79946 Finland SABER Country Report SCHOOL AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY 2012 Policy Goals Status 1. School Autonomy in Budget Planning and Approval Funding is shared between the central government and municipal governments, but budget allocations and management is done by the Municipal board of education. 2. School Autonomy in Personnel Management The Municipal education board does the hiring and firing of all school personnel. Salaries are determined by civil service rules. Instead of salaries, school boards use a rigorous teacher selection process to ensure quality and stability in teaching. 3. Participation of the School Council in School Governance School Councils are not common; the law allows them but parents see no need to intervene in school management because the system works very well. If needed, parents have easy access to budget and performance information that they can use to voice their concerns 4. Assessment of School and Student Performance There is a well-developed national system for assessing schools and students. It is highly accessible and parents and the public use it on a regular basis. 5. School Accountability There is an advanced system for assessing performance and system accountability. Parents have easy access to information but must go through the Municipal government to voice their concerns. THE WORLD BANK FINLAND ǀ SCHOOL AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2012 Education in Finland The Ministry relies on advisory institutions to assess student performance. The Matriculation Examination The two most important factors explaining the success Board administers the matriculation examination and of the Finnish education system are: (i) education has sets and assesses the tests, while the National been a national priority for decades, and (ii) the system Education Evaluation Council administers all matters operates on trust. The Ministry of Education is in charge related to school assessment. Finland has a of education policy and overall central funding. The comprehensive system structure (Table 1). Finnish National Board of Education, as the operational arm of the Ministry of Education, is responsible for overall education provision and educational Table 1: School system structure development, including the curriculum. Age Grade Level of Education Implementation at the school level is the responsibility of municipal governments acting through their Municipal School Board. While education policy is set 3-6 Pre-School Pre-Primary at the central Ministry level including guidelines about 7-12 1-6 Primary what children need to know at each grade level, schools Lower are free to use their own method to comply with 13-15 7-9 Secondary national standards. Vocational and Upper technical 16-18 10-12 Budgetary autonomy is Established; budget is controlled Secondary secondary by the local governments with input from principals. education Personnel management is Established. Teacher salaries Vocational and are relatively fixed by civil service rules and 18-21 13-15 technical tertiary municipalities choose their teachers under very education stringent criteria. Participation of School Councils in Undergraduate 18-22 13-16 degree school governance is Advanced. Parents trust school decisions because the system works very well. School Graduate 22+ 17+ studies and student assessment is Advanced. Standardized Source: OECD student assessment is sample-based but schools evaluate their students continually. More importantly, The net enrollment rate for secondary school is 91 schools use the evaluations to make adjustments on a percent, and the transition rate from primary to regular basis. Accountability is Established. Although secondary school is 100 percent (Table 2). parents and the public have easy access to school academic and financial performance, they have to go Table 2: Selected education indicators, 2010 through the municipal government to voice their Public expenditure on education: concerns. As % of GDP 6.8 As % of total government 12.1 The Government funds all public and private schools. expenditure Only 1.5 percent of schools are private. School financing Distribution of public expenditure per level (%): 2009 of preschool, primary, secondary and vocational Pre-primary 6 education is shared between the central government Primary 20 (about 45 percent) and the municipal governments Secondary 42 (about 55 percent). Universities are funded by the Tertiary 32 central government. The Finnish National Board of Pupil/Teacher ratio in Primary 14 Education is responsible for developing pre-primary education, basic education, upper secondary school Percentage of repeaters in Primary 1 education, vocational upper secondary education, adult Primary to Secondary transition 100 education and liberal arts education. rate, 2007 Source: UNESCO 1 SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS FINLAND ǀ SCHOOL AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2012 The Case for School Autonomy and School been beneficial for restoring the social contract Accountability between parents and the school, and that it has been instrumental in setting in motion policies aimed at School autonomy and accountability are key improving student learning. components to ensure education quality. The transfer of core managerial responsibilities to schools promotes The experience from high performing countries, as local accountability, helps reflect local priorities, values, measured by their performance in international tests and needs, and gives teachers the opportunity to such as PISA, indicates that: establish a personal commitment to students and their parents (Figure 1). • Education systems where schools had more autonomy over teaching content and student assessment tended to perform better on the PISA test • Education systems where schools have more autonomy over resource allocation and that also publish test results performed better than schools with less autonomy • Education systems in which many schools competed for students did not systematically get better PISA results • Education systems with standardized student assessment tended to do better than those without standardized student assessment. • PISA