OECD study: Finland has least mandatory classes in comprehensive school

Scholastic results nevertheless good

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The number of hours spent by Finnish comprehensive school pupils in mandatory classes is the lowest among all countries surveyed the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development.
      In the lowest grades, attended by children aged 7 and 8, the number of hours spent in mandatory classes was slightly above half of the number spent by children in Italy, which had the highest number in the OECD.
      The OECD published its annual Education at a Glance report on Tuesday. Included in the survey were Russia, Brazil, Chile, and Israel, whose statistics were mainly from 2005.
      Between the ages of 7 and 14, Finnish schoolchildren spend about 5,400 hours in class, whereas Italian and Dutch children spend more than 8,000.
     
The PISA study on the results of education, which is compiled every three years, has indicated that Finland manages to achieve good results with the fairly small number of mandatory classes. Finland and South Korea are exceptional in the achievement of good scholastic results, while the number of hours spent at school is below the OECD average.
      Hungary, Poland, and Norway also have less teaching hours than average, but their scholastic results are relatively modest.
      Subjects classified as arts are at about the average for the OECD in Finland, although far less than in Austria, for instance, where about one sixth of school lessons are for art subjects.
     
The report also compares resources devoted to education in the various countries.
      In Finland education costs accounted for EUR 6.1 per cent of GDP in 2005, which is slightly above the OECD average. The highest proportion of GDP spent on education was in Iceland and the United States.
      The study also examines the issue of youth marginalisation. Finnish teenagers aged 15 to 19 are very active learners: nearly 90 per cent of them study either part time or full time. In Poland the proportion is 98 per cent, but in Britain it is just 76 per cent.
      However, 13 per cent of Finns aged 20 to 24 are neither in school nor at work. This is about the average for the OECD.
     
Finnish teachers’ pay is also at about the OECD average.
      When compared with the cost of living, starting salaries for teachers is considerably below half of that of the most highly-paid teachers in the OECD - those in Luxembourg - but it is five times that of their colleagues in Poland.
      In the Nordic region, Danish and Norwegian teachers in the lower grades are paid better than Finnish teachers at the same level, but in the upper grades and in secondary education, Finnish teachers are paid about as much as the Danes and Norwegians.
      Teachers' pay has risen faster in Finland in the past ten years than in other countries.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  OECD praises Finnish education again (13.9.2006)
  Finnish teens place number one in comparison of math skills (25.11.2004)
  OECD study: Finnish school system efficient (30.10.2002)
  OECD gives bleak assessment of state of Finnish teenage boys (30.3.2006)
  PISA Conference visits Finland to learn secrets of scholastic success (15.3.2006)
  OECD study: Finnish teenagers are best readers (5.12.2001)

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