As you may know by now, Pasi Sahlberg of Finland described the Global Educational Reform Movement (GERM) in his book Finnish Lessons. GERM is testing, accountability and choice. It is a nasty virus that destroys creativity. Finland opposes GERM and its schools and students are thriving.
Here is another nation that rejects GERM: Scotland.
Melissa Benn, a prominent supporter of the public sector in Britain., praises Scotland for its wise policies.
“Scotland publishes no official league tables, although individual schoolsobviously release their results. (Even Wales now publishes the results of secondary schools grouped into one of five bands.) The Scottish government is moving towards greater school self-evaluation and has, over the past decade, slowly rolled out a progressive “curriculum for excellence”, in stark contrast to our own government’s speedily devised, overly prescriptive and increasingly contested programmes for learning.”
While England is plunging headlong into GERM madness, even going so far as to say that teachers need no particular training to teach–just subject matter knowledge–Scotland believes in “rigorous teacher training” and plans to require all teachers to have a masters’ degree, as Finland does.
If you are interested in GERM in the UK, you should read Melissa Benn’s book School Wars: The Battle for Britain’s Education.
I have heard that Melissa Benn is my counterpart in London. We corresponded a few months ago, and I recommend her work to you.
I could fill a hundred blogs with wonderful quotes from Pasi Sahlberg about Finland. I may do so! He’s short on discussing parental/family involvement, which may be related to the already higher level of trust among Finns–and the absence of a longstanding minority whose distrust we here have never truly dealt with. If you add poverty at the rate we experience here in the USA it does change the pictures we face. But the direction is what matters.
Good article. I like hearing about state or national public education systems that are successfully resisting the GERM onslaught.
Good! Scotland is just perfect the way it is! I was there for three weeks this May – and I can’t wait to go back. But in all seriousness, good for them for resisting GERM.