The Scandinavian countries are related in many ways. One of these, is by the organization of the different national educational systems which show strong similarities. Sweden plays a dominant role in this structure and many Nordic educational systems are based on that of Sweden.[1] Several reasons for that could be found in the fact that Sweden has a dominant position in Scandinavia since it has the biggest population, the largest language area and landmass of all Scandinavian countries.
Not only today but also throughout history, Sweden has played a significant role in Northern Europe. In the 17th century the Swedish empire consisted of what is today known as the Baltic states, parts of Northern Germany and Finland. Additionally, Norway was under the rule of Sweden in the 19th century.[2] Although the empire fell apart over time, Swedish is still an official minority-language in Finland with about 300.000 speakers on a population of about 5,5 million people.[3] In the other former territories, the influence of the Swedish language has faded away.
In many different contexts, language can be one of the strongest tools for the transmission of culture and it would therefore be possible that strong bilateral collaborations between Sweden and Finland still exist in the world of today. Though, from an international perspective, at least one element separates Finland from Sweden which is the way in which its educational system is praised.
Over the last decade, Finland has caught international attention for its outstanding secondary educational performance based on results of the PISA test.[4] Sweden has not, although both educational systems show strong similarities. For that reason, it is interesting to investigate where the Swedish- and Finnish educational systems are comparable and where they differ and if these countries indeed perform much different.
To find an answer to these questions, we will investigate the structure of the Swedish- and Finnish secondary educational system, discuss recent reforms and focus on their individual performance. Afterwards, we will highlight both the similarities and differences between the systems and perform a comparative analysis to find a possible answer to what key factors might be responsible for the strong reputation of the Finnish educational system. In other words, what aspects could be Finland’s ‘secret’ to educational success? This comparative analysis will be followed by the conclusion in which a short summary will be given about the earlier presented facts.
The Swedish education system
Within the Swedish educational system, several phases can be distinguished. From the age of 1 until 5 years old, children attend pre-school education (Förskola) or stay at home with their parents.[5] At the age of 6 years old, compulsory education starts and children attend a so called ‘pre-school class’ (Förskoleklass), which is a year of preparatory training for primary education.[6] During this year, language skills and other important skills are brought to a sufficient level to attend primary education later on.
Between the age of 7 and 16, children continue with the ‘Grundskola’ which makes up the rest of the compulsory education.[7] After the age of 16, compulsory education stops and students continue with the upper secondary school (Gymnasieskolan) until the age of 19 or 20 if they wish to do so.[8] After the upper secondary school, students can continue their educational training within higher education.
Apart from the structure of the Swedish educational system, other characteristics contribute to its unique nature as well. One of these characteristics, is its emphasis on equity and equality for students. This educational policy was implemented in the 1990’s under the name ‘a school for everyone’.[9] The main idea behind this ideological goal was to provide access to the educational system for all students, regardless of place of residence, gender, socio-economic background and more. In order to achieve that, budget for compensatory measures was made available for schools to balance out differences in underlying circumstances.[10]
The idea of equity and equality did not only have an ideological character, it was established to elevate Sweden out of poverty as well. Already in the 1930’s the ‘Home of the people’ (Folkhemmet) project was initiated by the prime minister at the time, Per Albin Hansson, of which the goal was to provide basic economic security for all Swedish citizens.[11] The way in which that was done, was by establishing an extensive tax apparatus where the responsibility for economic security shifted from the family to the state.[12] The funding for the Folkhemmet project came from tax revenues which meant that taxes in Sweden would increase in exchange for more economic security of all citizens. These socialist reforms in Sweden were no surprise since the Social Democrats ruled from the early 1930’s uninterrupted for almost 40 years.[13]
Optimizing the access to the educational system, contributes to an educated population and an educated population is more likely to be more innovative and intellectual. As a result of that, wealth and thereby tax revenues for the Swedish state, can be optimized as well to fund the Folkhemmet project. This philosophy might be responsible for the fact that compulsory- and higher education in Sweden are free of charge[14], it is simply an investment that will pay off in the future.
