Original story

SatWeb Educational Supplement 11.11.2013

Finland closes schools

In the most far-reaching action taken in the educational field since the country founded its elementary school system, the Finnish Parliament or Eduskunta has voted to wind up the nation’s schools and replace them with learning centers. The transfer will take place gradually over the next three years.

The learning centers will, it is hoped, improve educational standards and above all bring learning into line with the current social climate.

The thinking behind learning centers has been developed gradually over the last twenty years or so. Among others, Prof. Matti Bergström observed towards the end of the last century that the school system and learning based on teaching was an ineffective method given the structure of the human brain. Traditional schooling methods have nevertheless enjoyed widespread support - not least among the teaching profession. It was not until results began to emerge from experiments in New Zealand that the idea of learning centers took real wing in Finland.

Emphasis on acquiring knowledge

The learning centers are geared to the “learning for life” principle. Learning strategists regard as the key issues the acquisition of data and their sorting and shuffling into some semblance of order. The essential thing is that from childhood onwards people should learn themselves to shape out their world by gathering information about it personally. For this reason the Finnish State is prepared to pay for all the necessary datacomms links for information retrieval, for browsing data sources, and for the files derived from such activities. The values of social skills and of recognizing different ways of thinking are also stressed in the activities of the learning centers.

Work in the centers takes place within flexible groups that change their make-up according to the interests of the individual student and not on the basis of age, or even sex, as happened in the past. An important part of the learning process is training in problem-solving skills and in open-minded thinking, and in developing a willingness to cross disciplinary bridges and blend different areas of knowledge to form something greater than the sum of its parts. Learning methods encourage the use of all the senses. Study is completely interactive, and for instance language learning can take place in a total immersion format or using suggestopedic techniques. Planners underline that the learning process must also be entertaining, because this has been found to increase the speed of learning by up to a third.

Because students can themselves freely form groups and study the subjects they wish to learn more about, an individual group can comprise students from ages six up to people in their 70s. Special groups are also open to the over-60s, and these attempt to take maximum advantage of their life experience and harness it to the given learning situation.

A new role for teachers, or retirement

Within the learning center system, teachers become guides. The Government White Paper put before Parliament and on which MPs voted last week places great stress on the ability, skills and character of the guides. Parliament has also resolved that guides’ salaries will be raised to a level roughly double that of the secondary school teacher. This will ensure that the profession retains its respect within the society and that the field will attract sufficient numbers of talented people. Those teachers who are unwilling or unable to retrain as guides, will be eligible for early retirement at 80% of their current salaries.

The White Paper argued forcefully that the information, skills, and social competence achieved through learning are the primary agents through which Finland can succeed in international competition. The costs of the forthcoming change will be great, but the Ministry of Education believes the investments will rapidly pay for themselves. In the first three years of the changeover there will be non-recurring costs of around EUR 9,000 million, and thereafter it is expected that annual learning-related expenditure will be rather more than double the present levels.

A group of elementary and secondary school teachers supporting the existing education system and protesting the planned changes arranged a demonstration yesterday on the steps of the Parliament House in Helsinki. The organizers had hoped that some 20,000 would show up, but the demonstration was a low-key affair with only around 300 to 400 teachers taking part.

Toteuma-arvio 2026

Toteuma lyhyesti

  • Ilmiön toteuma: 3/5
  • Toteuma viiden vuoden tarkkuudella: kyllä; arviointi-ikkuna on 2008–2018
  • Toteuma väljemmällä aikahorisontilla: kyllä, mutta osittain
  • Ilmiön ydin: opetus siirtyy koulurakennuksesta verkottuneisiin oppimiskeskuksiin, joissa oppija etenee yksilöllisesti ja käyttää eri asiantuntijoita.

Verkko-oppiminen, oppimisalustat, etäopetus, MOOC-kurssit ja yksilölliset digitaaliset materiaalit toteuttivat suuren osan mallista. Suomen kouluja ei lakkautettu, ja opettaja sekä lähiyhteisö säilyivät keskeisinä.

Johtopäätös: oppimisen hajautumisen ydin toteutui osittain, mutta instituutio ei korvautunut.