Invest to ‘meet needs’ of primary level pupils

GREATER investment in education here should be matched with more autonomy for schools and less focus on reading and maths, an expert who helped turn Finland’s education system into one of the world’s best has suggested.

From being one of the poorest systems in the developed world up to the 1990s, Finland now tops most international education system rankings.

It invests more than 7% of national income in education compared to 4.6% here, but Dr Pasi Sahlberg said primary schools must be particularly well-funded to set the foundation blocks for a knowledge economy.

He is director general of the Centre for International Mobility in Finland’s Ministry of Education and worked for its National Board of Education from 1986 to 2000.

Dr Sahlberg told 1,000 primary principals that other measures taken in his country included abolishing the national school inspection system and increasing investment in research and innovation to bring focus to the skills pupils are taught.

“Schools and principals became the focal points in making decisions on everything about education. School should be the place where every pupil has opportunities to discover what they are good at, not just in literacy and numeracy, but maybe to find out if they’re good at a musical instrument,” he said.

The Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN) annual conference heard from Department of Education chief inspector Harold Hislop on Thursday that more inspections are important to address shortcomings in the quality of education at a significant number of schools.

But Dr Sahlberg said each school should customise what is taught to match its pupils’ needs, instead of following national strategies focused on core subjects like reading and maths.

The idea conflicts with the Tánaiste Mary Coughlan’s planned overhaul of teacher training and development, aimed to improve Irish teenagers’ scores in these areas which fell significantly compared to other countries in the latest OECD report last month.

In Finland, students go through rigorous testing and interviews to qualify for teacher training courses but their students have the equivalent of two years’ less teaching by the time they sit OECD literacy and numeracy tests at the age of 15.

Dr Sahlberg said corrective measures with more investment are needed to prevent demoralisation of Irish teachers and principals.