Why Finland's schools outperform most others across the developed world | 7.30 — Transcript

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1. 0:08it's 8 a.m on a cold morning in the
2. 0:11suburbs of helsinki
3. 0:13and these primary school children are
4. 0:15getting ready for class
5. 0:18this morning's lesson ancient history
6. 0:21well they are reading with prayers some
7. 0:24texts about egyptian ancient life they
8. 0:27are reading and then i'm gonna ask
9. 0:30something what what did they find out
10. 0:32from the book
11. 0:35i think we all are ready now this is a
12. 0:37school system that for years has been
13. 0:40among the world's best and then what
14. 0:42about this gold one
15. 0:44yes
16. 0:48and yet these kids will spend half as
17. 0:51much time in a classroom as australian
18. 0:54children when you go to the first grade
19. 0:57when you are seven years old the amount
20. 0:59of hours is 20 hours a week it's the
21. 1:03minimum
22. 1:04and then it gets
23. 1:06more hours the older you get but it's
24. 1:08still less than in many countries
25. 1:12in europe or in the world
26. 1:15in finland it's individual teachers who
27. 1:18decide how the curriculum is taught
28. 1:21including how much technology should
29. 1:23feature in their classrooms
30. 1:37classroom
31. 1:40[Music]
32. 1:43eleven-year-old mintu latomaki asks to
33. 1:46leave class to work at the school's own
34. 1:49student-run cafe you can go yeah
35. 1:53that's okay
36. 2:00hello
37. 2:02one cake for the cameraman
38. 2:04one cake for me
39. 2:06and two coffees how much is it two euros
40. 2:09and sixty cents
41. 2:11how much change uh two euros and forty
42. 2:15sets ketos
43. 2:17perfect is there a tip jar do you have
44. 2:19tips
45. 2:20no
46. 2:24in finland school lunches like books and
47. 2:28excursions are free
48. 2:30the kids select what they want
49. 2:32sit down with their friends and teachers
50. 2:35to eat
51. 2:36before they clean up after themselves
52. 2:40the children rug up again to play
53. 2:42outside
54. 2:44some play a raucous version of soccer
55. 2:47some play basketball while others wait
56. 2:49for the hockey rink to open
57. 2:53there are plenty of options for bad
58. 2:54weather days too
59. 2:57the facilities in this school are just
60. 2:59amazing outside we saw an ice skating
61. 3:02rink and in here where the kids can play
62. 3:04at lunchtime there's a ping pong table
63. 3:07a pool table
64. 3:09and in here for the cold winter days
65. 3:12they've got a room full of bean bags and
66. 3:15couches
67. 3:16and there's even a playstation in the
68. 3:17corner
69. 3:19it seems like it's such a rich school
70. 3:22you must get more money than other
71. 3:23schools no we don't it saved money for
72. 3:26everyone actually they take and borrow
73. 3:29books in finland schools are not allowed
74. 3:31to raise private funds or to charge fees
75. 3:34from parents
76. 3:36all schools are equitably funded from
77. 3:38taxation and in our system everything is
78. 3:41free for the students actually we don't
79. 3:44collect any money from from the parents
80. 3:46we want our schools
81. 3:48to be equal and have the equal
82. 3:50opportunities to arrange the education
83. 3:53so therefore also the finance system
84. 3:56need to be equal and treat equally all
85. 3:58the schools yes it is
86. 4:04older brother levi is in year seven
87. 4:07and this afternoon he's got maths we
88. 4:10have
89. 4:11like the last
90. 4:13chapter before we have the next exam
91. 4:16there are regular exams in finland but
92. 4:19the results of these tests are not
93. 4:21published and shared we have national
94. 4:24tests but
95. 4:25the big difference is we don't compare
96. 4:28schools that this is not good school
97. 4:30this this is bad school and we just use
98. 4:33the information that we evaluate
99. 4:35ourselves
100. 4:37but perhaps the single biggest
101. 4:39difference in finnish education is the
102. 4:42standard of teaching
103. 4:44levi's maths teacher una anes speaks
104. 4:47five languages and has post-graduate
105. 4:50qualifications so every one of us we
106. 4:53have to have a master's degree to to be
107. 4:56teachers
108. 4:57so like for example me i'm math and
109. 5:01chemistry and physics teacher
110. 5:04in finland a career as a teacher is
111. 5:06highly sought after to enter the studies
112. 5:10in university actually it's really hard
113. 5:12they
114. 5:13take something like 10
115. 5:14to study teaching if you really want to
116. 5:17be a teacher it can't be your second or
117. 5:20third or i don't know what kind of
118. 5:22option it has to be your first i believe
119. 5:24that they know
120. 5:26what is the best for our children i'm
121. 5:28not a teacher i don't have that
122. 5:29education so we don't interfere their
123. 5:32work
124. 5:34in finland there's little anxiety about
125. 5:37finding the right school for your child
126. 5:40we trust that they have very good school
127. 5:42so we don't need to
128. 5:44do any research work or i think that is
129. 5:47not a question
130. 5:51finland is a vastly different country
131. 5:54with a tiny homogenous society
132. 5:57but its education success must surely
133. 6:01offer some lessons for australia i would
134. 6:03like to say that try to build the system
135. 6:06that you trust the people and its
136. 6:08investment in teachers
137. 6:10seems an obvious place to begin the
138. 6:13society respects the teachers it means
139. 6:15also the parents respect the teachers
140. 6:17and they don't question the teachers and
141. 6:18that's in finland a really
142. 6:20huge thing
143. 6:21[Music]
144. 6:22[Applause]
145. 6:23[Music]
146. 6:28hi i'm lee sales thanks for watching
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