Ophelia S. Lumogda: Finland's educational system

Finland educational system is also very interesting . Their Educational system is called an egalitarian. Just like other countries their education is compulsory and no tuition fees for full time students and above all free meals served to pupils and students. Which some of the public schools in the Philippines has the same practice by giving a kilo of rice to the elementary pupils in the barrio to encourage them to go school and to avoid empty stomach in attending classes.

Private schools are few in Finland. The opening of a private school requires a political decision. Unlike in the Philippine, the DepED is very loose in allowing anybody to open a school as long as they can come up with the requirements.

In terms of their giving academic assessments to the students they rated it numerically .If the student will receive a multiple failing marks they will be asked to repeat. In the Philippines, three failing marks means retention or non promotion to the next year level or sometimes advise to take summer classes.

In Finland, teachers are competent in their respected field. The selection is tough and all teachers need a master’s degree. The government invests and strengthens the professional growth of the teachers, thus teachers are highly respected and appreciated. In our country, the Department of Education allocates a big amount for teachers seminars and training . The Secretary of Education gives fifty thousand to all non performing schools to buy reviewers and materials to aid them increase the annual achievement test conducted by the Deped. And those teachers who are in the non performing school are given trainings and seminars and other incentives to improve the academic rating of the national achievement test.

The Finnish authorities always have seen education as the key to survive and thrive in an increasingly competitive world. All governments, from left to right have respected over the past 4 decades, that economic growth is the primary goal, with education as the critical driver. They further believe that to be competitive, the government should invest in education and research foster innovation and cutting edge development. This belief is comparative to the vision of the Department of Education.

Knowing the educational system of some countries of the world like Finland, China, Japan and Australia, the Philippine Educational system is also competitive.