But just like in many other countries, Sweden has experienced a stronger marketization of education. From the early 1990’s, the political dominance of the Social Democrats diminished and some state policies were reformed.[15]These reforms gave space to private actors to open publicly funded independent schools for secondary education.[16]These independent or ‘free schools’ were allowed into the educational market to compete with existing schools. The idea behind that, was to increase flexibility and pluralism in pedagogical practices and enhance the professionalism of teachers with the goal of better learning outcomes.[17]
Nowadays, the funding of these private institutes is still centralized by the state through a ‘voucher system’ in which the funding is funneled through the municipalities while it is granted by the state.[18] In other words, every student is worth a certain budget which is transferred by the government to the school the students decides to attend. By doing so, schools compete with each other to attract students and are thereby given an incentive to improve their quality while the student still has access to free education.
The introduction of the voucher system has been successful in terms of the expansion of independent schools. While around the year 1995/1996 there were 238 independent schools in Sweden, that number increased to 709 schools by the year 2009/2010.[19]
The reforms of the Swedish secondary educational system were not only the result of the shift of political power from the Social Democrats to more Liberal parties, it was accelerated further because the growth of the educational system demanded more flexibility to adjust the steering and financing of education to the needs on a local level.[20] The old centralized system did not provide that flexibility and as a result of that, the decentralization and marketization of education became more popular and were implemented quickly.[21]
The national centralized power over education was redistributed on a more local level which meant that headmasters gained both power and responsibility to manage their schools. Their formal role of executing the decisions of the state, shifted towards a role in which they were seen as business managers which are fully responsible for their ‘enterprise’ (the school).[22]
Because of the increase of students obtaining secondary educational credentials, reforms in the higher educational system were inevitable. Up until 1989, nearly all curricula for higher educational programs were designed on a national level by the government or parliament.[23] In 1993, the new ‘Higher Education Act’ was implemented which gave higher education institutes more autonomy regarding the size of programs, allocation of grants and quality achievements of their institutions.[24] Just like the secondary education, higher education did therefore experience a decentralizing trend as well.
The trend of deregulation, decentralization and marketization, might give the expectation that just like headmasters, teachers have gained more autonomy as well. Since Swedish schools after the reforms were stimulated to marketize themselves, goals and results of schools were openly communicated in curricula and syllabi.[25] The teachers were expected to implement these goals in their teaching and curriculum and cooperate with colleagues to align their vision.[26] At the same time, the National Agency of Education (Skolverket) and school inspector agencies were established to support school development and steer curricula and reform implementation in schools and municipalities.[27]
Through these organizations, the state still interfered in what was supposed to be the new task of teachers themselves. As a result of that, teachers did not only have to justify their curricula and syllabi to the state as before, they had to do so towards the municipalities or private owners from the schools as well.[28] This led to a situation in which it became unclear what rights and responsibilities teachers had.[29] The teaching profession in Sweden has struggled for several years with its status and attracting new students for teacher training programs has become increasingly difficult.[30] Not only might this be the result of a general change in the image of the profession, it might have to do with earlier described working conditions as well.
Although the reforms of the last three decades might not have contributed to the image of the teacher profession in Sweden, the performance of its secondary education students is still above the OECD average. These results derive from the PISA test, which is a triennial survey of 15-year-old students that assesses the extent to which they have acquired the key knowledge and skills essential for full participation in society.[31]
The results from the Pisa test in 2018 are visible in the figure above. What comes forward in the figure, it that the mean scores in reading, mathematics, science and the share of top performers are all above the OECD average. Additionally, the share of low achievers in reading and mathematics are below the OECD average.[32]
The European Union’s ‘Education and Training monitor’ from 2019, shows comparable positive results regarding the performance of Swedish secondary education. This can to some extent be explained because of the fact that the displayed results in the EU’s education monitor are partially based upon the OECD results. Though, the data derives from a joint data collection of the OECD, UNESCO, and Eurostat (UOE)[33] which turns it into a more diverse and useful complementation. Additionally, the EU consists partially of other nations than the OECD which changes the nature of the comparison.
