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Looking to Finland for educational excellence
Britain could take a leaf out of Finnish educationalists’ book, says ROBIN HEAD

IN the ludicrous world of attempting to measure school versus school, area versus area and nation versus nation in terms of educational standards, the fact that’s lost is that all these things are affected by factors outside of the control of individual teachers themselves.

Comparing such jurisdictions on basic statistics is always problematic because of the diverse cultural factors which might exist, even within the same town or city, let alone from one nation to another.

So when looking at the international Pisa league tables, it is ridiculous to ignore the reasons behind high standards where they have been achieved.

  • Robin Head is a member of the NUT national executive.
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