Development of External Quality Assurance
in Finland
Eeva Tuokko
Centralized Quality Assurance
The practice of inspecting schools dates back to the role of the primary
school inspectors, whose duties were both to see to that the regulations
were observed and to guide, advise, and suggest improvements. The stress
was mainly on the observing of regulations, which was believed to guarantee
best practices in education.
From 1970 - 1981, when the comprehensive school system was being introduced
in Finland, the functions of inspectors were moved to Departments of Education
of the Provincial Governments. These inspectors adopted most of the tasks
previously entrusted to those employed by the central government, the
General Board of Education. The introduction of the comprehensive system
ended the previous divisions between grammar and technical and vocational
schooling. All pupils of 7 - 16 of age were to be educated without any
kind of streaming, and it was felt that there was an absolute need for
inspection and guidance. That is why the provincial departments started
to employ educators specialized in the subjects taught in the comprehensive
school. It was their job to inform the teachers in their area about the
objectives of the national comprehensive school curriculum. Thus, quality
assurance was guaranteed on the one hand by the inspectors concentrating
on observing the regulations, while the guidance and advisory functions
were planned to vanish gradually as the comprehensive system was adopted
in the whole country.
Decentralized Quality Assurance
Transferring both duties and power from the state to municipalities
was part of the process which had already started in the 80´s. Until
1976 all schools were to be inspected every third year but after that
only if there was an obvious reason for it. The year 1988 brought another
change with it: steering and guiding remained the main task of the provincial
departments, inspection was not mentioned at all, and the word "inspector"
had quietly disappeared. Decentralization culminated into a new law of
municipalities in 1995. It included the idea of decreasing national norms
and regulations to a minimum. As many decisions as possible concerning
citizens were to be made at local level.
Yet, the municipalities receive part of their funding from the state.
Since state support is no longer ear-marked, meaning that it is up to
the local decision makers to choose how much money is spent on education
in their area, the state is less aware than before of both the input and
the output. An apparent need to change the prevailing system was found
to exist.
New education legislation came into power at the beginning of 1999. Instead
of norms, providing information was adopted as a new way of state steering.
It includes, among other things, the idea of directing whatever regulations
there are towards the function of education itself, instead of the organizing
of it. However, the law also takes up the concept of external evaluation
as a method of receiving feedback about the level of educational outcomes.
In other words, it is no longer through inspection that quality in education
is assured. The trend is to make municipalities accountable for quality
in education. In addition to external evaluations, each municipality is
expected to develop a system of internal local evaluation. According to
a survey carried out in 2000 - 2002, not very many municipalities had
developed one yet.
External Evaluations as Tools of Quality Assurance
One of the basic principles of evaluation is to meet the demand for
transparency. Those concerned should be aware of the evaluation, be informed
about its grounds as well as have an opportunity to comment on the evaluations
in question and their findings. Today it is not enough that the central
government is aware of how norms are taken into consideration. Neither
is it satisfactory that teachers are informed about best practices in
the hope of teaching improving. All these still exist, of course. To support
them, a system of external national evaluations has been established.
The evaluation system adopted is an evaluation system for learning
achievements, which comprises the development (including piloting)
of school tests, their administration, as well as analysing the results
and drawing the conclusions.
"The purpose of this national evaluation system is to yield
information about the quality of learning achievements. The evaluation
findings are used in the development work concerning the education system
and framework curricula as well as in practical teaching work. The findings
also help in monitoring the implementation of equal educational opportunities."
(NBE 1999: 66)
According to the plan devised by the Ministry of Education in the 1990´s,
national subject-based evaluations are implemented in Math and Mother
Tongue (Finnish and Swedish) every second year. Other subjects are evaluated
less regularly according to agreements made between the Ministry of Education
and the National Board of Education, usually for a period of three years.
Since 1998 the following evaluations have been implemented in the basic
education: Math (in 1998 and 2000), Science, Mother Tongue (in 1999 and
2001), English, Swedish and Finnish, Religious Education, and French,
German and Russian.
"National evaluations take place at the same time in all schools
in the sample. The National Board of Education is responsible for the
implementation of these evaluations and also for publishing their findings.
The findings are reported in a manner that allows for comparisons on
how well the objectives have been met when considered by region, various
subgroups, and sex.
The evaluation system for learning achievements is designed to operate
in such a way that the achievements will provide regular feedback data
on the success of education in terms of meeting the objectives set in
the framework curricula. It will be established for comprehensive school
and for upper secondary education." (NBE 1999: 66-67)
In the comprehensive school, for instance, the purpose of national evaluations
is primarily to check that students´ achievements in terms of skills
and knowledge correspond with the objectives set in the Framework Curricula.
Evaluation is therefore focused on the central contents of different school
subjects and on the central aims of school education: learning-to-learn,
motivation to learn, and communicative competence. (NBE, 1999: 68)
Here is an excerpt from the Framework Curriculum: General objectives
of foreign language studies, to illustrate some of the criteria
used in designing the tests for English:
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