Tamil Nadu to learn lessons from Finnish schooling system

Impressed by the practices followed by the school education system in Finland, one of the best in the world, Tamil Nadu School Education Department has decided to adopt some of them in State-run schools here. The proposal has come after the visit of School Education Minister KA Sengottaiyan to the Nordic country three months ago.

During his visit late in August, the Minister had visited several schools in Finland to understand the teaching methods followed in government schools there. The team led by Sengottaiyan, which comprised senior officials from the department, had also met their counterparts in Finland to know more about the teaching and learning methods they followed. In addition, the department had also sent a delegation of headmasters, teachers and education officers to Finland recently to learn about the system they followed in that country.

The school education system in Finland is considered to be one of the best models in the world. The country offers single-structure education for nine years, 190 days per year. The teacher-student ratio is kept at 1:20, 1:24 and 1:29 respectively at primary, middle and high schools. And the early education is designed around the concept of learning through plays and games.

Finnish children do not appear for examinations until the last year of school. This would remove the severe stress that the children face right through their school days and on the eve of public examinations.

“All the schools in Finland are publicly funded. From local to national level officials, the people in the government agencies running them are educators, not businesspersons or career politicians,” said an official here.

Every school there have common national goals and draws from the same pool of university-trained educators. The result is that each Finnish student will get the same quality of education regardless of whether he or she lives in a village or a city.

Teachers in Finland spend only few hours at school and spend lesser time in classrooms than any other teachers across the globe. Instead, they use the extra time to build curricula and assess their students. Children spend far more time playing outside, even in winter. Homework is kept at a minimum. Compulsory schooling does not begin until age of seven.

After the feedback report given by the group of teachers and academicians who returned from their visit to Finland, the School Education department is keen to introduce the study method here.

“A committee comprising academicians, government education officials, experts and teachers as members has been constituted to conduct a detail feasibility study for implementing Finnish model of education system,” said a senior official from the Directorate of School Education.

The study to be conducted in all government and government-aided schools in few cities, including Chennai, will have comprehensive data about the investment, technology introduction, infrastructure facilities, including learning ambiance, among others.

Stating that the survey would be completed before the coming academic session, the official said that during the initial phase, about 100 schools would be selected to implement the Finnish model before extending to the other schools.

K Mary, a government teacher who interacted with the visiting Finland delegation here, said that their model is not that easy to implement. “Our teachers have to be trained with the help of education experts from there. Investment, too, plays an important part,” she added.

She said the main essence of the system followed by the Nordic country is to give the child more practical study than classroom sessions. To introduce the system here, a policy level decision should be taken to remove long monologue classroom sessions, fine-tune the syllabi with less content but instead focus on in-depth learning, small classrooms, flexible choice-based credit system, and learner-centric model among others changes, she added.

Academicians and experts pointed out that to achieve the results that Finnish educators are able to deliver, the basic infrastructure facilities at the schools in Tamil Nadu should be improved. Also, common system of school education must be implemented in the State. “Establishment of fully State funded common school system based on neighbourhood school (CSS-NS) from pre-primary to higher secondary, mother tongue as medium of instruction, and opportunity for the child to learn more than one language will help,” said PB Prince Gajendra Babu, general secretary, State Platform for Common School System – Tamil Nadu.

“Till the establishment of CSS, the existing government schools should be strengthened to make them genuine neighbourhood schools as is there in Finland,” he said. In addition, all kindergarten schools should be merged with high schools, he added.

Though welcoming the move, Tamil Nadu Teachers Association President PK Ilamaran said it would take some important measures to attain the target.

“Firstly, the quality of teachers should be improved. There should be a separate education policy for the State. A separate directorate should be constituted for common school system. Syllabus should be changed according to the students’ requirement. Teachers with good qualification should be appointed, and their service should be utilised only for teaching. Infrastructure facilities have to be improved. These measures will have to be implemented to attain that level,” he said.

Officials and government teachers say it would be difficult to attain the desired results unless the standard of schools is improved drastically.

According to K Perumal, a retired government school headmaster, the student-teacher ratio should be improved before trying to implement Finland model. There, there are a maximum of 25 students in each class, whereas it can be 50 students per class in some schools and 10 in some others, he pointed out.

“Our teachers should also be trained by Finland experts, otherwise they won’t have any idea about that method of learning,” he added.

Echoing him, S Gomathi, teacher at an aided school in Chromepet said the government should take several measures, including giving comprehensive training to teachers on taking classes. “The model should be implemented in a phased manner,” she added.