Education System

Why Finland's Education System Works

Not too long ago, Finland's education system was comparable to that in the U.S. How they changed their system is interesting, because by having "less" school they are achieving greater results. In the U.S., the system of "doing what you hate longer and harder" seems to be the prevailing logic driving the "scientific test-results" orientation to achievement. Both systems are multi-cultural and multi-lingual and have special populations served in the general education setting.

U.S. Approach To Reform

Children must enroll in school (kindergarten or first grade) at age 5. Many children have had preschool experiences because parents work or they are qualified for Head Start, Early Start, Even Start and other programs. Preschool standards involve readiness skills (standards directed), but not all children receive such instruction. Direct reading (decoding) instruction begins in kindergarten and ends in second grade. State (and federal) standards direct what instruction children receive from kindergarten through high school and in higher education settings (technical/vocational schools and colleges/universities). Children must remain in school until they reach the age of dropping out (varies by state but usually between 16 and 18 years of age) or they graduate by meeting all their state's requirements. Standards, formal testing and statistics drive decision making by central administrators not in contact with students.

Finnish Approach To Reform

Children enroll in school at age 7, but they are given several years of preschool experiences which focus on language and physical development. The schools tend to be small because population centers are few; usually the schools have 300-400 students. Local teachers control their schools and curricula; they spend some of their work day developing and/or preparing materials to be used. Their school day is shorter than in the U.S. and they spend a lot of time outdoors, either in play or in applied "work" in the outdoor setting. Students attend elementary schools for 5-7 years, at which point they attend either a vocational schools or a higher education schools. Student skills and interests drive local decision making by teachers working with students.

What Are The Critical Differences?

The critical differences are:

· Preschool experiences are different: the U.S. focus on readiness (cognitive) skills development for reading and math, the Finnish focus on developmental skills in language and physical development. This translates into developmental readiness for instruction (Finland) or struggle to achieve (U.S.).

· School sizes differ: The U.S. consolidates and usually has 500+/school, the Finnish have few students so everyone receives attention. This translates into emotional security (Finland) or insecurity (U.S.).

· Children start reading instruction at different ages: the U.S. at age 5, the Finnish at age 7. This translates into being neurologically ready for instruction (Finland) or compensating with taxed memory skills (U.S.).

· Vocational schools are options for education in early adolescence. This translates into motivation (Finland) or non-motivational (U.S.).

· Decisions are based on testing/statistics (U.S.) or motivation and interests (Finland).

Conclusions

Focusing on behaviors and achievements for guiding change eliminates the humanness of education: interest, motivation, purpose. No matter how anyone looks at it, the U.S. system is a failure. Perhaps those making the decisions should relinquish the controls and let teachers who work with students and know what they need and want to learn make the decisions. Instead of rushing children to early achievement, maybe those who know about what happens to children developmentally will start driving the reforms.

Jennifer Little, Ph.D.

All children can succeed in school. Parents can help their children by teaching the foundational skills that schools presume children have. Without the foundation for schools' academic instruction, children needlessly struggle and/or fail. Their future becomes affected because they then believe they are less than others, not able to succeed or achieve or provide for themselves or their families. Visit http://parentsteachkids.com to learn how to directly help your child and http://easyschoolsuccess.com to learn what is needed for education reform efforts to be successful.

Why Finland's Education System Works

The Education System in America

The role that the educational system should play in the live of people is to educate them to be conscious, critically thinking individuals who do not passively accept knowledge but question the knowledge that is being taught to them. Education should be taught to give students the skills and intelligence they need to understand the world and how the world works in order to survive in it. However, the American educational system has been known to produce students whom are woefully ignorant about the world and different cultures. One of the reasons is because the educational system in its current state does not leave much room for critical thinking but trains individuals to be docile, worker bees in a global economy that keeps the status quo wealthy and "others" barely making it. The problem becomes evident if we look at the varied curriculums and subjects that are being taught. There is a lack of emphasis on academic learning, and the only thing that matters is high stakes testing. The schools in this country have become swamped with fuzzy curriculums that assume that through constant testing, students will be prepared for life in a new global society . . . whatever that is.

I recently had a conversation with a co-worker and we were discussing how African-Americans were treated forty years ago and I was amazed by her naivety about the subject, considering the fact that she was a college graduate and an African-American. From the moment I entered college, I was eager to explore the history of African and African-American history from a view point that did not make them seem sub-human and college affords students that opportunity. I could not help but wonder what type of history and sociological classes she had taken; from her conversation, none. But the sad truth is that when most people make the decision to attend college, it is for the purpose of reaping economic rewards, not for expanding one's consciousness.

