Principal Tim Blunt admires Finland's education system. Credit:Paul Rovere Finland — with 5.4 million people, a population similar in size to Victoria's — is a superstar in school education. It consistently ranks among the world's top countries in international tests of student capabilities in reading, maths and science, known as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). The group of 22 Victorian primary and secondary school leaders went to Finland to investigate what they could learn from the Nordic nation's successful track record in education. The international testing program of 15-year-olds and national studies show Australia's student literacy and numeracy results have slipped in recent years and fallen behind the world's best performers, according to the Productivity Commission's report on schools. The study group of representatives from the Victorian Principals Association and the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals found striking structural differences between Australia's schooling system and Finland's, especially when 15-year-olds in year 9 sit the international PISA test.

In Australia, research shows year 9 has become a danger zone for student boredom. Many schools have introduced specialist camps and programs designed to reduce the risk of student disengagement. Year 9 in Finland is a much more competitive year. It marks the end of junior secondary school when the school assesses the grade point average achieved by every student to determine which upper secondary school they can go to in years 10 to 12. "While students are working hard to get a good grade point average to get into their preferred upper secondary college, the PISA test comes along at the same time," Mr Blunt says. Students enter either vocational upper secondary schools, academic upper secondaries or others specialising in music, language or sport. More than 50 per cent of students choose vocational senior secondary schools, according to Mr Blunt. All upper secondaries are well resourced and lead on to university or polytechnic colleges, with students able to switch between the two streams if they want to change course. In some municipalities, vocational colleges are harder to get into than the more mainstream academic schools.

"If you have agreement that there needs to be courses for kids' individual talents then you can't neglect the talents of kids who want to be tradespeople," Mr Blunt says. "It's unfortunate that Victoria doesn't have the same sort of support for kids who want to follow that path. "We want to get to the level that we witnessed in Finland where year 10 students are aspirational about going into trades and it's not just seen as somewhere to end up because you're not good at school." Mr Blunt has set up a similar pathway for year 10 students at Sunshine College. Four years ago, in partnership with Victoria University, the school established Harvester Technical College on one of its campuses. The arrangement allows more than 150 students to stay at the school and study TAFE courses delivered by the university as they progress through years 10, 11 and 12. "Some young kids find it too hard to go directly to TAFE and start a course on their own," Mr Blunt says. "They end up dropping out. So we're trying to do this on campus with the security of the school environment to support them."

Unlike Australia, Finland does not have a national student testing system. However the study group found all schools had more frequent classroom testing than found in Victorian schools. "Kids were tested a lot more than they are here," says Frank Sal, president of the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals. "At the end of each unit of work they're given tests devised by their teacher or school." In Finnish secondary schools, teachers give students grade points based on the tests, which they record on a national computer database. The education authority reviews each school's grade points assessment system every four years to ensure teacher judgments on the gradings are nationally consistent. Mr Sal says Finland's student assessment system is backed by a strong, ongoing intervention program for all students found to be struggling either academically or behaviourally. All schools have teams of special education teachers who usually work in pairs with a maximum of 12 students in a group.

About 50 per cent of all Finish students use the special needs teachers to get extra tuition. Schools also have a nurse who works with students and their families on health problems. National principal organisations in Australia have been campaigning for a similar approach to early intervention and welfare services in their schools. "Almost from birth the Finnish school system ensures there are constant supports in place for students as they go through primary and secondary school," Mr Sal says. "It's very much part of their beliefs and policies. Seven per cent of their education budget goes into special needs support, compared with 1 per cent of our education budget." Finland's national curriculum is reviewed every 10 years. Mr Sal says the 10-year cycle gives teachers and schools the autonomy to implement the curriculum and add to it without bureaucratic interference or interruptions from policy changes. "It means education doesn't become a political football . . . All political parties support the country's education system and the processes that are in place."

In November, a group of Finnish school principals will visit Victorian primary and secondary schools to investigate the use of information technology in classrooms and ways to cater for students from diverse cultural backgrounds. Australian students have the world's second-highest levels of digital reading literacy, according to the latest PISA results released last month in a report by the Australian Council for Educational Research. They ranked second behind Korea in the international test, which assessed the ability of 15-year-olds to read, understand and apply digital texts. All other industrialised countries, apart from New Zealand, performed on average at a much lower level than Australia. Finland's homogenous culture — where most citizens come from Nordic Lutheran backgrounds — is cited by educators as one of the reasons for the nation's outstanding results in student achievement. Mr Sal says he and his colleagues saw how Finland's predominant Lutheran culture, which emphasises a strong work ethic, has shaped attitudes to learning and helped schools deliver good results.

But the nation's school principals are facing challenges in catering for a more multicultural student intake, as rising numbers of migrants and asylum seekers from Europe and Africa settle in Finland. "Our Finnish counterparts want to see how we deal with multicultural school populations because they're starting to get worried about how to deal with cultural differences," says Mr Sal, whose organisation will host the visit with the Victorian Principals Association. "They're concerned about some of the changing attitudes in children in years 8 and 9 to schooling, particularly in boys. "About 6000 children seem to disappear from their schooling system at the end of year 9. Many of them are boys. They lose track of them and they're putting a lot of effort into getting these disengaged youth back into the school system." LEARNING THE FINNISH WAY ■ All schools receive similar public funding and do not charge fees.

■ Most students attend their neighbourhood school. ■ Limited student use of laptops or computers in class. ■ All teachers, including special education teachers, have a masters degree as a minimum qualification. ■ Teacher training courses are highly prized, with many more applicants than places. Source: VPA and VASSP