(Seetanah, 2009)

 

The situation in Africa

African countries belong to the least developed countries in the world. Globally seen the African region has the lowest HDI (Human Development Index). The HDI is an index that measures the human development of a country. Therefore, there is an urge of the more developed countries to foster the developing countries as we know that there is a strong link between education and economic performance. The MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) and now the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) should help as a guideline that every country can achieve a more sustainable state.

The insufficiencies in the education sector are one reason for persisting struggles with economic growth and poverty. Nevertheless, there was a massive increase in student enrollment on all levels of education in the second half of the 20th century. This is probably due to the efforts made regarding the MDG. Especially the female enrollment has increased massively. According to Isabel Günther, Africa tries to improve their primary and secondary levels at the same time. The now high-income countries did not have so much pressure and could first expand their primary level and then their secondary level. This needs fewer resources at once and is therefore easier. Fortunately for the less developed countries, more developed countries have invested and continue to invest in development aid, which makes the achievement of several SDGs easier.

A good education system would not only mean an increasing national income and altogether a better health but also reduced population growth. This is very important regarding gender equality. Reduced population growth means that there are fewer childbirths, which enables women to work and enhance their productivity.

In a good education system, the women learn about contraception and how to plan their future family and security as they grow older. This is very important, as there is often the believe that children bring security as they grow older and are not able to work anymore. Educated women also have more chances and are independent. They are able to work in a good position. This leads to women marrying later and getting fewer children which in the big picture reduces the population.

The increasing number of children attending school makes one believe that now there are several more children who are educated and have a chance to escape poverty. Despite the fact that there are more and more children attending school, the education is still flawed. This is because the students actually do not learn in the school. Often, they do not have the money for the learning materials or the teachers themselves are poorly educated and do not have the capacity to teach the children sufficiently. In the lecture Isabel Günther referred to this problem as “Global learning crisis”.

Ultimately, to help Africa achieve the SDGs, one has to solve the “Global learning crisis” mentioned in the lecture of the 04.03.2020 by Isabel Günther.

(Seetanah, 2009)

 

The situation in Finland

In comparison to the poor education in Africa it is important to look at countries that have already established a good education system. The MDGs and SDGs already helped to achieve a lot of steps to a more sustainable world. Some countries still have a long way in some goals and others already completely achieved them. Finland is an example of the latter. Finland is known to have one of the best education systems in the world, and as one can see in the map below, Finland has already achieved SDG number 4, which stands for a quality education. The map below shows all the countries and how far along they are to achieve the SDG number 4. As discussed previously, one can also see in the map that achieving SDG number 4 is still a great challenge for most of Africa. (“Sustainable Development Report 2019,” n.d.) But it is important to remember that Finland also had to invest a lot to become a knowledge nation. Back in the 1950s, Finland used to be a nation embossed by the agricultural and industrial sector. But in the past decades it developed to a model nation by using education as a key solution to have an improved economic and social development. Finland has a sustainable economy and a working society. A lot of these achievements are based on the investments made in the education system. There are similar innovations used to develop a well-performing education, economy and social community. These education policies have been built upon a sustainable leadership.

One big difference of the Finnish education system compared to the others is that they do not focus on the three major global education policies: standardization of education, increased focus on literacy and numeracy and consequential accountability systems. The education policies of Finland focus more on the following: flexibility and loose standards, broad learning combined with creativity and intelligent accountability with trust-based professionalism.

Finland inspires the society to use new creative methods to build a flexible and creative system in all aspects of society. These alternative approaches in education policies made the students achievements rise. In conclusion approaches and different policies to the common ones may make a more successful education system.

(Sahlberg, 2007)

Figure 1: Global achievements SDG 4 (“Sustainable Development Report 2019,” n.d.)

 

The key points of a good education system

But how does this successful education system of Finland look like? The education system of Finland has several points that help to improve the achievements of the pupils. There are small classes (20-30 pupils) and rather small schools (mostly not more than 300 pupils) that create a learning and caring community. It is possible that all the children and teachers know each other. The pupils get free lunch, transportation, health care and learning materials so everyone can attend school independent of their family’s financial situation. This is very important to reduce inequalities between the more and less wealthy citizens and to improve the success in achieving SDG number 10, reduced Inequalities.

The political leaders trust that the society knows what is best for their youth. This allows the teachers, principals and parents to decide on their own what is the best education for their children and how they can learn the best. This enables room for flexibility and creativity for everyone.

Also, the teachers are all very highly educated (master’s degree) and respected in the society. The teachers are qualified to help the children in every possible aspect. This ensures that the pupils can actually learn from their teachers in a calm environment. Highly educated teachers like this are often missing in regions like Africa, which causes the previously mentioned “learning crisis”.

For Finland it is also important, that the pupils, schools and regions are not under competition. This is why there are no high stakes testing policies like in a lot of other countries. Because there are no such tests, rankings – like the ones made by PISA, who rates the educational achievements of pupils – are not a priority for Finland. This all combined creates a creative and learn-motivating environment, where there is a homogenous outcome in the educational performance of the pupils all over the country.

(Sahlberg, 2007)

 

Conclusion

One can conclude that education is a priority of the Finnish public service. Finland realized the importance of education for a well-performing society with a sustainable economic system. Education is not only good to achieve personal success but also to build a democratic and peaceful welfare nation that has (gender) equality. In the education policies of Finland, one can see that equality is very important. Every student gets the same chance to have the same quality education as the schools are publicly funded. Publicly funded schools have the advantage that they all have enough money to support their students with good teachers and materials. The difference between the weakest and strongest pupils are the smallest in the world. It is very rare that a child has to repeat a year as every child has the opportunity to go to school and to access help from the school. Nearly 30% of all children receive additional personal help from school in their first 9 years of school. This way, the school can ensure that the weak students can be reached out to and looked after personally.

With the lack of mandated standardized tests and no grades after the 5thyear there is no comparison or competition between students, schools or regions. Finland has a broad unity of major issues they address with a flexible and creative system.

In Africa it is still a long way to achieve such an education system. Of course, Finland still has room to improve and Africa has other, different problems, but Finland shows that it is possible to successfully achieve SDG number 4. There are also a lot of resources needed, as Africa tries to improve the primary and secondary school level at the same time. But there are also a whole lot of advantages one a country has reached their goals. A good education system comes with a higher equality for everyone – also women – and a stable economic system. This is why it is of great importance to invest in the SDG number 4 and achieve a quality education and to indirectly influence the achievements in SDGs number 5 (Gender Equality) and 10 (Reduced Inequalities).

(Sahlberg, 2007; Why Are Finland’s Schools Successful?, n.d.)

 

 

 

References

Sahlberg, P. (2007). Finnish approach. Journal of Education Policy, 22(2), 147–171. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680930601158919

Seetanah, B. (2009). The economic importance of education: Evidence from Africa using dynamic panel data analysis. Journal of Applied Economics, 12(1), 137–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1514-0326(09)60009-X

Sustainable Development Report 2019. (n.d.). Retrieved March 8, 2020, from https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/#/

Why Are Finland’s Schools Successful? (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?expire=&title=Why+Are+Finland%27s+Scho…

 

 

Blogpost by Nadine Reinert.