The Greens have one education policy from Finland. They need more

The Greens recently announced they will provide universal free school meals as part of their plan to tackle the affordability crisis. This is policy in Finland, which has one of the highest rated education systems in the world. The UK could learn more from the country.

Greens — Finland’s education system

In Finland, education is free from pre-school to university. The Greens did pledge to end university tuition fees in their 2024 manifesto. Indeed, there were no tuition fees in the UK until Tony Blair introduced them; they were subsequently raised from an initial £1,000 per year to £9,000 by the Conservatives and Lib Dems.

Tuition fees are a terrible idea for students because they turn education into a market commodity rather than an investment in society and a student’s future.

In fact, in Finland, even private schools are essentially banned as the 2% of private providers cannot charge tuition fees. This is a great policy, because the very existence of private schools takes resources and expertise away from public schools.

Transport in rural areas and all learning materials are also free in Finland, even at university.

In Finland, teachers are well paid, respected and must have a master’s degree. They do not need an Ofsted counterpart and schools regulate themselves.

In the UK, the Greens pledge to abolish Ofsted. They describe it as “toxic” and want to replace it with a “collaborative model”.

Finnish education further teaches students critical thinking rather than just exam prep. The first exam is at 16.

Missing subjects in the UK

In Britain, most students learn nothing about philosophy, politics and economics. That’s despite the fact that these subjects are how the world actually works. It’s only if one selects these subjects out of dozens at college or university that one learns about them.

This is nonsense. Philosophy, politics and economics should all be mandatory separate subjects. In Finland, this is somewhat the case. At upper secondary (college), these subjects must be studied and are generally integrated into social studies. The economics includes micro and macro economics. The philosophy includes ethics. The politics includes active democratic participation and understanding society.

In the UK, people lack such education, weakening democracy. The Greens and Britain could certainly learn more from Finland.

Featured image via the Canary