What India could learn from what Finland is possibly doing wrong!
Being an Indian working as teacher in a Finnish school, I am often asked by my friends and family in India what is it that India could learn from Finland. What is the secret sauce that explains Finland’s success in education and society as a whole? There really isn't a simple answer to this million-dollar question. But I think one of the major factors was the boldness represented by leaders and policy makers of the Finland of 1970s. They knew that providing free, quality education to its children can even out the lack of opportunities and give them all a level playing field to prosper. In practice this meant abolishing the system that believed "everyone cannot learn everything" and streamed students into "academic" and "vocational" schools when they were only 11 years old, replaced by equal, free education for everyone until age of 16 [1]. They did not know that PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) would come to exist several decades later to show how great Finland’s education system is. Or how they would come to excel in World Happiness Report. These were just positive consequences of focusing on the right things.
This long-term view of 70s Finland focusing on the core value of human equality is a lesson that India can borrow. It’s implementation in the 21st century India, however, could and should look very differently in practice from classroom practices and educational policies that Finland adopted decades ago.
On the other hand, from Finland's point of view, the lack of boldness to look into the future might unfortunately be a terrible mistake. Understandably, Finland has a lot at stake. Being the centre of attention for the past couple of decades, it only makes sense that there is reason to be cautious while making changes. Educational systems and societies are extremely complex where there are multiple factors at play. One can’t be so sure why exactly something is working the way it is. If you don’t know why your sauce tastes so good, you won’t dare change the recipe, would you?
To make things more difficult, conversation in media revolves around superficial PISA results and how Finland is steadily falling behind. There is a sense of panic on how the difference in learning outcomes are growing continuously especially in reading literacy; something Finnish kids were really good at. Although these are genuine concerns, I personally find them as distractions that divert one's attention from addressing the real problem: is our education preparing our kids with skills required to function well in the future society? This is indeed a difficult problem that rarely gets addressed. Is excellent reading skill the right skill for future? As much as I enjoy reading, I am not so sure. Saku Tuominen talks about this in Koulu podcast (in Finnish).
This lack of boldness in having difficult conversations related to the future of learning might mean that it is quite unlikely that Finland would be pioneering education in the coming years or decades. Perhaps it could be India, or one of developing countries that can only gain by trying something different. Maybe they can show the rest of the world how AI driven technology can be used to give personalized education even in the remotest of places.
Education is an investment in the future. Whatever that future is going to look like for both the countries, to thrive there requires selfless, visionary leadership that is ready to take difficult decisions now for the future good. Just like the leaders of early Finland were ready to envision a future wherein their citizens were equal and happy, knowing that they might not see that future themselves. As the famous quote goes: "Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in".
[1] Sahlberg, Pasi. Finnish lessons 3.0: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland?. Teachers College Press, 2021
