Returning Finland to the top of education
The Advisory Board of the Faculty of Education has summarised the goal of its term until the end of 2025 "Retrning Finland to the top of education. This goal is being pursued in extensive cooperation with the various actors in the faculty and the alumni committee.
We want to raise the quality and level of Finnish education to the top of the world again. Finland is still a top country in education, but no longer at the highest top as it used to be. Finnish pupils' results in the PISA test, in measuring of literacy, mathematics and science, were highest in 2006. Since then, performance has declined.
There is no single, absolute reason for this change, but there are several factors that influence it. The level of competence has fallen, the gap between high and low achievers has widened, and the link between socio-economic status at home and the level of competence is now also visible in Finland in the same way as in OECD countries on average. Studies show that reading levels have declined and are linked to gender and socio-economic background: boys with low socio-economic status are the least likely to read.
The faculty, its advisory board and alumni committee want to raise the level of Finnish education over a three-year period. Among the issues to be considered are:
- Do we want all primary school leavers to have certain basic skills?
- What are the basic skills and what could be left out of the current content, or should we increase the number of hours of training?
- How do we ensure adequate support and well-being for all learners?
The reflection is guided by the idea of thinking not only about primary school as a single levelbut about the education system as a whole.
Ministry of Education and Culture has nominated year 2024 as National Year of Education. At the same time we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Faculty of Education at the University of Turku.
On this website, we have collected articles, blog posts and information on events related to the theme.