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Education in Finland is an education system with no tuition fees and with fully subsidised meals served to full-time students. The present Finnish education system consists of daycare programs (for babies and toddlers) and a one-year "pre-school" (or kindergarten for six-year-olds); a nine-year compulsory basic comprehensive school (starting at age seven and ending at the age of fifteen); post-compulsory secondary general academic and vocational education; higher education (University and University of Applied Sciences); and adult (lifelong, continuing) education. The Finnish strategy for achieving equality and excellence in education has been based on constructing a publicly funded comprehensive school system without selecting, tracking, or streaming students during their common basic education.〔(Antikainen & Anne Luukkainen of the Department of Sociology, University of Joensuu, Finland, "Twenty- five Years of Educational Reform Initiatives in Finland". )〕 Part of the strategy has been to spread the school network so that pupils have a school near their homes whenever possible or, if this is not feasible, e.g. in rural areas, to provide free transportation to more widely dispersed schools. Inclusive special education within the classroom and instructional efforts to minimize low achievement are also typical of Nordic educational systems.〔 After their nine-year basic education in a comprehensive school, students at the age of 16 may choose to continue their secondary education in either an academic track (''lukio'') or a vocational track (''ammattikoulu''), both of which usually take three years and give a qualification to continue to tertiary education. Tertiary education is divided into university and polytechnic (''ammattikorkeakoulu'', also known as "university of applied sciences") systems. Universities award licentiate- and doctoral-level degrees. Formerly, only university graduates could obtain higher (postgraduate) degrees, however, since the implementation of the Bologna process, all bachelor's degree holders can now qualify for further academic studies. There are 17 universities and 27 universities of applied sciences in the country. The Education Index, published with the UN's Human Development Index in 2008, based on data from 2006, lists Finland as 0.993, amongst the highest in the world, tied for first with Denmark, Australia and New Zealand. The Finnish Ministry of Education attributes its success to "the education system (uniform basic education for the whole age group), highly competent teachers, and the autonomy given to schools."〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Background for Finnish PISA success )〕 Finland has consistently ranked high in the PISA study, which compares national educational systems internationally, although in the recent years Finland has been displaced from the very top. In the 2012 study, Finland ranked sixth in reading, twelfth in mathematics and fifth in science, while back in the 2003 study Finland was first in both science and reading and second in mathematics. Finland's tertiarty Education has moreover been ranked first by the World Economic Forum.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=The global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014 )〕 == Early Childhood Education== In Finland, high quality daycare and nursery-kindergarten are considered critical for developing the cooperation and communication skills necessary to prepare young children for lifelong education, as well as formal learning of reading and mathematics. This preparatory period lasts until the age of 7. Finnish early childhood education emphasizes respect for each child’s individuality and the chance for each child to develop as a unique person. Finnish early educators also guide children in the development of social and interactive skills, encourage them to pay attention to other people’s needs and interests, ''to care about others'', and to have a positive attitude toward other people, other cultures, and different environments. The purpose of gradually providing opportunities for increased independence is to enable all children to take care of themselves as “becoming adults, to be capable of making responsible decisions, to participate productively in society as an active citizen, and to take care of other people who will need his (her ) help.” To foster a culture of reading, parents of newborn babies are given three books, one for each parent, and a baby book for the child, as part of the "maternity package".〔According to Eeva Penttilä, Director of International Relations for the Finland Education Department (City of Helsinki), "When a child is born in Finland, every mother gets a box (maternity package) from the Mother Care Center which consists of the first bed the baby has...