scores among schools with students from Source: Arcia et al. 2011 different social backgrounds differed less in education systems that use standardized School autonomy is a form of education student assessments than in systems that did decentralization in which school personnel are in charge not. of making most managerial decisions, frequently in partnership with parents and the community. More As of now, the empirical evidence from countries that local control helps create better conditions for have implemented school autonomy suggests that improving student learning in a sustainable way, since it there is a set of policies and practices that are more gives teachers and parents more opportunities for effective in fostering managerial autonomy, the developing common goals, increased mutual assessment of results, and the use of the assessment to commitment to student learning, and a more efficient promote accountability. Benchmarking policy intent for use of scarce school resources. By allowing more local these variables can be very useful to any country control over school operations, school autonomy and interested in improving education system performance accountability fosters a new social contract between (Arcia et al. 2011). parents and teachers by improving communication and increasing local cooperation and local accountability. To be effective, school autonomy must function within Finland’s Performance: A Summary of a compatible set of incentives that take into account the Results from the Benchmarking Exercise education policies in the country, and the incentives for their implementation. Moreover, having the managerial There are five indicators of school autonomy and responsibilities at the school level automatically implies accountability that can help benchmark an education that the school also has to be accountable to its local system’s policies that enable school autonomy and stakeholders and to national and local authorities. The accountability: empirical evidence from education systems where schools enjoy managerial autonomy shows that it has 2 SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS FINLAND ǀ SCHOOL AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2012 1. School autonomy in budget planning and net result is that richer municipalities have to contribute approval; proportionally more. 2. School autonomy in personnel management; 3. The participation of the school council in 1. School autonomy in budget planning and school finance; approval is Established 4. The assessment of school and student Indicator Score Justification performance; and All public and private 5. School accountability to stakeholders School schools receive autonomy in the government funding. Each of these indicators has a set of sub-indicators that planning and Municipal boards of Established make it possible to judge how far along an education management of education control budget  system’s policies are in enabling school autonomy and the school planning and approval for accountability. Each indicator and sub-indicator is budget public and private schools scored on the basis of its status and the results at the municipal level. classified as Latent, Emerging, Established, or Advanced: Legal authority Municipal school boards over the set teacher and staff management of Latent Emerging Established Advanced Emerging salaries using the civil     non-teaching  service pay scale as a staff and Reflects Reflects Reflects good Reflects guide. teacher's limited some good practice, with international salaries engagement practice some best practice limitations Municipal governments contribute with 55% of Legal authority the funding. Schools seem A Latent score reflects a limited engagement in to raise Advanced to be amply funded, education policy; an Emerging score indicates that the additional funds  which in turn implies that policy in place reflects some good practice; an there is no need for for the school Established score indicates that the program or policy seeking additional reflects good practice but there may be some support from parents or limitations in its content or scope, and an Advanced other sources. score indicates that the program or policy reflects best practice and it can be considered on par with 2. School autonomy in personnel management is international standards. Established Because the education system relies on trust to renew 1. School autonomy in budget planning and itself, teacher motivation is managed with the aid of approval is Established several mechanisms: School budgets are controlled by the municipal • Tapping the culture. Until early in the 20th government and managed by a Municipal Education century Finland was a poor country where Board. Municipal funding for education comes from education was clearly identified by parents as a income taxes (which are collected at the municipal key factor for economic and social mobility. As a level) and property taxes. Estimating the central budget result, there was a general consensus that transfer requires an assessment of per student costs at education had to be taken seriously. the national level. This average is based on actual • As a result of the consensus on the importance expenditures by schools. The average figure, however, of education, teachers in Finland always had has a built-in equity mechanism. Poor schools tend to good training before going into the classroom. be in less expensive rural areas or in poor • Education institutions (primary schools, municipalities. The average transfer per student leaves secondary schools and vocational schools) the poor schools with additional funds because their always chose their teachers carefully. Teaching actual costs tend to be below the national average. The means the acquisition of a civil service position with an open-ended contract, good working 3 SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS FINLAND ǀ SCHOOL AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2012 hours for female teachers with children, good 3. Participation of the School Council in school retirement benefits, and societal respect. As a governance is Advanced result, teaching is a profession found very School councils are optional because the