Comparative Education: Finnish and English Education Systems - Essay Example

COMPARATIVE EDUCATION Student’s name Code & Course Professor’s name University City Date COMPARATIVE EDUCATION Introduction According to the International handbook of research in Arts education by Liora Bresler (2006), comparative education can be described as an academic field of study designed to study the education system of one or more countries by using information that has been drawn from the education systems of different countries. The programs about the comparative education are offered in various higher learning institutions around the world. This paper is going to compare the education system of Finland to that of England this is because, Finland has a very smaller population as compared to England and their government values education more than any other curriculum activities (Burrage 2010). Another reason is that the education system in Finland is more child center than that of England, this means that the teacher is able to give more concentration on a specific child guiding him or her through various activities offered in there education system, the English mode is more of a controlled or external system. Finland as a country is becoming an education superpower this is because of the success of Finland when it comes to the OECDS’s PISA studies, in this field of study; mostly the Finnish students have achieved very high marks as compared to the other students (OECD 2010). Finland became independent in the year 1917 and they are lead by a presesindent who is their head of state. There population is over 5 million with forests covering over 75% of the country, the finish language is part of the Finn-ugric linguistic that includes Estonian and Hungarian with the official language of the country being Finnish and Swedish. Public education in the country began in the early 1960s with the main source of schooling being the Lutheran church, the church stated tis basic education in order to make people the people to be able to read and understand the bible. Three years later the school a national school system independent of the church was set with a supervisory board under the ministry of education established to govern the education (Grubb 2007). England has a population of over 7 million people and its education system dates back to the year 1799 where churches formed Sunday schools to teach the poor, other elementary schools in places like Kendal in the Lake district also opened in the same year, these elementary schools taught reading, writing, religion and geography. Girls were mainly taught sewing, spinning and housework while the boys were taught shoemaking and preparing machines for the carding tools. Day schools were started in 1846 by Sir James Kay- Shuttleworth, these schools later became and developed into the modern schools in England. Finland’s Education System As Kyro (2009) stated, the education in Finland is designed to provide equality in terms of having access to educational services, Finland’s success s a country is built on the basis of a very well educated nation. In Finland, the education is majorly funded by the public although there are a few private education institutions which are also considered as part of the government’s formal education system. The private institutions are also subjected to the state funds that are equivalent to the funds given to the municipal institutions. The very first stage of the Finland’s education system is the pre-primary education which is intended for the kids that are of 6 years of age, the pre primary education is either provided in the day care centers around the country or at the schools. The decision of enrolling the children into pre primary education lies of the child’s parent but it is the duty of the educational providers who are the local authorities to ensure that educational opportunities are offered to the six year old child (Ravitich 2012). The pre primary education is offered freely, after the pre primary education, the child is subjected to a compulsory 9 year education that is normally started when the child is of age 7. This is the most basic education and it is normally offered by the comprehensive schools that have well formulated structure, that is, the primary and lower secondary school systems are not divided. The schools system at this stage does not support ability grouping, this means that each group in the comprehensive schools is taught as whole. With this type of system, the whole group that joined the school at the same time will virtually finish the basic education as a whole (Sahlberg 2006). The upper education system in the country is organized in different types of courses rather than the normal year classes offered in most of the countries. The normal education in any upper secondary school in Finland takes a minimum of 3 years, after the three years, the students are expected to sit for the general national matriculation examination (Lovio 2012). After the three years in upper level secondary education, the students are expected to attend to the higher education system which is normally offered by the various universities and polytechnics found around the country. The adults in the country are offered the qualification designed education and trainings that bare related to their leisure interests. Vocational skills can be demonstrated by the adults in the country through the competence tests that are offered in the adult educational centers. The results of these competence tests are acquired through the participation of the individual in things like work, general studies and interests (Sahlberg 2007). England’s education system In England there are five stages that a student has to undergo during his or her education life, the five stages are: early years, primary education, secondary education, further education and finally the higher education. The early years of education in England begins when an individual is either 3 or 4 years old, this education takes a total of about 15 hours of 38 weeks within a single year, this type of education is offered in institutions known as nursery schools or the