Global Resource Systems

Education systems around the world is a topic I find myself interested in and always compelled to read more on. Questions of what makes a good education system and how we can improve success rates of students are discussed in every country around the world, no matter their economic state.

What never ceases to fascinate me is the education system in Finland. Consistently in the past few decades, Finland has ranked top in the world for student graduation rates, college entrance numbers, and scores on international intelligence tests. In Finland, the education system is much different from the one we Canadians are used to. For example, students don’t start school until they are 7 and are not tested or assigned homework until the age 16. Teachers are held at much higher standards, needing a masters degree and must finish in the top 10% of their class to be considered for the position. (For more  facts about the Finish education system, click here.)

My thoughts have now turned to thinking about our education system, and what it says about how we operate in society. An article in the the tyee article suggests that we would never be able to adopt a Finnish sort of system because of our current view of school as a “competitive arena”. Economists may argue that competition is healthy, and encourages businesses and people to thrive.  So my questions is what would our society start to look like if we began reforming our education system? Would society begin to change its habits and views on life if we changed our education system? Would we care more about environmental problems? Would we encourage or discourage more innovation? Maybe changing our education system is the solution we’ve been looking for for many different problems in today’s world.

Ken Robinson discusses his view on how schools kill creativity in this ted talk.