The Education and Training monitor is as mentioned before, generally positive towards the performance of Swedish students although a more nuanced reality is presented as well. In the year 2018, the proportion of 15-year-olds underachieving in reading was 18,4% in Sweden compared to 19,7% on average in the EU.[34] The underachievement in mathematics was 20,8% in Sweden and 22,2% on average in the EU.
The achievements in science showed a different reality where Sweden underperformed compared to other member states. The underachievement was 21,6% in Sweden compared to 20,6% on average in the EU.[35] The OECD and EU monitor report combined, still show that Swedish secondary education is of an above-average standard in both an OECD and EU context.
The Finnish education system
Education has a strong and unique position within the Finnish culture. The strong emphasis on high quality education in Finland, might derive from its relatively recent independence after Swedish and Russian rule for hundreds of years. At the time of the Finnish independence in 1917, a nationalist movement known as the Fennoman movement had strongly established itself and published the ‘Kalevala’. The Kalevala gained enormous popularity among the Finnish people and is nowadays still regarded as a very important cornerstone of the Finnish national identity.[36] The Kalevala speaks of strong individuals whose power is based on mental abilities and wisdom rather than physical features.[37]Influential university professors in the 19th century with significant political power, promoted these beliefs which led to a strong emphasis on education in Finland.[38] According to the nationalist movement, the power of a nation depended on competent leaders and civil servants and teachers of high quality.[39] The high respect for teachers became clearly visible in 1921 when teachers were given the name ‘candles of the nation’ for educating the population. Sometimes entire villages were taught by one and the same teacher which organized cultural extra-curricular activities at the same time.[40]
The reputation of teachers is still present today and often mentioned as one of the key components for the success of the Finnish educational system. But before the position of teachers will be discussed it might be wise to get a better idea of what the Finnish educational system actually looks like.
The structure of the Finnish educational system shows strong similarities with the Swedish system. From the age of 1 until 5 years old, children can attend early childhood education and care which is not compulsory.[41] At the age of 6 years old, compulsory education starts and children attend a year of pre-primary education just like in Sweden. The pre-primary education year is followed by the basic education which is compulsory and for students between the age of 7 and 16 years old. After the basic education, compulsory education stops and students can continue with upper secondary education at either the general secondary education or vocational education and training.[42] The duration of the upper secondary school in Finland is about 2-4 years after which students may continue their educational training within higher education.[43] Additionally, many schools offer Swedish as a primary or secondary language of instruction besides Finnish.[44]
From the second world-war onwards, the welfare state developed itself in Finland like in many other Scandinavian countries. Equity and promoting the accessibility of education were strongly aligned with the ideology of the welfare state which led to reforms in the educational system.[45] Education should be free of charge and accessible to anybody, regardless of their socioeconomic status, gender or place of residency.[46] Finland followed thereby the classic ‘Nordic model’ of education which is based upon socio-political attributes such as equity, participation and the welfare state.[47]
Within the last decades, the Finnish educational system has been characterized by decentralizing reforms. In the 1980’s, the decentralization of the Finnish comprehensive school and all educational administration took place and more freedom and responsibility was handed over to the local educational providers.[48] In the 1980’s and 1990’s, a political debate started about the future of the comprehensive school system. Central arguments in the discussion were the lack of support for gifted children and limited possibilities for differentiation.[49] By implementing policy to allow children to choose different profiles locally and support individual students’ qualities without streaming or separating schools, the comprehensive school system survived.[50]
The outcome of the reforms was a decentralization of decision-making power, increased support for weaker students, discontinuation of streaming, raising teacher education to the university level, allocating more resources to lower secondary education and more room for expression of opinions of different stakeholders.[51]
To summarize some important characteristics of the Finnish educational system, the emphasis on equity and high demands on teachers which became known as the ‘common comprehensive school model’ have to be mentioned.[52]During the reforms all teacher education was raised to the university master level (Master of Arts), including the teacher training for primary education.[53] Because of this, teachers engage in educational research throughout their studies and are expected to produce an academic thesis with the same requirements as all other scientific disciplines.[54]Additionally, Finnish teachers experience an extensive autonomy in their teaching. Teachers are for example free to plan their lessons as they desire to fit the individual needs of their students. Besides that, the teachers are involved in the planning of the curriculum and production of learning materials as well.[55] These aspects might contribute to the fact that the teaching profession is regarded more attractive in Finland compared to other countries. In Norway for example, the status of the teacher training increased once it was made a master’s level profession.[56]
As described earlier, the performance of Finland in the PISA test is excellent. In the figure above, its performance of 2018 is visible. What comes forward in the figure, it that the mean scores in reading, mathematics, science and the share of top performers are all well above the OECD average. Additionally, the share of low achievers in reading and mathematics are far below the OECD average.
