A school for all in Finland

Abstract

The quest for equal opportunity for education in Finland has the roots in the nineteenth-century project of nation-building. Education was regarded as a national public good and therefore a duty of all people, also the commoners. Universally accessible elementary school was established as a product of national awakening. However, only under the auspices of the welfare state 100 years later in the 1970s, the basic school became truly a school for all, thanks to a pivotal comprehensive school reform. School system is contingent on social change. Post-industrial turn, the rise of new middle classes and the import of neoliberal ideas led to a new pivotal turn in school politics in the 1990s. Deregulation, decentralisation and the introduction of free parental choice of school made local comprehensive schools into a school market, where education was sought as an individual asset instead of a public good. In the post-comprehensive era the comparative evaluation of learning outcomes was regarded essential. Finnish schools excelled in the OECD-conducted PISA measurements, and the equity of the educational provisions was offered as an explanation. However, since 2009 PISA results indicated local polarisation of schools in regard to learning results. Equal opportunity to education seemed to deserve reconsideration. An ongoing debate, accompanied by research into the social aspect of education, tackles the adequacy of neoliberal school politics.