Gervase Phinn: let's get education right

Candidates of all parties will stress how important it is, particularly in these difficult, challenging and uncertain times, that education is a priority. There will be talk of poor teacher morale, poor standards and poor pupil behaviour – all the usual chestnuts.

Prospective Members of Parliament will stress that there is not only need for increased investment in the education of the young but a requirement for a re-examination of the curriculum which has clearly failed. The successful government will waste no time in overhauling the present system. After 40 years in education, I sit and wonder when will they get it right.

They seem to have got it right in Finland. The PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) survey invariably ranks the Scandinavian countries in the top positions in Europe. A recent survey showed that they were the best in all domains studied – literacy, reading, mathematics, science and problem solving. In 2006, Finland was placed first in science and second in all the other areas.

So what does Finland do to achieve such success? Well, for a start the Finns lay great emphasis on the importance of pre-school education and invest significant amounts of money in this area.

Children in Finland start school much later than in England but they have a rich, balanced and experiential pre-school provision so that when they do enter school at seven, they will have received a comprehensive state-supported kindergarten education. They will then spend

the next nine years in school, completing compulsory school at the age of 16.

Unlike those in England, schools have a high level of autonomy in devising their own curricula, based on a National Curriculum, and teachers enjoy a greater degree of independence and are involved in decision-making.

There is no formal examination at the end of the comprehensive school education. The school inspection system was scrapped in the early 1990s and replaced by a process of sample-based assessments.

Results are reported and teachers receive details of how well their pupils are performing compared with other schools but there is no ranking system and no targets.

Based on this information, schools which are perceived as under-performing are empowered to develop

locally appropriate measures and they receive significant support.

Successive governments have been well aware for some time of the successes of the Scandinavian system of education and inspectors have visited to see first hand how it operates. Indeed, the Report by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology submitted to the Select Committee Inquiry into Early Years Education in June 2000 recommended a serious consideration be given to moving towards this system.

Let's hope that the next government takes a leaf out of the Finnish book and gets education right at long last. I am not holding my breath.