FINLAND GETS RID OF ALL SCHOOL SUBJECTS

Janhvi Mehta

Officials in Finland have decided to revamp the traditional education system by removing all the regular school subjects such as mathematics, geography and history from the curriculum. The head of the Department of Education in Helsinki, Marjo Kyllonen, announced that he believes that the way students are taught now, is based on a style of teaching that belongs to the early 1900s. He adds that, the education system doesn’t benefit the children anymore as it is no longer relevant. Kyllonen is a staunch supporter of the revised education system as he believes that our needs are changing and we need to get accustomed to the new way of thinking and development.

The major changes involve the removal of subjects from the curriculum, which will be replaced by the in-depth study of individual events and phenomena. This inherently means that students will no longer have rudimentary subjects such as mathematics and geography. Now, Finnish school students will study a colossal event such as the French revolution from the perspectives of maths, geography, history etc.

For economic and communication concerns, officials have proposed a course called “working in a café”. Upon reading the reports, students have realised that the new education system focuses on the holistic development rather than criterion-based development.

The new system which is due to commence in 2020, will be introduced to 16 year olds after they are done with their initial studies. Students will choose an event they are passionate about. This lets them have an early start at learning decision making skills. It is also refreshing to see that the adults trust the youngsters enough to let them make their own choices at an early age.

Their education system trumps all the existing ones because their idea is to eliminate the disengagement of students who are coerced to sit through classes. The individual, extensive classes don’t uplift a student’s mindset. Instead, schools will offer specific topics of their choice, thus, students will learn the same skills but in a more productive and interactive way which will be beneficial to their individual growth.

The Finnish education system also encourages team work as students are expected to collaborate and interact with their peers by working in small discussion groups as opposed to being seated in front of an individual teacher , while learning from outdated and biased books. The teacher-student relationship is also set to change drastically, as students will take a combination of online and offline courses.

The most inspiring thing coming out of all this is that the teachers will be given a raise to compensate for the fact that all of them are expected to cooperate and adapt to the new teaching system. Around 70% of the teachers have already started preparing for the new teaching style.

Finland is considered to have remarkably high literacy and numeracy rates. But, it hasn’t always been this way. Hence, the country has undergone significant changes in their system such as eliminating the scores from the curriculum. Instead, teachers focus on experience-based learning. The reason that Finland’s education is critically acclaimed is because they teach students to be pioneers and initiate change.Moreover, they realise that there is no objective way to determine a student’s intellect. Thus, they focus on the wide-ranged spectrum of a child’s psyche. Hopefully, this brings out the full potential in Finland’s youth.

So get ready to pack your bags and move to Finland, and do let us know your views on this new system of education in the comments section below!