Finnish students’ PISA performance continues to decline

Finnish students’ performance has continued to decline in the latest PISA study, and Education Minister Anders Adlercreutz says he is deeply concerned, Yle reported. He attributed the decline in part to reduced reading and weakening concentration skills.

The study, published on Tuesday, also found that Finnish students had lost perseverance. Only 41 per cent said they tried harder when a task became difficult, the lowest share among the countries included in the comparison.

“The world around us is conditioning us to consume 15-second video feeds and constantly seek new stimulation. Learning, however, requires concentration, immersion, and the ability to tolerate slowness and boredom,” Adlercreutz told Yle.

Although he said the problems with learning were linked to the world outside school, Adlercreutz said a key role of schools was to teach children to tolerate boredom and slowness and to engage deeply with subjects.

He also said parents had significant responsibility, including how families talk about school, whether they follow their children’s progress and whether they ask what happened and what was learned during the school day. Parents’ own example in using digital devices also affects children, he said.

One in four lacks sufficient reading skills

The PISA tests conducted last year focused on science. Mathematics and reading literacy are also assessed in every testing cycle.

Performance in science declined, but the change was not significant compared with the previous results. Reading literacy and mathematics performance, however, deteriorated more sharply. The proportion of low-performing students increased while the share of high-performing students fell.

Finnish students still perform above the OECD average, but the changes in Finland have been more pronounced than in OECD countries on average. One quarter of students do not reach the reading literacy level that the OECD defines as necessary for full participation in further education and working life. In mathematics, nearly one third do not have sufficient skills.

The decline in performance was greatest among children from socioeconomically well-off families, a new finding in the PISA study.

Finland ranked 12th in science. It shared 22nd place with Slovakia in mathematics and 17th place with Italy in reading literacy. The top position went to the Chinese PSJZ region, comprising Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Adlercreutz said he believed changes made during the current government’s term would be reflected in learning outcomes with a delay of around five to 10 years. The government has increased the mother-tongue curriculum and introduced a ban on mobile phones in schools.

Education union calls for more teaching

OAJ, the Trade Union of Education, said the decline in PISA results could not be reversed through minor measures or individual projects.

“We need measures on a different scale. The amount of teaching must be increased, and class sizes should be determined according to students’ support needs so that teachers genuinely have the opportunity to support every student’s learning,” said Jaakko Salo, the organisation’s head of education policy, in a statement.

OAJ also said the revised system of learning support must be implemented in practice. The support system changed last autumn.

The union said measures were also needed at the beginning of the education pathway. It called for a stronger focus on teaching and learning in pre-primary education to help prevent differences linked to children’s home backgrounds from emerging at an early stage.