general public attractive to people, which in turn means a sees very little need for parent intervention in school large pool of applicants for every opening. operations. Parents seem to consider that the system Currently the school system hires only 10 works well. Since the Municipal Education Board percent of all the applicants to the teaching manages schools, the National Education Board vacancies every year. considers that that level of disaggregation is enough for • Teachers are free to use their own teaching ensuring good governance and accountability. Recently, method, as long as they comply with the goals teachers have indicated that motivating young students of the curriculum. has become difficult. They attribute it to the lack of • School directors are chosen for their capacity to incentives brought in by affluence. provide pedagogical leadership and their 3. Participation of the School Council in School motivational skills. Governance is Advanced Indicator Score Justification In terms of salaries, executives at the National Board of The central government Education indicate that Finland has long considered that assigns per-student teacher salaries should be on par with the salaries of allocations using a other professions (engineering, medicine, etc.). If a Participation of funding formula. School- competitive salary is combined with job stability, the School Established level budgets are convenient hours, and summer vacation, teaching Council in budget  prepared by municipal becomes very attractive to many who would otherwise preparation governments and by private owners, with go into a non-teaching profession. feedback from school principals. 2. School autonomy in personnel management is Budgets are formula- Established based and determined at Indicator Score Justification School Council's the central and municipal School Municipal Boards manage authority to Advanced levels. Parent approval is autonomy in the hiring and firing of approve the  implicit because of teacher teachers. They are most school budget Established parent’s trust in the appointment  active in teacher selection. current system. & deployment Manual for the Advanced There are no manuals decisions participation of  since school councils do Municipal Councils deal the School not have any role in School with most personnel Councils in budget preparation. Council’s role issues but principals have school finances Established in teacher a lot of influence in their Budgets are implemented  tenure or decisions. Parents can without parent super- transfer have a voice at the Role of the vision or participation. municipal level. School Council in Advanced The system is based on Municipal Councils are budget  trust and parents seem to responsible for the hiring implementation accept its current budget and firing of principals in implementation Autonomy in public schools. Private performance. the hiring and Advanced school owners hire and Advanced The Municipal Boards firing of  fire their own principals. Use of the  allocate school budgets. principals Parents generally do not budget prepared Parent consent is implicit. participate in the process with the School There are formal because it works well Council's mechanisms open to under the current system. participation parents to express their concerns when needed. 4 SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS FINLAND ǀ SCHOOL AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2012 4. Assessment of school and student performance is Advanced 4. Assessment of school and student performance is Finland has an advanced system for assessing school Advanced and student performance. All schools and students are Indicator Score Justification Standardized testing is assessed every year using a wide variety of methods sample-based and done chosen by the school. In addition, PISA scores are Existence and under the supervision of amply discussed and used as a gauge for assessing the frequency of the National Education relative success of the education system. Advanced school and Evaluation Council. All  student schools and students are The driving force for evaluating educational assessments assessed every year using performance is trust. That is, trust in teachers, trust in criteria chosen by each individual schools, and trust in the capacity of the school. system to regulate itself and to seek ways in which to Schools devise their own improve performance within a context of shared fate assessments and make and a sense of ownership. Only 15 percent of all Use of school results easily accessible to assessments for Advanced parents and the public. schools are inspected annually, and schools that are not making school  Schools use the results to inspected rely on self-assessment for correcting adjustments make pedagogical, problems detected during the school year. Students are personnel, and operational assessed daily on ordinary tasks, and more formally at adjustments. least twice a year. However, the method of assessment Sample-based standardized and the feedback used to improve student performance testing is done every year. is left to the discretion of teachers and the school. One Frequency of Student assessments by all detected weakness of self-assessment is the path to schools are done regularly, standardized Advanced correcting self-detected problems; the correction with the frequency of the student  process can take some time because directors usually assessment dependent on assessments its complexity. All students recommend taking up one issue at a time. In reality, are evaluated every year at little is formally known about how teachers and schools least twice. assess themselves. The analyses of student assessments are accessible Use of student to parents. Schools assessments for Advanced regularly use the pedagogical and  information to make personnel pedagogical, personnel, adjustments and operational adjustments. Publication of Advanced Both school and student school and  assessments are made student public and are available assessments online. 