reception classes located within the primary schools (Sandy 2007). After nursery, the pupils are expected to join the primary school, this primary schools in England normally carter for the pupils between the age range of 4 years to 11 years. Most of the primary schools in England are responsible for having nursery schools that carter for the younger students; the primary schools that are public mostly take in the boys and girls in what is called as a mixed primary school. At the age of 11, most of the students are transferred to secondary school. Secondary education in England is provided differently depending on the type of public secondary school a pupil is attending. The comprehensive schools are publicly funded and they are very independent in order to support different type of innovations from the students. At the end of the secondary stage, the pupils are required to participate in a variety of different external examinations; the most common type of this external examination is the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) According to Gardner 2010, in England the higher education is regarded as the type of education that is more complex than the education in the GCE, the higher education system consists of three main categories: • The post graduate degrees, this type of degree normally leads to higher diplomas and degrees like the doctorate and masters • The undergraduate courses that always leads to the pupils first degree honors, enhanced degree and finally • The other undergraduate courses that entails the rest of the higher degree courses. Funding of the education systems in England and Finland In England the majority of the schools and colleges are funded by the British government, these types of institutions that are funded by the government are called the state schools. There are about 2600 private schools that independently fund themselves. In Finland, the public schools are also funded by the local authorities (municipalities) but unlike in England the private schools in Finland also receive funds from the local authorities (Gamermn 2008). Curriculum and testing in England and Finland education system As stated earlier, in Finland due to its small population and value of education, the teachers are responsible for guiding their students individually through their curriculum activities, according to Itkonen & Jahnukainen (2007) the Finish education system is more centered around the child as they are allowed to play and study at the same time while in England, students are taught as group and it will only depend on the abilities of the student to determine if he or she qualifies for the next level in the education system. The finish teachers do not have a lot of paperwork as compared to the English teachers, this is mainly because it is believed that they will always do a good job once they have gone through the training schools for teachers. The Finnish teachers teach for about 3 hours a day while the English teachers normally teach for about 5.2 hours a day. In Finland almost 90% of the teachers retain their profession until retirement while in England only 40% of the teachers retain their profession till retirement this is because the Finnish teachers are better paid when it comes to salary than the English teachers (Hagreaves, Halasz & Pont 2007). Teacher training or qualifications in both countries To be a teacher in Finland, one has to be highly trained, for the general education; the teachers are required to have at least a master’s degree. Teachers in day care ought to have a bachelor’s degree while those in pre primary schools hold the master’s degree. For the upper secondary school, the teachers are required to have a master’s degree accompanied by the guidance and counselor studies. For the polytechnics, the teachers are required to have the master’s degree or an equivalent Licentiate’s degree (Finnish National Board of Education 2015). Depending on the training program, to be a teacher in England, one needs to have an undergraduate degree from any recognized higher education provider in the United Kingdom. Teachers in England also need to have achieved a minimum of grade C in his or her GCSE examinations (UCAS 2015) Usefulness of comparative education According to Niikko (2006) comparative education can be used to bring out various characteristics and purposes of different education systems, some of these purposes are: To define the different education systems in the world by describing their processes and outcomes. To help in developing new educational institutions and new practices To bring out the existing relationship between the education systems and the society and lastly To establish various statements about education that is more valid in one or more countries. Conclusion This paper has shown that there the Finnish and English education systems differ slightly from one another in terms of funding, teacher to student relationship and many other minor factors. Finland is becoming more of an academic superpower because their education system is more efficient than that of England. Bibliography Finnish National Board of Education, 2015: Teachers Education. Retrieved from www.oph.fi/english/education_system/teacher_education UCAS teacher training, 2015: Entry Requirements. Retrieved from https://www.ucas.com/teacher-training/getting-started/entry-requirements Kyro, M 2009, International Comparisons of some Features of Finnish Education and Training, the Journal of International Comparisons, Lovio, I 2012, Comparing Finnish and British Education. Does Diversity Matter? Retrieved from www.finnish-institute.org.uk/2012/12/02/compring-finnish-and-british-education.html?m=12 Niikko, A , 2006, Finnish Daycare. Caring Education and Instruction: the international perspective on Educational policy, Research. Information age publishing Inc Sandy, L , 2007, Education in Finland: New Hampshire journal of learning vol 10 (April 2007) Burrage, T,. 2010, “Burrage Tom” “Why do Finland’s Schools get the Best Results?” Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8601207.stm. Ravitich, D, 2012. 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