In Finland, preschool refers to a year of free half-day classes for six-year-olds, which is complemented with day care for the other half of the day. This builds on a programme that gives parents access to full-day childcare from birth till the age of six, at a capped cost. The overall system has been developed since the 1960s to support the participation of women in the workforce. Today, it incorporates a range of rights for children: all have legal access to childcare, comprehensive healthcare, and local preschools.

To ensure quality, Finland has systematically developed teaching as a professional career. Teachers have to attain high university qualifications: all have a three or four year bachelor’s degree in education, while many complete a master’s degree (from primary level on, a master’s degree is required). Studies are typically academic research-based courses at high-end universities, with detailed courses on curriculum planning and design, as well as leadership. Teachers are accorded the same respect as other professionals, such as lawyers, with comparable working conditions. Wages are good—although by no means the highest among the countries in this Index—and class ratios are low with an average of 11 pupils per teacher.

All this helps Finland take a light touch when it comes to testing and monitoring, given the strong institutional trust in teachers. “This is why we have been deliberately staying away from the unnecessary standardised testing, or unnecessary external inspection of our schools,” explains Dr Pasi Sahlberg, a Finnish education expert and director general of Finland’s Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation. It also allows Finland to delegate authority over curriculum planning to teachers. Indeed, trust is so high that this in turn can raise new challenges: Dr Sahlberg notes that more work is needed to educate parents about their own responsibilities in raising children, lest they assume that teachers will do it all.