Finland's Egalitarian Shadow

what can we learn from Finland's Education System?

Singapore's Maths and Science scores have been the very envy of the world. In the United States and Israel, schools use Singapore maths textbooks. Like the United States, Singapore's education system thrives on meritocracy. As Singapore's Minister of Education quipped, ""Yours [the US] is a talent meritocracy, ours is an exam meritocracy." Mr Shanmugaratam praised the American system as one that imbued "creativity, curiosity, a sense of adventure, ambition." But is meritocracy always that appealing? 

Not if you ask my mother. As a parent of two (then) young boys, she was worried her sons might not get into the right streams and the right schools. A movie which highlights the effects of streaming in Singapore "I not stupid" is generally popular.  In that movie, students' self esteem are seen to be unhealthily tied to their examination results and the stream they are in.

And if that sounds convoluted and odd to you, wait till you hear the details. At the top of the pyramid was the Gifted Education System, aimed at the top 1% of the cohort. Then there are the different bands catering to different abilities: EM1, EM2, EM3. These "streaming" takes place before the tender age of 10.

Then at age 12, the PSLE exam will determine whether one will end up in the special stream, express stream, normal academic, or the normal technical stream. At 14, within schools, there will be usually another round of internal streaming, which will determine what subjects you might take. For the budding doctor of age 14, not been able to do well to take biology might prove stressful. 

Each stage is intensely competitive. Students are under intense pressure to excel. Learning merely for the sake of the "exam meritocracy" is common. Moves towards a "talent meritocracy" meant greater focus on "creativity". That too however can be pressurizing in its own way, as creativity is less 'objective' and hard work might not necessarily bring out results. For parents and children, this represents another source of pressure.

Schools are also unequal. They are widely acknowledged to produce different academic standards and cater to different academic groups. Hence intense pressures to get into the right primary school mean long lines outside popular primary schools every start of the registration period. At the secondary school level, due to streaming, only those with the best academic scores end at various "better" secondary schools. Many end up at "better" JCs.

Finland's Shadow
Compare this with Finland. Finland too has produced very good Maths and Science scores. It has consistently been ranked as Europe's best education system. Finns are also very literate. Finns read newspapers, borrow books at public libraries, and train more musicians per capita, than any other OCED country. It is an education system, that although not perfect, have been widely acknowledged as being one of the best in Europe, and among OCED countries.

Finland education system is surprising for the outsider because of this one rather impressive (and rare) achievement: Schools are generally no better or worse. They just are generally good. Generally there is only a 4% variation in standard (based on student performance) between schools. This is very surprising since in other countries, schools fail when their students come from the surrounding poor communities. 

As one happy Finn parent say, "This is one of those big Finnish Principles that people adhere to and we really believe in it and that equity ... equality ... equal treatment for everybody. Nobody is left behind." And it is not very costly for taxpayers either. OCED figures rate it as only slightly above average.

And that is despite the high quality of teachers. The basic qualification to teach secondary and elementary school is a Master's degree. There are also a lot of applications for the teaching job. It is a respectable job and seen as a high quality ethical profession. Teachers are also given quite a bit of freedom to teach what they want, especially when the kids reach 16-17 years old. Teachers are very much seen as friends and partners both by the students and the community. In the words of one Finnish teacher, they are "trusted."

And the children have fun in a very relaxed environment. One trainee teacher described in her teaching experience of some months that the "toughest" thing she had to do to discipline a student was to send a student out of class. And she sounded quite regretful.

Elitism in Singapore : More than Stress
What Singapore can learn from Finland is not the wholesale import of her values. Equality has served Finland well, but only because it is generally accepted in Finland as a value. In Singapore, grudgingly or otherwise, meritocracy is generally accepted. After all, education policies can only properly serve a society when its underlying values are not antithetical to society's practices. Many in Singapore generally believe that ability should be well rewarded.

But this meritocratic ideal has drawbacks. Most scholarship holders - scholarships are available only to those who represent the best and brightest in the education system -  come from much better family backgrounds than the average Singaporeans. This has lead to envy, jealously and increased tensions. 

Advantages from being born in a rich family is significant from this perspective. It can translate to access to resources, better schools, and even access to quality overseas education and job. This quickly numbs the notion that ability is all that matters, and quite naturally, feelings of betrayal takes root. On the other hand, wages of the lower middle classes suffer due to globalization. Calls for a more equal society becomes more common in an increasingly unequal society.

As Young warned when he coined the term meritocracy, it can quickly become corrupted. ""So assured have the elite become that there is almost no block on the rewards they arrogate to themselves." His fear is shared by many Singaporeans. And no better place than in education to solve and nip any problem in the bud.

Singapore challenge is to tweak the education to not serve the interest of the elites but those of meritocracy. The best way to do so is to keep an eye of Finland's example and their practices. This must mean that standards within schools should not vary dramatically. The Ministry should aim that variation of standards within schools should not be more than 20%. This is still a far cry from the 4% that Finland has achieved, but I supposed we have different priorities. Success in this area is cumulative. As more parents recognize that the school of choice will not affect the child's ability to perform, they will be more comfortable in sending a child to any Singaporean school.

In order to do this, affiliation between primary schools and secondary schools which give advantages to old school boys and girls should be abandoned. The Gifted Education is already being phased out. Streaming should also be phased out. Every school should not have more than a fixed percentage of students coming from the top 20 percent of the PSLE exams.

Schools, if they are not doing so already, must start to work more effectively with the community leaders and interact more with families. Community leaders should work with teachers to spot social problems and counsel the families with school going children. Families should be encouraged to work with teachers.

Selection of teachers should be more rigorous. Teachers should at least possess a good honors degree before they teach primary and secondary school. This will ensure that all primary and secondary schools in Singapore get teachers who are well qualified. These suggestions are not unworkable in practice. Most people from the establishment will probably reject such ideas as fanciful or unworkable. It might be decried as expensive. Some, especially teachers who do not meet these standards, might think that the standards excepted of teachers are too high. It is no doubt difficult and goes against the grain of "old-networks" and the regurgitation of an elite class. 

Yet the advantages, as Finland examples shows, are manifold. Higher esteem for individual students, the resolution of tension, the restoration of meritocracy, and greater happiness for the greatest number. Finland example is not perfect, and our culture might mean we cannot follow most of it. But what we can follow will require commitment to an education that reward ability with an eye towards Finland's egalitarian example. 

Notes:
Quotes from the Singapore Education Minister : Newsweek (Jan. 9, 2006; page 37)

Quotes from Finland Students and Teachers from this BBC Podcast Top of the Class 1 available here.