SMART Community Review (SCR) Teacher education in Finland | Page 18

Local administration and educational
institutions play a key role
The national education administration is
organised at two levels. Education policy is
the responsibility of the Ministry of Education
and Culture. The Finnish National Agency for
Education is responsible for the implementation
of the policy aims. It works with the Ministry
to develop educational objectives, content and
methods for early childhood, pre-primary, basic,
upper secondary and adult education. Local
administration is the responsibility of local
authorities, most commonly municipalities
or joint municipal authorities. They make the
decisions on allocation of funding, local curricula
and recruitment of personnel. The municipalities
have also the autonomy to delegate the decision-
making power to the schools. Typically the
principals recruit the staff of their schools.
Educational autonomy is high at all levels
Education providers are responsible for
practical teaching arrangements as well as the
effectiveness and quality of their education.
There are, for example, no regulations governing
class size and the education providers and
schools are free to determine how to group
pupils and students.
Local authorities determine how much
autonomy is passed on to schools. The
schools have the right to provide educational
services according to their own administrative
arrangements and visions, as long as the basic
functions, determined by law, are carried out. In
many cases for example budget management,
acquisitions and recruitment are the
responsibility of the schools.
Teachers have pedagogical autonomy. They
can decide themselves the methods of teaching
12  Finnish education in a nutshell