FINLAND'S EXPERIENCES OF COMPULSORY EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT

During the years Finland has made step by step several changes in compulsory education to meet the ideals that she has had. Finland has fairly well succeeded in basic education policy. She has managed to enhance the equity and quality of learning. In PISA review Finland is on top and, at the same time, only a very few students fall within the lowest performance categories. Likewise, differences between schools are small. However they are growing and, therefore policymakers are now trying to find ways to narrow them. They also try to keep education updated in all aspects and therefore they will make changes in the national core curriculum in the near future. Though the Government has a well defined vision of the changes needed, they cannot have any real wisdom on what is the world where the to-day's school starters will find their paid work after their education. In that respect Finland has the same challenge as the other countries. However Finland has experience in making effective long-term changes in education.