New Delhi: Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat has hailed the education system of Finland as the best in the world, and asked India to take a cue from it.
“A country called Finland is being applauded for having the best education system in the world these days. All of America and Western world keeps wondering how they have such a good education system. It is because they teach their children to face struggles of life and not to score in an examination,” Bhagwat had said Saturday at Gyanotsav, an event organised by the RSS-affiliated Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas.
“Just the way they have values of their country in their education system, we should have Indian values in our education system.”
But it’s not value-based education that has taken Finland to the top of the heap; it’s a well-thought out strategy implemented over a number of years.
20 hours a week, no homework
To begin with, Finnish schools teach kids just 20 hours a week and 190 days a year, unlike most Indian schools, which have a teaching time of 30-33 hours per week on average.
Finnish children do not get any homework, something that most Indian children are burdened with. Nor do Finnish schools have any standardised tests.
American documentary filmmaker Michael Moore highlighted the system in his 2015 film Where to Invade Next, which featured an interview with Finland’s former education minister Krista Kiuru, who said not having homework was one of the system’s best aspects.
Many children and teachers interviewed by Moore said they learnt a lot more by not doing homework after school, and concentrating on other hobbies and life skills. Some kids said they spent time with their family, some learnt to play music, some even climbed trees.
Unlike in India, where most kids start going to school at the age of 3, Finnish kids begin formal schooling at age 6, spending the next nine years in a single-structure system — there are no separate primary, secondary or higher secondary sections.
If parents want to make their kids start learning earlier, there is an early childhood education programme where kids learn through playing, similar to the play school, nursery and kindergarten model in India.
After basic education, kids can go for upper-secondary education in one of two branches — general and vocational. This extends for three years, after which a student enters university.
With all its seemingly unconventional teaching methods, Finland has maintained a high score on the Programme for International Students Assessment, which is used to determine the standard of education in the country. In 2017, the country was at No. 12 all over the world in mathematics, No. 5 in science and No. 4 in reading.
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Like others already pointed out, this is complete bs. Finnish people 6 hours of school/day, which sums up to 30 hours.
Students also get lots of homework.
The problem is India is not Finland and to establish schools at that level will be challenging task.. As is known Finland has 16to 1 student /teacher ratio. So India will need 100 million teachers. Where will it get. Who will pay salaries etc.
Now that’s what i call a lie. We have 33 hours a week and we indeed get alot of homework.
Repair the education system than bring in something news. Its already strangling with so many updates and too much of documentation. What we need is to simplify and signification does not mean westernization of education. It means to reduce burden of too many subjects , reducing number of working hours in a planned manner by adding a few activity based sessions on a serious note by every school private or govt, big or small ans ensure that students are industry ready as per their financial status. It should be such that those who take up jobs early to support their families, get Govt suport to complete their education and higher studies , get placed, if possible and leave the other categories to decide what they want to do. A proper career path illumination will be helpful to push the masses away from the worn out paths of engineering and CA or banking which are the most preferred because the other paths are either known least or unknown. Finland need not be followed. India needs to follow an education system that can be exemplified elsewhere.
What nonsense is this! Our daughter has had a plentiful of home work from school.
There is always something true in each legend, though, as she is now in the sixth grade and has roughly 20 hours of school in a week.
Regards from Finland
@Mikko. Haha…well said. This is what I was wondering from where they got idea of no homework.
Drastic change in Indian education system is need of the hour. Good thinking. We always believed in indigenous technology and innovations. Already we have lost the rich knowledge base of our ancestors. there should not be any objections on adopting Finland education system and I think it will not be a carbon copy but there will required changes according to indian conditions.
Finnish schools give indeed homework…
Just one information to be kept in mind before proposing this disastrous education system for India. It’s good to learn from Finland, but the more important thing is that we have to be aware of the prevailing infrastructure in India. For a very basic example, the average student teacher ratio in Finland is 16:1 and in India, the proposed ratio is 30:1 for junior classes and 35:1 for senior classes. With such a huge difference, is it logical to bring this change? We need to prepare ourselves for such a revolution in education system because it’s extremely difficult to cater to individual learning differences in school which is necessary if the learning hours are to be reduced, giving no homework and adopting the Finland system.
India isn’t Finland! The population of Finland is barely 5.5 million vis-a-vis India’s 1300 million and the per capita income of Finland is $ 47,000/-. The teachers are one of the best-paid categories of personnel in the Country. Its GDP is $ 260 Billion and it also has a very low expenditure in Defence and Law and Order.
The population which 1/240th of India, GDP which is 1/11th of India, very low expenditure on Defence, Finland has the ability to spend at least 30 times more on the education.
Finland with better school infrastructure, teachers who are more skilled and educated and high investment in the Education sector is at a very different level than India.
I am not sure it’s possible or even desirable to lift the education system of Finland and duplicate the same in India; it would be a square peg in the round hole.
We will need to have a system which is in consonance with the conditions of students, teachers, and where we currently are.
Chief of RSS is the defcato PM of India, he just have to order Modi to do it… Thta is required, be it finland model or taliban model