Q & AEurope

Why Finland Isn’t Overly Concerned By Declines in Student Test Scores

Why Finland Isn’t Overly Concerned By Declines in Student Test Scores
Ruoholahti Comprehensive School, Helsinki, Finland (photo by Jori Samonen via flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0).

Editor’s note: This article is the first in an ongoing WPR series about education policy in various countries around the world.

Last year, schools across Finland began implementing the country’s new National Curriculum Framework, which was first approved in 2014. Though the country, long praised for its school system, has seen test scores decline in recent years, the reforms show the Finnish government is more focused on other problems. In an email interview, Finnish educator, author and policy adviser Pasi Sahlberg explains what the changes are intended to achieve.

WPR: What are the biggest changes resulting from the adoption last year of the National Curriculum Framework, and what concerns were they responding to?

Keep reading for free!

Get instant access to the rest of this article by submitting your email address below. You'll also get access to three articles of your choice each month and our free newsletter:

Or, Subscribe now to get full access.

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review:

A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having a personal curator and expert analyst of global affairs news. Subscribe now, and you’ll get:

  • Immediate and instant access to the full searchable library of tens of thousands of articles.
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday.
  • Regular in-depth articles with deep dives into important issues and countries.
  • The Daily Review email, with our take on the day’s most important news, the latest WPR analysis, what’s on our radar, and more.
  • The Weekly Review email, with quick summaries of the week’s most important coverage, and what’s to come.
  • Completely ad-free reading.

And all of this is available to you when you subscribe today.

BEGIN YOUR WPR SUBSCRIPTION NOW

More World Politics Review