hi i just need someone to re-write this essay with the same references or more (up to 12), please. 

Located in Northern Europe, Finland is a small country with a population of 5.5 Million people (Visit Finland, 2020). The country is divided into 19 regions, which are then subdivided into 70 subregions which have smaller subdivisions of 311 municipalities (World Atlas, 2020). Finland has topped the PISA tables. PISA (The Programme for International Student Assessment) is an international survey for countries which assesses the extent to which students have acquired key knowledge and skills, essential for full participation in social and economic life (OECD, 2018). Finland travelled their own path whilst others joined the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM) in their quest to better education (Sahlberg, 2014). GERM makes assessment a fundamental part of the teaching and learning process, with the attempt of it leading to better learning for all, it takes explicit targets for teachers and students. Finland has prioritised creating equal opportunities, raising its quality and increasing participation within all of its educational levels across their society (Sahlberg, 2015). Finland places the notion of equity at the heart of its education system. This essay will critically discuss this notion with reference to research evidence of the ways in which equity is manifested within the Finnish society, education policy and school practices.

Some of the world’s best Northern lights can be seen from Finnish Lapland, the lights can appear for as many as 200 nights per year (Visit Finland, 2020). Finland’s official currency is Euros. The country, which is described as ‘remote’ and ‘subject to severe climate’, covers a total of 150,928 Square Miles. Finland is thought to be the most densely forested country in Northern Europe, with nearly two-thirds of the country covered in thick woodlands (Britannica, 2020). According to ‘Visit Finland’ (2020) over 70 percent of Finland is taken up by forest. Finland is a bilingual country; the two official languages are Finnish and Swedish. The Finnish language is spoken by nine-tenths of the population (Britannica, 2020). The Swedish speaking population is commonly found in the coastal areas such as the south and south west. Christianity entered Finland in the 13th century, with a large majority of the population belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, although only a small number of Finns attend church. According to This is Finland (2020) life expectancy for Finnish males is 79 years old and 84 years old for Finnish females. They also state that Finland has been a part of both the European Union and the United Nations since 1995. The country’s main imports are raw materials, cars and textiles. They export electrotechnical goods, metal products, machinery, wood, paper and chemicals. The country is also home to one of the biggest brands in the world, Nokia. Finland has also produced world recognised mobile phone games such as ‘Angry birds’ and ‘Clash of Clans’ (Visit Finland, 2020). The country boast of its generous benefits to parents including almost a year of full paid salary as well as other benefits; since 1938 Finnish state has provided expectant mothers with what is described as a ‘beautiful’ and ‘durable’ box of clothes, nappies, sheets and a mattress, said box is also used as a bed for the babies (Visit Finland, 2020).

In the 1960s the Finnish parliament demanded a new modern education system for its people compared to its 1950s education system, opportunities then were unequal and based upon living in towns or larger cities had access to grammar or middle schools (Sahlberg, 2015). Finland strongly believes in equity within their society. The country demonstrates this through several different ways, one of them being their education system. All schools are government funded, this ensures all students get the same education, no one’s education can be classed as ‘better’, the Finnish government believes that education is basic human rights and so it is offered for free. All schools within the area are the same, the only thing which should be different and determines where a child go, should be the distance of the school. The country ensures fairness within their society in making sure that their people have access to the universal healthcare system, this is set up, ran and funded by the state. It gives Finnish people access to free health and dental care and access to free transportation. The government’s benefits to families are considered as generous, with subsidized childcare for children at nursery ages and longer maternity leave for parents. The state also provides parents with monthly allowances for their children until the age of 17. Equity is shown in other ways such as the pay gap between men and women are slowly narrowing down. Women make up 47% of the elected Members of Parliament (This is Finland, 2019).

