Education Policy Outlook 2018

Finland

Context

In PISA 2015, Finland scored among the highest in the OECD in science, with a mean score of 530 points, compared to the OECD average of 493 points. According to evidence from PISA 2015, performance in science in Finland has declined across PISA cycles, with an average score change of -10.6 points, while performance in reading and mathematics has also decreased. Socio-economic status had lower-than-average impact on science performance, explaining 10% of the variance in performance (OECD average: 12.9%), and the impact of ESCS on performance in science has not changed significantly since 2006. Finland’s performance gap between boys and girls was -19 points, compared to the average difference across the OECD of 4 points. Immigrant students make up 4% of the student population of 15-year-olds in Finland, a lower proportion than the OECD average of 12.5%. Performance differences between immigrant and non-immigrant students are among the highest in the OECD.

Enrolment of 3-year-olds in ECEC was lower than the OECD average in 2015, at 68.4% (OECD average: 77.8%). Children age 0-6 can attend ECEC programmes in either ECEC centres or family day care until they start compulsory school. ECEC services include special education programmes. At age 6, children typically attend a one-year programme in ECEC centres and comprehensive schools. The National Core Curriculum (2016) is used as a set of guidelines in early childhood education for children age 0-5. Education for 6-year-olds is subject to new curriculum guidelines (Core Curriculum for Pre-primary education, 2014). At pre-primary level, children have the right to attend ECEC programmes before and/or after pre-primary hours. Qualified teachers and other ECEC staff are responsible for implementing the formal curricula in place for both programmes. Pre-primary education is compulsory at age 6, and compulsory schooling starts at age 7 and ends at age 16, shorter than the typical duration across the OECD. Students are first tracked into different educational pathways at age 16, later than the OECD average of age 14. Students can choose between two three-year programmes for upper secondary education (with flexible length), either a general programme or vocational upper secondary education and training. At the end of the three-year general education curriculum for upper secondary education, students can take the national matriculation examination, which provides eligibility to access tertiary education. A modular structure allows students to combine general education and VET studies.

Students can pursue VET in upper secondary or can have professionally-oriented education in universities of applied sciences at tertiary level. Initial vocational-training programmes take three years to complete, including at least half a year of on-the-job learning in workplaces. VET providers organise the training, which can be in vocational institutions or apprenticeships. Upon completion, the qualification provides eligibility for tertiary education. In the OECD Survey of Adult Skills in 2012 and 2015, adult literacy scores in Finland were among the highest in the OECD, at 288 points, compared to the OECD average of 268 points. The gap in literacy skills between older adults (age 55-65) and younger adults (age 25-34) was the highest in the OECD. The proportion of the population aged 25-64 with lower secondary education as the highest level of attainment is relatively low, with an attainment rate of 9.1% in 2016, compared to the OECD average of 14.3%. NEET rates (the proportion of those aged 18-24 that are neither employed nor in education or training) are higher than average, at 16.3% compared to the OECD average of 15.3%.The percentage of the population aged 25-34 with a tertiary‑level qualification is lower than the OECD average, at 41.1% in 2016, compared to the OECD average of 43.1%. Employment rates for 25-34 year-olds with tertiary education are lower than the OECD average. In 2016, 80.9% were employed, while the OECD average rate was 82.9%.

Figure 7.8. Selected indicators compared with the average: Finland

Note: For each indicator, the absolute performance is standardised (normalised) using a normative score ranging from 0 to 220, where 100 was set at the average, taking into account all OECD countries with available data in each case.

Sources: OECD (2016), PISA 2015 Results (Volume I): Excellence and Equity in Education, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264266490-en; OECD (2016), Skills Matter: Further Results from the Survey of Adult Skills, OECD Publishing, Paris, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264258051-en; OECD (2017), Education at a Glance 2017: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2017-en.

Statlink

Evolution of key education policy priorities

Table 7.8. Evolution of key education policy priorities, Finland (2008-17)

Identified by	Equity and quality	Preparing students for the future
Selected OECD country-based work, 2008-171	Reading performance in Finland still depends on students’ backgrounds; students of the first and second immigration population have lower performance. Overall education performance is excellent, but it has been weakened in recent years. This makes it necessary to compensate for further budget cuts by efficiency gains, to maintain world-class results. [2012; 2016]	The OECD identified the need for Finland to accelerate employment and increase skill levels. VET graduates have been found to be less adaptable to structural change, due to slim qualifications and an absence of foundation skills. Also, income inequality can still be mainly explained by problems among those with lower skills to access the labour market. [2016]
Evolution of responses to EPO Surveys, 2013 and 2016‑17	Finland reported difficulties in reducing gender-based and immigration-based performance gaps. [2013; 2016-17]	Demographic changes continue to cause challenges as well as mismatches in the demand and supply of study places and labour market needs. [2013; 2016-17]

