The EconomistDecember 7th 2019 631W
hen estoniagained independence
from the Soviet Union in 1991 it took
the chance to reshape the country’s educa-
tion system. Mailis Reps, the current edu-
cation minister, says officials and politi-
cians looked everywhere—from America
to the Netherlands—for inspiration. But
they kept coming back to their Nordic
neighbours. As Ms Reps recalls, the con-
cluding argument in any debate often ran:
“Let’s try something like that because it
works in Sweden or Finland.”
Many others have done similarly. Every
three years the oecd publishes results
from the Programme for International Stu-
dent Assessment, with the latest out on De-
cember 3rd. pisatests the reading, maths
and science skills of 15- and 16-year-olds in
the oecd’s member states, as well as volun-
teers not in the club of mostly rich coun-
tries. The results provide a means to di-
rectly compare different education
systems. It is now nearly two decades since
the first batch were released. Back then,
there was a surprise. Finland, not previous-ly renowned for its education, topped the
table when it came to reading, and excelled
in other categories, too.
The Nordic country appeared to have
discovered a way to get brilliant results
without the discipline and intense work-
load of East Asian champions like Japan
and South Korea, which were the other top
scorers at the time. Educationalists de-
scended on Helsinki. They reported back
that not only was education free and com-
prehensive, but teachers were highly re-
spected, well trained and left to get on with
their jobs, which frequently involved en-
abling children to discover things for
themselves. Schools in countries from
Scotland to South Korea sought to mirror
Finnish education. Indeed, international
visits became so popular that the Finnish
government started to charge for them.
Those arriving today pay more than €1,200
($1,300) to visit a school.
Yet Finland’s image as an educational
Utopia now appears to be somewhat out of
date. The latest pisaresults show a fall inits average score, as they have every round
since 2006. Gaps between rich and poor
pupils are widening, something which is
distressing for a country that prides itself
on equality. Estonia, once a mere imitator,
is now the highest achiever among oecd
countries. Mart Laidmets, the secretary-
general of Estonia’s ministry of education,
notes with more than a hint of satisfaction
that although Asian delegations still fly to
Helsinki, they increasingly use it only as a
connection on the way to Tallinn.
The parable of Finland helps to explain
why there has been little overall progress
since pisabegan. The hope at the turn of
the millennium was that the wealth of new
information provided by the tests would
help identify why some school systems do
so well. Others would follow their lead,
causing results to rise across the board. But
although spending per pupil in the oecd
has risen by 15% in just the past decade,
performance in reading, maths and sci-
ence remains essentially the same as when
the tests started.That’s what I’m Tallinn about
As ever, this year’s results include plenty of
bright spots (see chart on next page). Singa-
pore’s sparkling scores have got better still.
Even so, it is no longer the highest achiever
overall. That is China—or to be more pre-
cise, Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhe-
jiang (the oecddeclines to include results
from farther afield because it cannot guar-EducationThe parable of Finland
HELSINKI AND TALLINN
pisaresults can lead policymakers astray. They still matterInternational