The following are 7 principles of secondary education:

1. Equality
o Of all Schools.

All the schools are equally financed and they have the same equipment. Most of them are public ones and only some
are semi-public, which usually means they teach in a foreign language like English, German, or French.

Finns seek to preserve all of the languages spoken in the country: you can receive secondary education in Swedish
(second main language) or Sami (one of the official minority languages).

o Of every subject.

Concentration on one subject is not encouraged here.

o Of the parents.

It is not allowed teachers to ask about the place of work of a parent.

o Of every student.

Students are never divided into classes according to their performance in grades or assumed career preferences. To
take things even more further, there are no good or bad students: both gifted physically or mentally challenged kids,
all study together. Finns also work quite hard on the integration of the special students.

Teachers have a good thinking and dont give emphasis to their personal attitude towards certain students.
Every relationships should be smooth, and if they arent, that eventually leads to a termination of a contract with
a teacher.

2. The Education is totally free, and all the students do

not have to pay for:
o the lunch
o tours, museum visits, and all out-of-class activities
o a school bus that picks up and drops off students if a school is more than 2 km away
o school books, writing supplies, calculators, and tablets for them

Also it is prohibited to charge the parents for any purposes.

3. Practical approach
Finnish people go by the sentence: Either we prepare them for life or for exams. We choose the first. That is the
reason there are no exams in Finnish schools. The teacher decides whether or not to carry out midterms and tests.
There is only one compulsory standard test a final to write before graduation from secondary school. But teachers
dont give their students any special training for it.

School is the place to learn useful skills that can come in handy in real life in the future. Finnish kids know how to do
and pay their taxes, also, how to create promo websites, calculate a percentage discount, or draw a wind rose to find
ones way around.
4. Individual approach
An individual education plan is designed for every child in the school. All the books, homework, exercises, and in-
class activities everything is selected for each child individually and graded accordingly, because every child has
different way of thinking and creativity.

Tutoring and remedial teaching are also available for those who require it.

5. Voluntariness for every student

Forced knowledge is never done upon students. Teachers do all their best to involve children in any kind of academic
activities, but if they are not interested in that or not capable of studying, they are will be oriented towards a more
practical profession.

No one is going to keep giving Fs to students like this. It is quite essential to be well-prepared for adult life, and thats
why repeating a year in school is not considered a shameful thing.

6. Trust
Every relationships in Finnish schools are based and built on trust with everyone. For example, there are no sudden
checks on the teachers. This educational system only gives general recommendations, and allowing teachers
to choose an adequate method for teaching, freely.

The students are allowed to occupy themselves with something quiet if they are not caught up in what is going
on in class or have finished doing their task. It is thought that the student is the one to choose what is best for him.

7. Independence
The teachers help their students learn how to think, analyze, and gain knowledge independently. It is essential
to be able to find necessary information from open sources, while memorizing countless formulas, especially with the
Internet available can be viewed as a waste of time and energy to do so.

What about the grades?

Grades are given according to a ten-point scale, but from 1st to 3rd grade there are no grades at all. Every school in
Finland have an electronic blackboard system that is called Wilma. It allows teachers, social workers, doctors, and
psychologists to give feedback to students and keep in touch with their parents at the same time. There are no fears
for the students for receiving a bad grade: grades are used to motivate students, not to discourage them which is
what happens in many countries. Nor do the teachers reputation and salary depend on his or her students grades.

Some other information:

The school grounds are not fenced. Some other interesting fact is that in class, the kids are allowed to sit on the floor
or carpet.

Something else that is quite different is that there is no school uniform or any dress code for the students, they
understand on how to dress from a young age so no rules are needed for that. But children do have to bring a second
pair of light shoes with them, especially in winter.
If the weather is warm, the classes are usually taught outside and the younger students are taken outside during the
breaks.

And, this is something every student wants to hear and that is hardly any homework. Their philosophy is that, kids
should enjoy their free time and the parents are tough not to help their kids with homework, they say that it is better to
organize a family hiking, swimming together, a visit to a museum etc.

Finland doesnt claim that their education system is

perfect, but compared to other countries, it is quite
different and improved in a better way.
Also they never stop fine-tuning this system, and they
are constantly trying new things and researching how
it corresponds to the latest social changes and
scientific developments.
They do an amazing job and kids dont hate going to
school because they care and want to make the most
fun time during the time in school, and the stress is
down to zero. They are enjoying life, and they have
time to study as well.