The Finnish Education System

A thought provoking article in the Atlantic about the education superpower Finland:

The small Nordic country of Finland used to be known – if it was known for anything at all – as the home of Nokia, the mobile phone giant. But lately Finland has been attracting attention on global surveys of quality of life – Newsweek ranked it number one last year – and Finland’s national education system has been receiving particular praise, because in recent years Finnish students have been turning in some of the highest test scores in the world.

The thesis is the egalitarian approach is the main reason for the success:

In fact, since academic excellence wasn’t a particular priority on the Finnish to-do list, when Finland’s students scored so high on the first PISA survey in 2001, many Finns thought the results must be a mistake. But subsequent PISA tests confirmed that Finland – unlike, say, very similar countries such as Norway – was producing academic excellence through its particular policy focus on equity.

Not sure if applicable to some other countries, but definitely mind blowing.