This OECD essay by the organisation's education director asks why Finland, which led early PISA rounds in reading, mathematics and science while keeping student well-being high and results even across schools, has seen student outcomes fall sharply. He notes that the decline started well before COVID-19 and that Finland's lead over other countries has disappeared.
The author rejects the idea that Finland stopped doing what worked. Its teachers remain strong and its schools well equipped. He points instead to many small changes over the past decade that interacted with one another:
- Technology in classrooms, with social media and smartphones competing for children's attention
- Larger, more complex schools, with inclusion contributing to a 23% rise in performance variability within schools
- An interdisciplinary curriculum that caused confusion and stretched teachers' roles, as academic rigour gave way to well-being
- Reliance on teacher judgment at twice the OECD average, which lost traction as diverse classrooms needed more system leadership and objective measures
- Weaker school and family ties, including a 21-percentage point drop in parents who proactively discuss progress with teachers
He then widens the frame to childhood everywhere, marked by Facebook in 2004, the iPhone in 2007, school closures in 2020 and generative AI in 2022. With information now abundant and attention scarce, he argues that schools should keep productive struggle, because AI could speed learning or undercut it, and education will decide which. He also suggests policymakers spend more time on the conditions teachers work in, such as time with students, authority and administrative burden.
He concludes that Finland didn't get education wrong and that its strengths remain assets. His warning is that celebrated systems can hold on to practices built for an earlier world, so successful systems need the courage to unlearn as well as learn.