The European Union’s Education and Training monitor from 2019, shows comparable positive results regarding the performance of Finnish secondary education. In the year 2018, the proportion of 15-year-olds underachieving in reading was 11,1% in Finland compared to 19,7% on average in the EU.[57] The underachievement in mathematics was 13,6% compared to 22,2% in the EU and the underachievement in science was 11,5% compared to 20,6% in the EU.[58]Therefore the OECD and EU monitor report combined, show that Finnish secondary education is of far above-average standard in both an OECD and EU context.
Comparative analysis of the Swedish- and Finnish educational system
The Swedish and Finnish educational system show strong comparisons in their structure. For example, typical characteristics such as the preparatory year for primary education and a construction of basic- and upper secondary education are nearly identical in both systems. Additionally, the educational ideology of both systems is strongly related. Promoting equity and equality is valued strongly which translates itself into tuition-free education, support for children with learning difficulties and other measures. The process of decentralization of the educational system is another characteristic that the systems have in common. In both Sweden and Finland, liberal forces gained influence and demanded a stronger liberalization of the educational system. In Sweden that resulted in the marketization of education and the voucher system, while Finland allowed more differentiation within the existing frameworks of the comprehensive school system.
The decentralization of the educational system has caused confusion among Swedish teachers about their responsibilities and to whom these should be justified. In Finland on the other hand, teachers experienced great freedom and influence in the curriculum, in research-based education and the development of learning materials.
While the image of the teacher profession declined in Sweden over the years, teachers are generally more valued in Finland for cultural reasons and for the fact that the level of the teacher training was elevated to the university master level. The popularity, high demands and the image of the teacher profession, might therefore be one of the contributing factors to the strong performance of Finnish high school students.
The performance of the Finnish students caught a strong international attention as a result of the PISA surveys from the years 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2012.[59] These good results were assigned to the high quality and competence of Finnish teachers and meaningful educational policies.[60]
While Sweden did not receive a similar international attention, its performance compared to the Finnish system has shifted positively over the years. As shown earlier, the performance of Swedish secondary school students has generally been above the OECD and EU average but still fell behind Finland quite strongly. Within the last couple of years, that has changed and the Swedish performance is approaching that of Finland in the recent PISA tests. In the model below, the PISA performance of Swedish and Finnish secondary education students is compared. The blue line is Sweden and the orange line Finland. The timeframe in which the performance of reading is measured is between the year 2000 and 2018, mathematics between 2003 and 2018 and science between 2006 and 2018.[61]
What is clearly visible, is that towards 2018, Sweden has come increasingly close to the performance of Finland. One the one hand this is the result of a decline in the Finnish performance, on the other the result of the increase in the Swedish performance.
Regarding the share of top performers, a comparable trend is visible in a timespan from 2009 until 2018 for reading, 2003 until 2018 for mathematics and 2006 until 2018 for science. In the case of mathematics, Swedish students even outperformed the Finnish in 2018 as can be seen below.[62]
The share of low performers increased temporarily in Sweden to decrease again in the last couple of years. In Finland the share of low performers has increased rather stable over time bringing it closer to the Swedish performance. In the model below the share of low readers for reading is measured between the year 2009 and 2018, mathematics between 2003 and 2016 and science between 2006 and 2018.[63]
Although the PISA test is only one test to measure the performance of educational systems, it is particularly relevant since it was responsible for the international popularity of the Finnish educational system.