In order for the educational system in this country to produce students who are not clueless about its history and the world surrounding them, it should be restructured in several ways. Parental involvement should be mandatory, just as school attendance for students is mandatory for graduation. Lack of parent involvement is an enormous contributing factor to the current failing educational system. Parents need to instill in their children just how detrimental a lack of education is to their future. Teachers are wonderful people who can take students from the top of Mount Olympus to the cold and desolation of Antarctica but they are there to teach, not parent. Many teachers spend a great deal of their class time disciplining children and playing babysitter, two things that are not a part of their job duties. Teachers need involvement from parents in order for the educational system to work and education begins at home.

Funding for the educational system should also be restructured. Public schools are traditionally funded by property taxes which results in a very unequal distribution of educational opportunity. Communities that are wealthy have more funding for their local schools than those who do not. This situation directly affects the quality of education that children in urban and poor rural areas receive. The No Child Left Behind Act will only make it worse because of the required testing and public reporting of results. When parents are buying a new house, they want to live in a school district that has strong test scores. This drives up the property values in those areas, meaning that only affluent families can afford to live in the top performing school districts. This means more property taxes to those areas, while the lower performing schools lose their funding if they do not meet federal standards. There should be a fair tax system for education that is not based on property taxes of homeowners. Government funding, for the most part, is distributed to the various schools by state and local governments and there is huge disparities in this funding based on race. According the text American Education by Joel Spring, there is a gap of more than $1,000 per student nation wide based on race, with large states like New York, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, who lead the nation in their unwillingness to fairly fund education (Spring, pg. 77). Children should not suffer because of their economic background or ethnicity and public education should make no distinction between rich and poor, or black and white. Every child attending a public school should be granted an equal education. Equal funding would grant teachers the proper resources to better educate students. School choice and the privatization of the public school system would not be a factor because under my plan, the educational system in America would be fully and equally funded by the federal government and closely monitored. With the influx of money pouring into the educational system from the government, schools would change dramatically for the better because that is the biggest issue in most public schools: lack of money.

The educational system's curriculum would be changed in order to fit in with the nation's melting pot of different cultures and ethnicities. From elementary to high school, students are bombarded with facts and figures about wealthy, white men as if women and other minorities do not exist or contribute anything worthy to the history of America. No wonder so many students blank out historical facts: they do not care these fact because they cannot relate to the actors in the story. Student should be required to take courses that have will give them a more in depth understanding of the world surrounding them, courses that will discuss the history of marginalized and oppressed individuals in this country and around the world. They should be required to read books that make them think, not just process information for the next test. If more students understood the values and cultures of people unlike themselves, it would not be easy or maybe even possible for the government to lie and use propaganda techniques to lull the masses into believing everything was okay and its leaders competent. High stakes testing would be eliminated because most of the tests are designed by people who do not have a clue about the demographics, ethnicities or economic backgrounds of the students who are to be tested and these tests are biased against minorities and the poor. If students are to be tested, extra tutoring would be available to students, at no cost to the parents.

Having competent teachers, board members, and administrators are also a vital part of restructuring the educational system. Having qualified administrators and board members who know and enforce standards and guidelines is important. What are the qualifications for an administrator? Are there required qualifications? These are the questions that need answers. Just because someone has obtained a degree does not make this person the best for the job. Board members should not be chosen because they golf with the mayor; all board members should have a Master's degree in Education or have an extensive social justice background. As for teachers, the educational system should make sure that the best teachers are chosen for the positions and evaluations should be given frequently. This would give parents and the educational system a chance to find out what is wrong and what is needed to correct the problems. Public education needs teachers and board members that actually care about the children and their education, not individuals who want the perks of working for school system: summers and holidays off, steady raises and a fat compensation package. American children are suffering due to the inadequacies of the individuals involved with the educational system.

The "culture of poverty" theory that has been used by several politicians to explain differences in learning between different ethnicities would be exposed as a blatant attempt by the status quo to "blame" individuals for their poverty if the educational system was restructured to meet the needs of all students, not just the wealthy. Huge educational gaps between poor students and wealthy students do not occur because the poorer students have adapted to their poverty-stricken existence but because they do not have resources needed to succeed in school. If students have to deal with textbooks that are outdated, lack of toiletries, and computers from the late 1980s, their opportunity to advance academically is dismal and their chances of dropping out of school likely.

