Reform of the Finnish Education System

This publication presents the main phases of Finland s Education System reform since early 1970 s until today. Finland has become known as a small Nordic country with one of the world's best education systems. Awareness is based in particular on the high-level PISA-results. The large and far-reaching reform in education has begun in Finland already in the 1970's including reforms of all levels of education. The main stages of reform are: 1. Implementation of the comprehensive school system in the 1970's, 2. Reform of secondary level education in the 1980's, 3. Reform of government s education administration - from centralization to decentralization in the late 1980s, 4. Reform of higher education since 1991, 5. Reform of children day-care and kindergarten system to pre-school system in 2013 and transfer it under the auspices of Ministry of Education and Culture. Side this in the same time, the development of continuing education in adult education. 6. Reform of second level vocational education in 2018. Common features are highlighting equality and accessibility of education, high level teacher education and all education paths without leading to higher education.