1. See Annex A, Table A A.3 for the list of OECD publications consulted for this snapshot.

Selected education policy responses

In 2015, Finland implemented the National Core Curriculum for Instruction Preparing for Basic Education, to respond to the need to better integrate immigrant students. It outlines key strategic areas in education, including securing equal opportunity in education and culture and promoting participation and inclusion. At least 32 500 refugees arrived in Finland in 2015. By the end of that year, almost 3 500 students were attending preparatory courses for basic education. To respond to the needs of this new refugee population, the government established 50 new groups of preparatory studies for basic education in municipalities. In 2015, at least 200 immigrant students were preparing for upper secondary education. Students have access to courses in either Finnish or Swedish, or they can attend classes in their native language. Students age 6-10 receive at least 900 hours of instruction, and older students are eligible to receive at least 1 000 hours. However, no national syllabus has been designed for the curriculum. Students who are able to keep up with the instruction are eligible to transfer to basic education regardless of whether they have completed the required hours (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2016). In 2015, the government also implemented the National Core Curriculum for Instruction Preparing for Basic Education, the National Core Curriculum for Instruction Preparing for General Upper Secondary Education, and Preparatory Education for Vocational Training. These three policies include measures for students from immigrant backgrounds originally included in the National Core Curriculum for Instruction Preparing Immigrants for Basic Education (2009), which has been discontinued.

• Progress or impact: As of 2016, around 12% of immigrant students had classes in Finnish or Swedish as a second language, while 25% did not have separate language classes. The 2016 report by the working group of the Ministry of Education and Culture on immigrant issues states that it is important to their language development to grant separate Finnish or Swedish language classes as well as to aid the development of immigrant students’ mother tongues. In fact, in 2014, more than 16 000 students participated in courses taught in their own mother language, resulting in a total of 53 different languages being taught (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2016).

In recent years, Finland has been working on strategies for internationalisation to further improve its position in the global market for higher education. The goals outlined in the Strategy for the Internationalisation of Higher Education Institutions in Finland (2009-15) include increasing the quality and attractiveness of institutions. Targets include almost doubling the number of non-Finnish students enrolled in higher education over the period of the plan (from 3.5% in 2007 to 7% by 2015), and increasing mobility of teachers and researchers (Ministry of Education, 2009). The new International Strategy for Higher Education and Research (2017-25), published in 2017, aims to strengthen the quality, visibility and attractiveness of Finnish higher education and research by introducing new measures, such as a programme to enhance international interest in Finnish research and facilitating access to education and employment in Finland (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2017; Ministry of Education and Culture, 2018a).

• Progress or impact: According to evidence from the Finnish National Agency for Education, total numbers of international degree students have been increasing annually, from 10 066 in 2006 to 21 061 in 2016, and the target of a 7% overall share of international students in higher education degree programmes was achieved in 2016.

Finland’s Youth Guarantee (2013) aims to help young people complete post-basic qualifications and find employment. The guarantee provides everyone under age 25 and recent graduates under age 30 a job, a traineeship, a study place, a workshop or a labour market placement within three months of becoming unemployed. Finland presented the Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan in 2014. A key feature was the rollout across the country, starting in 2015, of One-Stop Guidance centres for young people, which provide all relevant assistance in one location (EC, 2017b).

• Progress or impact: According to EC evidence, results of monitoring show that the scheme reached 71.2% of all NEETs under age 25 in 2015, an improvement of more than 4 percentage points over 2014 (67.1%). While the share of NEETS in Finland increased between 2013 and 2015, there was a decrease in the rate of inactive NEETs, which may have been as a result of engagement with the Youth Guarantee process. Finland’s remaining challenges include ensuring stable funding and further improving the skills and employability of young people (EC, 2017b). In 2016, NEET rates decreased by more than 1 percentage point over 2015 levels (13.2% in 2016 compared to 14.3% in 2015).

Additional education policies of potential interest to other countries

• Finland adopted revisions to the Act on Early Childhood Education in 2015. As a result, the Finnish National Agency for Education (previously the Finnish National Board of Education) became the national expert agency for ECEC in 2015. It issued the new National Core Curriculum for ECEC, which came into effect in fall 2017. The Finnish National Agency for Education approved the new National Core Curriculum for Pre-primary Education in 2014. Local curricula in accordance with the core curriculum were introduced for Grades 1-6 in 2016. The curriculum will be introduced to Grades 7-9 in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The National Core Curriculum for Upper Secondary Schools was reformed in 2015, and local curricula based on the new national core curriculum came into effect in 2016.

• In the Mid-term Review Session (2017-19), Finland launched new measures to promote the well-being of children and young people, prevent exclusion, and reduce the number of young people neither employed nor in education or training (NEET). The action plan to reduce the number of NEETs includes 19 measures. Preventive measures cover all education and training from early childhood education to higher education. Remedial actions focus on the most vulnerable children and adolescents and their families. The measures will be funded within the ministries own administrative branch budgets and key government projects currently underway. EUR 45 million in funding will be allocated to these measures in 2018 and 2019 (Prime Minister’s Office Finland, 2017).

• The reform of vocational upper secondary education, which came into force in 2018, aims to improve completion rates and transitions into the labour market. The most extensive VET reform in almost 20 years, it is a shift from the previous supply-oriented approach to a demand-oriented approach. Overall, education is to be competence-based and customer-oriented, aiming to develop and increase apprenticeship training and other forms of work-based learning. (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2018b). A new funding model encourages education providers to improve the effectiveness and quality of education. The aim is to have every young person complete at least a secondary qualification.

More information available at: www.oecd.org/education/policyoutlook.htm.