Globalization has been one of the most impactful phenomena of the last century. It has ensured that the fruits of invention in one country are relayed across countries as well as culturally and ideologically dissipated across societies. This also holds significantly true in the world of education. Globalization has provided significant improvements to education standards across the globe and several best practices have been observed and transferred from one country to another with greater ease, particularly from countries like Finland, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea have been easier to observe and adopt.
Finland’s education system particularly stands out, as it focuses extensively on the evolvement and continuous training of teachers, while also focusing on student happiness. As pointed out by Pasi Sahlberg in his book, “Finnish Lessons – What can the world learn from educational change in Finland”, about the difference in the Finnish education system, by pointing out that they place great emphasis on:
- Trust in Teachers and Schools
- Reduced competition, and
- Lifelong Learning
The education system came into news when they outscored other countries in the PISA rankings, but the foundation of it was laid more than 20 years ago, when they started to bring in structural changes in their outlook to the teaching process and its place in society, which in a lot of ways is similar to the story of the Chinese Bamboo, which takes careful nurturing for 5 years before even sprouting, and then grows 90 feet tall within 6 weeks of sprouting. The research across the year has also led to increased focus on student happiness and well-being.