DOES OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM NEED A

FINNISHING TOUCH?

From time to time, countries face issues, both global and internal, that
seek to threaten their very existence, and with the world becoming more
and more complex, the multitude of issues that each country faces has
only grown. In the wake of these threats, be it economic slowdowns,
terrorism, global environment concerns or scarcity of resources, every
country needs to increase its ability to cope. Coping well would entail
developing a strategy to effectively deploy resources to ensure a better
chance of growth and survival in this big, bad world, and the one strategy
that is imperative for every country to adopt right now is: investing in
itself. Indeed, social progress is often used as a yardstick to measure how
well a country is doing presently, and how well it is bound to do in the
future. To this effect, a Social Progress Index has also been developed to
quantitatively analyse the global standing of each country in terms of well
their citizens are doing. The SPI recognizes a key factor influencing the
effectiveness of a countrys coping mechanism- the mutual dependence of
a country and its citizens.
The power of citizens to give back to their country depends on the
countrys planning and investment in its education sector. The SPI too
recognizes the importance of education towards the true progress of a
country and its citizens. It uses access to education as a major criterion in
developing the SPI. In fact, the importance of education in a countrys
growth can best be indicated by a comparison- Finland v/s India.
There do exist some similarities between the two. Both the countries have
certainly identified education as a major influencer of public welfare.
Insofar, they have both made elementary education compulsory for
students, and both of them try to ease up the process of the general
public facilitating educational reform by providing incentives like
subsidised or completely free meals in schools. And yet, when Finland
stands 7th on the list of top 68 performers on the SPI, India hasnt even
made it to the list. So what is it doing wrong?
First, India has either ignored the educational reforms undertaken in other
countries, or clumsily borrowed bits and pieces without adapting it
according its own needs. Now is the time where it needs to extensively
study the one education system that has gained huge success- that of
Finland and plan accordingly:

1. LEARNING INSIDE V/S OUTSIDE

In contrast to Indian education system, the Finnish schools promote
shorter time for classes so that students have more time for
extracurricular activities. This is because the Finnish believe that practical
learning promotes a relatively stress free environment and increases the
chances of skill building, in contrast to the Indian system which relies
primarily on theoretical concepts while providing little or no provision for
practical application.
2. QUALITY OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Finland has focussed majorly on improving the quality of public schools.
This has led to reduction in inequity. Why this reduction is significant can
be explained by the simple economic concept- demand and supply.
Increasing quality of education means that the demand for public schools
rises. The parents, rich or poor, would want to send their kids to schools
that offer this quality. This also keeps private players away. Thus, with
effective oversight of the government, more kids get government
approved education. In contrast, due to the inefficiency of public schools
in India, more parents are investing in the private educational institutes.
Due to the existence of this nearly true perception that private schools
produce better quality students, the benefits of opportunity and
employment tend to accrue only to those who can afford private
schooling. Whereas, for the students who can enrol only in government
schools, who know full well the situation of lack of opportunity, which they
suffer from already, this education becomes redundant.
3. HUMAN EMPOWERMENT
One area where Finland has outdone every country is the quality and
empowerment of students and teachers. Finland plans teacher training
and growth programs extensively. Although India pays its government
school teachers heavily too, yet the quality falters. This is because of lack
of training plan developed for the teachers. As a result, the quality of the
faculty stagnates. One unconventional belief that Finland holds is that
every student is capable of self-analysis and thus empowers its students
to decide their own learning schedule and pick their elective classes right
out of elementary school. India on the other hand, has refused to let go of
the fears arising student empowerment. It continues to hold centralised
exams, enforce compulsory disciplines and reject the notion of students
building their own ideas. Developing rationale is an aspect of education
that Finland that readily accepted but India has always underestimated.
The result? Majority of the student population in India is disenchanted with
the education it receives.

In order for the equilibrium of give and take to be maintained between the
citizens and the country, India too needs to realise that the power the
education sector holds in terms of facilitating social progress and the
degree to which education needs work. Insufficient attention,
overestimation of traditional education systems and inability to scale and
adopt some of the worlds best systems as per its own needs has reduced
Indias education system to a mere process that is repeated over and over
without reaping significant results. Housing 1.2 billion people in its vast
lands, India needs an urgent review of present practices of education so
that its benefits can trickle down to the masses, who in turn can help in
ensuring sustainable growth for the country. The stronger the shield of
social progress, the greater will be its ability to meet global and internal
offensives, quite like, and someday perhaps more so than, Finland.