There’s much to muse about in this article recounting the important (and largely ignored) lessons of the Finnish education system. Given the plight of things in the UK and particularly the rush to privatisation of Higher Education, much is also relevent here. Two things stand out. The first is that there are no private institutions in Finnish education – all education, from playschool to PhD research, is publically funded. And second, teachers are competitively selected, highly paid, unionised and given responsibility to do their jobs professionally. Partenen summarised this last beautifully:

“Accountability is something that is left when responsibility has been subtracted.”

via What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland’s School Success – Anu Partanen – National – The Atlantic.