Even though the results of the recent PISA tests might seem rather negative for Finland, it is important to keep in mind that the Swedish educational system performs above the EU and OECD average as well. As became clear from the earlier presented data from the EU monitor of 2018, both Sweden and Finland perform very well. A comparison between the Swedish and Finnish educational system is therefore more a comparison between the good and the better, than the best and the worst.
Conclusion
The Finnish educational system has gained strong popularity in the early 2000’s as a result of high results in the PISA tests. For that reason, many countries shifted their attention towards the Finnish educational system and the components which made it perform so well. Since the Swedish educational system is strongly related to the Finnish system, a comparison between the two has been useful to focus on the differences of details rather than major differences with less related educational systems.
What has become clear is that Finland’s emphasis on education is strongly embedded in the culture and respect for teachers is very high. The demands Finland has on teachers is therefore high as well. Teachers are expected to deliver high quality education and are trusted to do what is right. Partially, this trust might derive from the fact that Finnish teachers base their educational approach on research and are therefore given a strong autonomy. In other words, they are the ones to decide what is best for their students and they use research-based knowledge to investigate that.
In other countries such as Sweden and Norway, the teaching profession suffers a declining status while Norway managed to change that by turning the teacher training into a university program. Changing the status of the teaching profession might therefore start at the academic demands that are required from them. When these are elevated to the university level, the status of the profession can rise which leads to more trust and autonomy. From that point onwards, the educational performance of students might rise. Though, in a time of a shortage of teachers which many countries experience, the elevation of academic demands for teachers reduces the accessibility of teacher training programs. By doing so, a risk is taken that the shortage of teachers will grow even further which might explain that not all countries are willing to take that risk. While good teachers might play a significant role in high-quality education, the Finnish success might therefore not be copied easily in other national contexts.
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Sweden.se; History of Sweden; Sweden.se; (https://sweden.se/society/history-of-sweden/) Accessed: 11-05-2020
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[1] Telhaug, A.O; Mediås, O.A; Aasen, P. The Nordic Model in Education: Education as part of the political system in the last 50 years. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 50(3), 2006, p.245
[2] Sweden.se; History of Sweden; Sweden.se; (https://sweden.se/society/history-of-sweden/) Accessed: 11-05-2020
[3]Folktinget; Swedish in Finland; Folktinget.fi; (https://www.folktinget.fi/Site/Data/1597/Files/246902_Folktinget%20ordlista_sisus2012.pdf) Accessed: 11-05-2020
[4] Thisisfinland; Finland remains among top nations in PISA education survey; Finland.fi; (https://finland.fi/life-society/finland-remains-among-top-nations-in-pisa-education-survey/) Accessed: 11-05-2020
[5] Severinsson, P; Sandahl, J. About Sweden. 2018. p.150
[6] Ibid p.151
[7] Ibid p.152
[8] Ibid p.154
[9] Johansson, O; Davis, A; Geijer, L. A perspective on diversity, equality and equity in Swedish schools, School Leadership and Management. 27(1), 21-33, 2007. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13632430601092313 p.23
[10] Ibid p.24
[11] Ministry of Education and Science. 2004. Equity in Education: Country Analytical Report – Sweden, https://www.oecd.org/sweden/38697408.pdf p.4
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid. p.5
[15] Erixon Arreman, Inger; Holm, Ann-Sofie. 2011. ”School as “Edu-business”: Four “serious
players””, Swedish upper secondary school market, Education Inquiry, Umeå university,Vol. 2, nr 4, pp. 637-657, http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:466030/FULLTEXT01.pdf p.637
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ibid. p.638
[18] Ibid. p.641
[19] Wikander, Lennart. 2010. “The educational system in Sweden – from a uniform towards a dual model.” in Riis U (ed) Four Essays in Educational Systems and Reforms in Modern Times, Department of Education, Uppsala University p.16
[20] Ibid. p.20
[21] Ibid.