In a just and an equal society, the educational system I have discussed would have already been implemented decades ago but it has not and more than likely will not. In a hierarchical society such as in America, there will always be someone on the low end of the totem pole and the best way to do that is through the mis-education of its most vulnerable: the children. The neglect of the educational system in the US threatens the economic well being of the entire nation. Unless the inequalities in education is diminished and its system totally restructured, the wealthy gap between the rich and the poor will continue to widen and the US will be infamous for being the nation of the undereducated. Spring, Joel. American Education. (2006). New York: McGraw-Hill

Computer Based Education System

Computers and communication technology continue to make an ever-increasing impact on all levels, education and training from primary to secondary and for distance learning. The computers in education are designed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the educational process. Online education has revolutionized the education industry.

Computer managed instruction and curriculum integration are inevitable for educational purposes with the adv`ncement of latest technology. It is important to integrate technology into classroom curriculum to organize resources. Reading and Language Arts, Social Science, Science and Mathematics are the main subjects to be integrated in curriculum.

Issues in educational computing are diversified, having legal issues, ethical issues along with a need to tackle with cyber crime hackers. For this purpose, the educational institutions need to ensure the safety on net. Effective network and telecommunication is an essential requirement for classrooms and laboratory. It is the part and parcel of the school curricula as the computer technology forms a deep impact in the modern education system.

The advantages of computers in education include an efficient storage and rendition of information, quick information processing and very importantly saving of paper! Home works and assignments submitted as soft copies save paper.In the modern era, the students find it easier to refer to the internet than searching for information in reference books. Today, the process of education has gone beyond learning from prescribed books. Moreover, its easier to store information on computers than maintaining hand-written notes! Thus we can say text-books versus computer teaching!

The computer technology has made the dream of distance learning into a reality! Education is no more limited to classrooms but it has reached far and wide. Internet plays an important role in education. The information on various subjects can be found to be taught to the students on internet. Computer facilitates an effective presentation of information. Software like Power-Point, and animation software are of great help to the teachers while delivering information.

Audio-Visual representation of information makes the process of learning interesting and interactive. Electronically erasable memory devices can be used repeatedly. It thus eases the process of learning.

Today, computer is an essential part in every industry. Life without computers would be unimaginable! It is evident that they are no more limited to software industry but computers are widely used in networking, information access, data storage and the processing of information. Therefore, IT experts recommend early introduction of computers in education for early childhood development stage because it lays a strong foundation of most of the major competitive careers.

Computers play a significant role in one's personal and professional life.

The Author Kathy fernandes is a freelance writer in local newspaper and magazines covering topics like cheap computers and laptops

Canadian Education System Overview

The Canadian education system is extremely similar to that of the United States during the elementary and high school years, but it differs in its greater emphasis on state funded education in the college and university level of study. The education of the Canadian youth is the responsibility of the individual provinces, and, because the federal government does not regulate every aspect of instruction, rules and regulations vary amongst the different regions; however, every province in Canada mandates school attendance until at least 16 years of age, and Ontario and New Brunswick maintain compulsory education laws for children under 18 years old.

Generally, provincial schools divide students by age into primary schools, secondary schools, and colleges or universities. The primary school division encompasses kindergarten, elementary school, intermediate school, middle school, and junior-secondary school, but no province actually includes each of these sectors; basically, the primary school, as a general term, refers to every grade until the ninth grade throughout the entire country, and enrolment in this segment is required by law in every province. The secondary school is the successive division after the primary school, and it is usually considered a transition between compulsory early schools and colleges or universities; graduation generally requires four years of study. Most of these schools focus on preparing the students for immediate immersion in the workforce or accumulating them to the environment of post-secondary institutions.

Unlike in America where the terms are used interchangeably, Canadian universities and colleges are distinct entities with entirely different foci. While colleges are generally two or three year vocational programs that grant certificates or diplomas in various fields, universities are research facilities that grant four year degrees in multiple different educational majors. Out of all Canadians between the ages of 25 and 64, approximately 53 percent have earned some form of post-secondary diploma, degree, or certificate, making Canada a world leader in its provision of higher education; this is so because the colleges and universities remain highly subsidized by the government in every province.

Though a huge number of secondary school graduates attend excellent universities in every province, the best and brightest attempt to attend one of the Group of Thirteen, a league of Canada's thirteen most prestigious universities. The most popular of the thirteen schools include the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia, the University of Waterloo, and McGill University; additionally, because of each of these schools' prosperous alumni and prolific research facilities, each member of the group manages enormous budgets from financial endowments and federal grants as compared to other provincial universities. Though the endowments of these schools cannot match those of the American Ivy League colleges, these institutions represent the most financially prosperous schools in all of Canada, and they can match even the most opulent universities of Asia and Europe.