the Ministry should now develop proposals for reform designed to significantly enhance the effectiveness of vocational guidance and counselling. 7. that the Ministry of Education undertake a comprehensive review of options for the reform of vocational education, with a view to determining which reforms would be most effective, particularly in enhancing the status of vocational education, giving particular attention to the option of a better integration of vocational and academic tracks. 8. that the forthcoming OECD review visit which will look at tertiary education should give particular attention to: − access to tertiary education from upper secondary and vocational education; − how the expansion of tertiary education in Finland, including the institutional differentiation can be harnessed to the cause of equity; − drop-out from tertiary education, and variability in drop-out rates between institutions. 5 9. that the Ministry of Education