Schooling in Finland | Darren McGarvey: The State We're In | BBC Scotland

So, you've probably already heard a bit about education in Finland. That we have less homework than other countries. We have shorter school days than almost anyone else. And our kids don't even start school until they are seven. And yet we have one of the most high-scoring education systems in the world. So, how do we do it? If I could come up with one word, that would be trust. Trusting teachers' expertise, trusting schools, also trusting municipalities. Teachers are very independent and they have a lot to say what they do in their classrooms. It gives us teachers more autonomy, more freedom to try different things. If you want to build trust, you have to give space and freedoms to the teacher. The Finnish system is of the essence. Finnish system is not top-down. It's an ongoing discussion. Every teacher in Finland writes a curriculum. It's ours when we co-create it together. You need to have some basic national rules. But then you need to have freedom to do education differently. We're trying to combine the government policy with the local needs. There's the national guidelines. Then every commune or city needs to make their own interpretation of that. And then the school makes their own school interpretation of that. Every school invites the parents to discuss a common vision for the school. Parents and principals and teachers, they are doing the work together. We're changing the role of the teacher and the pupil. We would like the students to take more responsibility of their own learning to plan, to set goals, to evaluate. The pupil should be in the centre of learning. And the teacher should facilitate and activate students. It's that relationship between the teacher and the student that makes the greatest learning.