[22] Johannesson, Ingolfur; Lindblad, Sverker; Simola, Han. 2002 .”An Inevitable Progress? Educational restructuring in Finland, Iceland and Sweden at the turn of the millennium.” Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, Volume 46, Number 3, 2002. p.326
[23] Wikander, Lennart. 2010. “The educational system in Sweden – from a uniform towards a dual model.” in Riis U (ed) Four Essays in Educational Systems and Reforms in Modern Times, Department of Education, Uppsala University p.21
[24] Ibid. p.22
[25] Wieland Wermke & Eva Forsberg (2017) The changing nature of autonomy: Transformations of the late Swedish teaching profession, Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 61:2, 155-168, DOI: 10.1080/00313831.2015.1119727 p.160
[26] Ibid.
[27] Wieland Wermke & Eva Forsberg (2017) The changing nature of autonomy: Transformations of the late Swedish teaching profession, Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 61:2, 155-168, DOI: 10.1080/00313831.2015.1119727 p.160
[28] Ibid.
[29] Ibid.
[30] Eurydice; key features of the education system; eacea.ec.europa.eu; (https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/sweden_en) Accessed: 11-05-2020
[31] OECD; Results from PISA 2018; (https://www.oecd.org/pisa/publications/PISA2018_CN_SWE.pdf) Accessed: 11-05-2020 p.1
[32] Ibid.
[33] European Commission. 2019. Education and Training Monitor 2019 – volume 2 – Country analysis, https://ec.europa.eu/education/sites/education/files/document-library-docs/volume-2-2019-education-and-training-monitor-country-analysis.pdf p.274
[34] Ibid.
[35] Ibid.
[36] Ibid. p.24
[37] Ibid.
[38] Ibid.
[39] Ibid.
[40] Ibid. p.25
[41] Finnish ministry of education and culture; Finnish education system;
(https://minedu.fi/en/education-system). Accessed: 11-05-2020
[42] Ibid.
[43] Infofinland.fi; The Finnish education system;
(https://www.infofinland.fi/en/living-in-finland/education/the-finnish-education-system) Accessed: 11-05-2020
[44] Ibid.
[45] Ibid.
[46] Ibid.
[47] Antikainen, Ari. 2006. “In Search of the Nordic Model in Education” Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 2006, 50, 3, p. 229-243) p.230
[48] Niemi, H; Toom, A. Kallioniemi, A. Miracle of education: the principles and practices of teaching and learning in Finnish schools. (Sense Publishers, 2012). p.25
[49] Ibid. p.26
[50] Ibid.
[51] Ibid.
[52] Niemi, H; Toom, A. Kallioniemi, A. Miracle of education: the principles and practices of teaching and learning in Finnish schools. (Sense Publishers, 2012). p.23
[53] Ibid.
[54] University of Helsinki; Jari Lavonen; the Finnish education system cannot be copied, but parts of itcan be exported; Helsinki.fi; (https://www.helsinki.fi/en/news/teaching-studying-at-the-university/jari-lavonen-the-finnish-education-system-cannot-be-copied-but-parts-of-it-can-be-exported?fbclid=IwAR0yAXhGLz84KHh_8ntZvjmhEXLOdKRdPaQgrZECqmnDj-WjRGRdC-EtpoA). Accessed: 11-05-2020
[55] Ibid.
[56] Ibid.
[57] European Commission. 2019. Education and Training Monitor 2019 – volume 2 – Country analysis, https://ec.europa.eu/education/sites/education/files/document-library-docs/volume-2-2019-education-and-training-monitor-country-analysis.pdf p.89
[58] Ibid.
[59] Niemi, H; Toom, A. Kallioniemi, A. Miracle of education: the principles and practices of teaching and learning in Finnish schools. (Sense Publishers, 2012). p.23
[60] Ibid.
[61] OECD; PISA 2015 key findings for Sweden; (https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2015-sweden.htm) Accessed: 11-05-2020
[62] Ibid.
[63] Ibid.