()... three books. There is a book for the mother, a book for the father, and a book for the baby. Of course the baby book has...mainly those faces that babies easily can see. This indicates to the parents that for this new member of the family, you have to read. Reading to the baby is so important. I was amazed when I read somewhere that when you consider our population, we produce more children's books than any other country does. One thing you can’t do here is to buy good education for your child. Everything is free including universities. Every child is a self made person in this kind of a system because whatever your background is, you can make it but if you don’t make it, whatever your father is, you will drop down because we do not have this elite. The school meals are also free... Education isn’t even free in China. If I count the taxation from my salary, it goes somewhere about 60 percent. I am a happy taxpayer because my grandchildren get everything they need for free.” Eeva Penttilä, quoted in (Leo R. Sandy, "Education in Finland", ''New Hampshire Journal of Learning'' Vol 10 (April 2007) )〕 According to Finnish child development specialist Eeva Hujala, "Early education is the first and most critical stage of lifelong learning. Neurological research has shown that 90% of brain growth occurs during the first five years of life, and 85% of the nerve paths develop before starting school (n. b. At the age of seven in Finland)."〔Hujala continues, "Early education has also been shown to be economically and socially beneficial. The long term benefit of early education exceeds the economic costs. In addition, children’s participation in early childhood education is a significant promoter of social equality (Kajonoja, 2005; Woodhead, 2004). The effectiveness of early childhood education on both on children’s social and cognitive development has been demonstrated. For instance, the results of the PISA of 2003 demonstrated the long-term effects of early childhood education on school achievement, including the fact that children who had participated in early childhood education performed significantly better in mathematics in secondary school. French research, on the other hand, has demonstrated a connection between participation in early childhood education and experiences of success in the lower school (El Pan-European Structure Policy on ECE ()). The connection between early childhood education and school success was highly significant among children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Thus, early childhood education is a significant source for enhancing social equality. Longitudinal studies have demonstrated that the effectiveness of early childhood education lies in its ability to promote children’s communication and cooperation skills. See Eeva Hujala, “The Development of Early Childhood as an Academic Discipline in Finland”, ''Nordic Early Childhood Education Research'', Vol. 1, no. 1 (2008).〕 "Care" in this context is synonymous with upbringing and is seen as a cooperative endeavor between parents and society to prepare children physically (eating properly, keeping clean) and mentally (communication, social awareness, empathy, and self-reflection) before beginning more formal learning at age seven. The idea is that before seven they learn best through play, so by the time they finally get to school they are keen to start learning. Finland has had access to free universal daycare for children age eight months to five years in place since 1990, and a year of "preschool/kindergarten" at age six, since 1996. "Daycare" includes both full-day childcare centers and municipal playgrounds with adult supervision where parents can accompany the child. The municipality will also pay mothers to stay home and provide "home daycare" for the first three years, if she desires. In some cases this includes occasional visits from a careworker to see that the environment is appropriate. The ratio of adults to children in local municipal childcare centers (either private but subsidized by local municipalities or paid for by municipalities with the help of grants from the central government) is, for children three years old and under: three adults (one teacher and two nurses) for every 12 pupils (or one-to-four); and, for children age three to six: three adults (one teacher and two nurses) for every 20 children (or circa one-to-seven). Payment, where applicable, is scaled to family income and ranges from free to about 200 euros a month maximum. According to Pepa Ódena in these centers, "You are not ''taught'', you learn. The children learn through playing. This philosophy is put into practice in all the schools we visited, in what the teachers say, and in all that one sees."〔Ódena, "Finland Early Childhood Education", cit.〕 Early childhood education is not mandatory in Finland, but is used by almost everyone. “We see it as the right of the child to have daycare and pre-school,” explained Eeva Penttilä, of Helsinki’s Education Department. “It’s not a place where you dump your child when you’re working. It’s a place for your child to play and learn and make friends. Good parents put their children in daycare. It’s not related to socio-economic class”.〔(Maria Jiménez, “Early Education’s Top Model: Finland”, ''The Toronto Globe and Mail'' )〕 The focus for kindergarten students is to “learn how to learn”, Ms. Penttilä said. Instead of formal instruction in reading and math there are lessons on nature, animals, and the “circle of life” and a focus on materials- based learning.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Education in Finland」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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