Yesterday, I was reading an article in Lianhe Zaobao which is an interview with distinguished education sciences professor, Pasi Sahlberg. Professor Sahlberg is from Finland and the interview discusses about his country's education system.
Unlike the Singaporean model where competitiveness and results are the norm, the Finnish education system adopts an egalitarian approach. In the article, Prof. Sahlberg mentioned that it is against the law to give ratings or marks as an assessment for a student before he/she reaches primary six.
Since the last four decades, Finland has thoroughly revamped its school system by abolishing ratings and standardizations of examinations both in and out of schools. In short, the Finnish do not believe in examinations.
In the entire 12 years of basic (9) and tertiary (3) education, the sole examination which the Finnish student has to take is the one which he/she requires for admission to universities.
According to what I researched as it was not stated in the article, those entrance exams are usually not the typical loads of MCQs which is commonly used by Singapore schools. They comprise of longer and more complex questions that go beyond just testing a person's memorization skills.
In one paragraph, Prof. Sahlberg puts it rather bluntly but honestly by saying "our teachers do not teach because of exams, students do not learn because of exams."
The absence of assessment, streamings and competition, however, did not lower the quality of education in Finland. Prof. Sahlberg thinks that teamwork is more crucial than competition. Also, one should not learn how to compete via competition but through teamwork.
Although, the Finnish education system differs from the majority, it is still at the forefront in maths, science and reading ability at the triannual PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) for the past decade.
For years, the myth that Singapore's education system is "good" has been moulded into a fact by many. However, they might have to think twice when using its Finnish counterpart as a reference.
Like what Dr Chee Soon Juan wrote in his letter to Barack Obama in 2008 "If you squeeze an apple hard enough, you will extract some juice. Its the crushed pulp that we mourn over."
The joy of learning has certainly deteriorated or even ceased to exist in our school students nowadays because of the good old education system we trust in.
Unlike the Singaporean model where competitiveness and results are the norm, the Finnish education system adopts an egalitarian approach. In the article, Prof. Sahlberg mentioned that it is against the law to give ratings or marks as an assessment for a student before he/she reaches primary six.
Since the last four decades, Finland has thoroughly revamped its school system by abolishing ratings and standardizations of examinations both in and out of schools. In short, the Finnish do not believe in examinations.
In the entire 12 years of basic (9) and tertiary (3) education, the sole examination which the Finnish student has to take is the one which he/she requires for admission to universities.
According to what I researched as it was not stated in the article, those entrance exams are usually not the typical loads of MCQs which is commonly used by Singapore schools. They comprise of longer and more complex questions that go beyond just testing a person's memorization skills.
In one paragraph, Prof. Sahlberg puts it rather bluntly but honestly by saying "our teachers do not teach because of exams, students do not learn because of exams."
The absence of assessment, streamings and competition, however, did not lower the quality of education in Finland. Prof. Sahlberg thinks that teamwork is more crucial than competition. Also, one should not learn how to compete via competition but through teamwork.
Although, the Finnish education system differs from the majority, it is still at the forefront in maths, science and reading ability at the triannual PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) for the past decade.
For years, the myth that Singapore's education system is "good" has been moulded into a fact by many. However, they might have to think twice when using its Finnish counterpart as a reference.
Like what Dr Chee Soon Juan wrote in his letter to Barack Obama in 2008 "If you squeeze an apple hard enough, you will extract some juice. Its the crushed pulp that we mourn over."
The joy of learning has certainly deteriorated or even ceased to exist in our school students nowadays because of the good old education system we trust in.
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