5 SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS FINLAND ǀ SCHOOL AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2012 5. School accountability to stakeholders is financial reports of their Established schools. Financial accountability is done Because Finland’s system is based on trust, the sample- within the Municipal based periodic assessment of learning outcomes is government’s normal taken as a reference point by schools. The Finnish procedures. National Education Board publishes an annual set of Manual for the Latent School Councils do not to quantitative indicators that reports on national figures participation of  have a role in school by level of education. In addition, education sector the School audits. information is also provided by the Official Statistics of Councils in Finland, which are produced annually. Finally, every school audits three years there is a formal report on teacher training. Data on school performance aggregated at the Enhancing education quality: Lessons from municipal level are available online. However, large Finland municipalities have their own data at the school level made available to school staff. In general, the analysis Finland is one of the top educational performing of school and student performance is done at the countries in the world and, as such, it is a benchmark Ministry or at the Board levels. Because of the level of country. This position is not accidental. It is the result of aggregation of education data the real client for a systematic and sustained attention to education that educational accountability is the municipal government. has gone on for decades. Finland’s education system This type of accountability also includes a constant relies primarily on trust. Education policy is set at the dialogue between the municipal governments and the Ministry level with guidelines about what children need schools. to know at each grade level, but schools are free to use their own method to comply with national standards. 5. School accountability to stakeholders is Operationally, Finnish schools rely on local governments Established Indicator Score Justification for budget and personnel management. Over the years Finland has become highly selective of its teachers, Guidelines for Advanced All schools have the use of school  guidelines for using which allows parents to remain confident that their and student student assessments, as children are receiving an education of high quality. This assessments by per the National trust is reinforced by the high marks that Finland gets in the School Education Evaluation international measurements of learning outcomes. Council Council. Schools are constantly using their internal evaluations Advanced There is a national to make adjustments and municipal governments are  strategy for the use of always vigilant of the net results. National or the assessment results. regional systems The principles guiding The main challenge for the country is to remain at its of educational school and student assessments position by maintaining the high quality of its teaching evaluation are readily available online. force and by maintaining education as one of its leading Established Comparisons are made priorities. To sustain its position as a high performing Comparisons of  among different types of country Finland has identified some policies that are in school and schools, regions, and the process of implementation, such as revising its student with previous years. teacher salary policy and addressing potential changes performance More detailed in its demographic structure. This constant awareness reports comparisons are not of possibilities for improvement bodes well for the regularly available. future of education in the country. School Council Established School Councils are not authority to  involved in budgetary perform financial issues, although they audits have access to detailed 6 SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS FINLAND ǀ SCHOOL AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2012 Acknowledgements Gustavo Arcia, Consultant for the World Bank, wrote this report. References Arcia, Gustavo; Harry Anthony Patrinos; Emilio Porta; and Kevin Macdonald; 2011. School Autonomy and Accountability in Context: Application of Benchmarking Indicators in Selected European Countries. Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER). Washington DC: Human Development Network, World Bank, Washington D.C. Arcia, Gustavo; Kevin Macdonald; Harry Anthony Patrinos; and Emilio Porta; 2011. School Autonomy and Accountability. Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER). Washington DC: Human Development Network, World Bank, Washington D.C. European Commission, Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, EURYDICE, 2009. Organisation of the Education System in Finland 2008- 2009. Brussels. Eurydice European Unit (EURYDICE), 2007. School Autonomy in Europe. Policies and Measures. Brussels: European Commission. Finnish National Board of Education, 2008. Education in Finland. Helsinki. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 2008. Education at a Glance. OECD Indicators. Paris. 7 SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS FINLAND ǀ SCHOOL AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2012 www.worldbank.org/education/saber The Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) initiative produces comparative data and knowledge on education policies and institutions, with the aim of helping countries systematically strengthen their education systems. SABER evaluates the quality of education policies against evidence-based global standards, using new diagnostic tools and detailed policy data. The SABER country reports give all parties with a stake in educational results—from administrators, teachers, and parents to policymakers and business people—an accessible, objective snapshot showing how well the policies of their country's education system are oriented toward ensuring that all children and youth learn. This report focuses specifically on policies in the area of School Autonomy and Accountability. This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank with external contributions. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of The World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. THE WORLD BANK 8 SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS