Finnish government moves to narrow grading gap between schools

Grades often fall when students move from comprehensive school to upper secondary school because the same level of competence can receive different marks, Yle reports. The government is preparing a skills guarantee to make assessment more consistent and narrow the gap between the two stages of education.

Inka Raskila, a third-year student at Lappeenranta Upper Secondary School, had a 9.3 average in her comprehensive school final certificate. When she started upper secondary school, her grades dropped. Her excellent grade in Swedish, for example, became a seven.

Susanna Kauppi, a Finnish language teacher at Lappeenranta Upper Secondary School, says it is common for grades to fall during the first year.

“When students start upper secondary school, almost all of them have at least an eight in Finnish. After the first study period, students receive grades across the entire grading scale,” Kauppi says.

Comprehensive schools and teachers currently use the grading scale in different ways. Research shows that students with the same level of competence can receive grades differing by as much as two points. This is partly because there are many learning objectives, which teachers may emphasise differently.

The importance given to working skills also varies considerably. In comprehensive school, active participation in lessons and good cooperation skills may have resulted in a grade higher than a student’s actual subject knowledge.

For example, students who receive an eight may have an actual level of competence ranging from seven to nine.

According to students’ experiences, assessment in upper secondary school places greater emphasis on mastery of the subject content.

“This can give an upper secondary student the unpleasant feeling that, although they have been accepted, they are not coping after all,” says Tiina Luomanen, a senior education officer at the Finnish National Agency for Education.

The government is preparing a skills guarantee for comprehensive education to reduce the difference between assessment in comprehensive and upper secondary schools. The plan would set objectives and assessment criteria for grades 10, 8 and 5 in every subject.

In future, a grade would more clearly indicate a student’s competence in the subject, giving students a more realistic understanding of their own skills.

“If a student gets a nine in mathematics, it means that they know mathematics to that level and have mastered the working skills required in mathematics,” Luomanen says.

The Ministry of Education and Culture has appointed a working group to prepare a national task bank. It will give teachers tools to support the assessment of students.

The Trade Union of Education in Finland has called for clearer assessment criteria in comprehensive schools for years. The union says assessment will become more equal when there is less room for interpretation.

“Unfortunately, assessment is not currently equal, but grading varies between students with the same level of competence,” says Ida Leino, an education policy specialist at the union.

Leino says the reform will make the required level of competence more transparent. When a grade reflects actual competence, she says, it is also fairer from the student’s perspective.

Kauppi also welcomes the reform and hopes it will reduce the difference in assessment between comprehensive and upper secondary schools.

The revised curricula will be introduced in pre-primary and comprehensive education on 1 August 2028. Even after the reforms, grades received in comprehensive school may still fall when students move to upper secondary school.

Pressure over grades

Grades and school performance cause anxiety and, for some young people, exhaustion.

According to the latest Youth Barometer, young people’s satisfaction with their lives has fallen to a historically low level. In Lappeenranta, 22 per cent of students in grades eight and nine reported moderate or severe anxiety in the latest School Health Promotion Study by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. In 2019, the corresponding figure was 10 per cent.

Erika Viding, an expert with the Finnish Red Cross? No, the source says Mannerheim League for Child Welfare. Let’s correct.

Erika Viding, an expert in support services at the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare, says many young people unfortunately measure their own worth through their grades. A sudden, significant drop in grades can trigger strong emotions.

“Everyone has their own strengths. Comparing grades with others only increases anxiety,” Viding says.

According to Viding, pressures related to studying and the future arise in conversations when young people contact the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare’s telephone and chat services for children and young people.