In 1988, under Margaret Thatcher’s ruling, some important changes were made to the GERM approach, a ‘free-market inspired competition’ and parental choice was introduced as their key principles in an attempt to raise the quality of schools. This meant schools would be in competition for enrolment in hopes that this will improve school achievement. Parents then has the freedom to choose schools for their children, this also meant that the public would need information about student performance based on common standard of a sort. These key features were the turning point for many international institutions, many countries taking on a variations of the reform. Standardisation testing and school competition had soon spread across to other international countries in developing parts of the world (Sahlberg, 2014). Testing compares individuals to statics, competition between schools leave weaker students behind, this jeopardises schools and teaching efforts. None of these factors currently exist in Finland’s education system (Sahlberg, 2015). The 1950 issuance of legislation that guaranteed state subsidized private schooling and simultaneously extended government control over such schools; with this change the government was able to respond to the growing interest in education by opening new private schools, as their financial risks were diminished through state funding (Sahlberg, 2015). In 1985 the National Curriculum became the National Core Curriculum, along with this change, ability grouping was abolished and a more locally based syllabus. The National Core Curriculum was created by the Finnish National Board of Education, this was to provide Finnish teachers with a plan of education objectives along with assessment principles. Although the board gave guidelines, it is the schools who place the curriculum into local context. The Core Curriculum gave teachers responsibility to deliver the curriculum as they saw fit (Finnish National Agency for Education, 2016). In 1994, more power was delegated to schools, abolishing school inspections and encouraging cooperative learning (Chung, 2019).

“For a small, agrarian and relatively poor nation, educating all of its youth equally well was the best way to catch up to other countries in the industrial world” (Sahlberg, 2012). What Sahlberg (2012) refers to as the ‘Finnish dream’ means that all children in respective of their family background and personal circumstances are to have a good school within the community. Educators and policy makers in Finland believe that schooling can change a child’s life and can create possibilities (Chung, 2019). Schooling must address health, nutrients, well-being and equitable manners to its students. Finland’s equity is illustrated by the lack private schooling (Chung, 2019) there is also no separation of genders, this ensures that students are all receiving a universal education. A part of the Finnish education is to teach it’s students about nutrient and well-being, in 1948 the Finnish government bought in free hot meals for students, this gave every student at least one hot meal a day which provided them with the nutrients to flourish at school. Teachers hold a lot of responsibility for Finland’s success, as described as their ‘outstanding teaching’ and master’s degree has helped tremendously with the Finnish education (Chung, 2019). The specialisation of teachers allows expert teaching deep and meaningful teaching to its students. As well as their master’s degree, teachers must also be trained in pedagogy. Equity in education means that Finnish students have access to high quality education, this ensures the differences in education are not the results of the difference in wealth, income or powers (Sahlberg, 2015).

To challenge the Finnish education system and its policy, critics have revealed deficiencies by rankings conducted at other educational levels, such as higher and lower education. The comparison of such was to simply prove that although Finland had ranked high on PISA, there was research-based evidence which suggests problems in the Finnish education system (Rautalin, 2018). Critics have also referred to the increase in mental health problems and violent behaviour of their young people, not to mention the overwhelming workload and increased burnouts for teachers, the purpose of such views was to argue that Finnish education is imperfect and that there are problems with the schooling (Rautalin, 2018). Another challenge Finland faces is its inclusivity of other religions and cultures, with Finland once being a very homogeneous society, students were only taught about their country’s religion, however in 2015, Finland was faced with an unprecedented number of asylum seekers, this number was ten times more than any previous year. This crisis came at a time in which the Finnish government was undergoing a wide range of health care and educational reform (Tuomisto, Tiittala, Keskimäki and Helve, 2019). The number of students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) are quite high in Finland (Paju, 2015), as the country’s educational policy states that they do no standardised testing, it is hard for teachers to determine when a child is falling behind or is weaker than others, or when and how to identify that said child has additional educational needs. Recent studies in Finland has shown that general educators feel as though they have not been adequately prepared for inclusion-based practices as these have not changed significantly for pupils with SEN within mainstream settings. The aimed to reform the complete basic schooling system to provide support for SEN children inside their classrooms instead of having to transfer said children to special education classes.

