industry & reform
Finnishing school
Famed Finnish educator brings
his ideas down under.
Pasi Sahlberg interviewed by Loren Smith
P
asi Sahlberg is a global education
celebrity, though you wouldn’t
know it. With trimmed grey hair,
rimless spectacles and neatly pressed
suits, the Finnish reformer connotes a
professorial air. Fitting, perhaps, for his
forthcoming role as professor of education
policy at UNSW Sydney’s Gonski Institute
for Education.
Sahlberg is partly responsible for Finland
becoming internationally admired for its
outstanding PISA results (though these are
in decline), and, seemingly paradoxically,
the country’s commitment to fewer
teaching hours, no standardised tests, and
an emphasis on outdoor play.
The Finnish notion of formal schooling,
which begins when children are seven,
is grounded on equity. Students aren’t
‘streamed’ based on ability, and all schools
are publicly funded.
10 | educationreview.com.au
Now, Sahlberg will be tasked with
helping to boost outcomes for Australia’s
school students.
The institute’s research is aimed at
improving “academic and wellbeing
outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged
students and those who live in rural and
remote Australia”.
Through research, Sahlberg ascertained
that with greater diversity comes greater
inequity, and with greater inequity comes
poorer educational results. This is what
recently occurred in Finland, resulting in
the country dropping out of the top 10 in
PISA maths scores for the first time in 2012.
Its scores in science, reading and maths
all decreased in the following 2015 PISA
testing round.
Given this, how can schooling be
enhanced in Australia, one of the most
multicultural nations on earth?
Education Review put this and other
questions to Sahlberg in an interview.
ER: I wanted to talk about the PISA results
and why you think Finland does so well in
these tests, despite the fact that there are
no standardised assessments in Finland?
PS: I think the one factor behind the
high results in these academic subjects
in Finland is we do not separate children
into different types of schools. We
require every government school to be a
good school.
And since the overall quality focus
has been so strongly in enhancing and
securing the equality and equity of the
system, it has led early on, already 40 years
ago, into particular elements of the system,
like special education that is probably the
flagship of the Finnish system.
Within the Finnish school system,
children who have special needs will be
identified as soon as they start school,
and then every school, every teacher has
a responsibility to make help and support
available early on.
If we look at how many children in the
Finnish school system have received or
are receiving any type of special support
or help in the early years, this number is
much higher than in Australia or in any
other country.
This means the Finnish system is really
trying to address the potential educational
or behavioural issues that would prevent
children from being successful at school.
Also, unlike most other countries, we
realise that teachers need to be well
prepared or better educated, particularly
for this type of system where basically
every teacher will be dealing with socially
mixed classrooms and groups of children
and schools.
So, for many years already, all teachers
have been required to have a master’s
degree, including primary and preschool
teachers. Our teaching profession