To conclude, Finland has followed their own path to fairness and inclusion in building a more equal education, with such attention to their educational system, this small country has managed to top the PISA tables time and time again. The country shows equity in more than one way throughout their society. It is deeply rooted within their educational system, the law that every child has the right to an education and that it is provided for them at a very high standard with expert teaching at which is free of charge. By rejecting GERM, Finland took a look at their own education system and made the relative changes, they have invested fairly into schools within disadvantaged communities and insisted the best way to provide equal opportunities is through public schools (Sahlberg, 2012). This essay has discussed and provided research evidence on ways in which equity is manifested within Finnish society, education system and their school practises.

Reference list:

Britania (2020) Finland. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/place/Finland (Accessed: 30th October 2020).

Chung, J. (2019) PISA and Global Education Policy: Understanding Finland’s success and influences. Available at: http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bedfordshire/reader.action?docID=5842342 (Accessed: 1st November 2020.

Finnish National Agency for Education (2016) New national core curriculum for basic education: focus on school culture and integrative approach. Available at: https://www.oph.fi/sites/default/files/documents/new-national-core-curriculum-for-basic-education (Accessed: 3rd November 2020).

OECD (2018) Country Note Available at: https://www.oecd.org/pisa/publications/PISA2018_CN_GBR (Accessed: 31st November 2020).

Paju, B., (2015). The school staff’s perception of their ability to teach special educational needs pupils in inclusive settings in Finland. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13603116.2015.1074731?casa_token=Rq0ahjpFJf8AAAAA%3AvCHsslHi4SMZZYL6CJj8DkDE4tRZzFPx80Jsgz_ZuBLq9A4seG2kUwrGVYAKFuDWgnfwWgXwJpyT (Accessed: 5th November 2020).

Rautalin, M., (2018). PISA And the Criticism of Finnish Education: Justifications Used In The National Media Debate. Available at: https://srhe.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03075079.2018.1526773?casa_token=UWjd1zl7LJwAAAAA%3AK-KiFz1Iyi-7jAG28sWuVRzFFgiZLHSj5HD85iMV39mD5ipCRbzf4TVo2ulPRFl9Ms-DDAPGl5uQ#.X6Rx7ixxfIW (Accessed: 5th November 2020).

Sahlberg, P. (2012) school Administration. Available at: https://www.aasa.org/content.aspx?id=24592 (Accessed: 31st October 2020).

Sahlberg, P. (2014) Finnish Lesson: What can the world learn from Educational Change in Finland. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=py7r-7Lz-w4C&dq=what+is+global+education+reform+movement&source=gbs_navlinks_s (Accessed: 1st November 2020)

Sahlberg, P. (2015) ‘Finnish Schools and the Global Education Reform Movement’, in Evers, J. Kneyber, R. Flip the system: changing education from the ground up. New York: Routledge, pp. 162-174.

This is Finland (2019) Finnish Parliamentary Elections: Record number of women winners. Available at: https://finland.fi/life-society/finnish-parliamentary-elections-record-number-of-women-winners/ (Accessed: 28th November 2020).

This is Finland (2020) Shine with Facts About Finland. Available at: https://finland.fi/facts-stats-and-info/finland-in-facts/ (Accessed: 28th November 2020).

Tuomisto, K., Tiittala, P., Keskimäki, I. and Helve, O., (2019). Refugee Crisis In Finland: Challenges To Safeguarding The Right To Health For Asylum Seekers.

Visit Finland (2020) 21 Reasons to love Finland. Available at: https://www.visitfinland.com/article/greatest-things-about-finland/#e303d308 (Accessed29th: November 2020).

World Atlas (2020) Finland Maps and Facts. Available at: https://www.worldatlas.com/maps/finlandURL (Accessed: 29 October 2020).