In Finland, quality assurance focuses more on guidance and continuous development instead of strict control and inspections. For example, school inspections were abolished in the early 1990s.
Local responsibility in quality assurance
The Finnish education system is based on trust and responsibility. The system emphasizes the autonomy of education providers at all levels from early childhood education to adult education and much decision-making power is given to local education providers. Local providers are responsible for practical teaching arrangements as well as the effectiveness and quality of educational services they provide.
Ensuring quality is primarily the responsibility of education providers and the educational institutions. They have a statutory duty to evaluate the quality of their education and its effectiveness. Self-evaluation is a key method, and its implementation is decided locally. The system relies on the skills and expertise of teachers and other personnel.
In addition, local providers need to participate in external evaluations of their activities. This duty is stipulated in the respective acts for each school and institution from ECEC to higher education.
National evaluations
The main purpose of national evaluations of learning outcomes is to follow how well the objectives set in the steering documents have been reached on a national level. Consequently, the results of these evaluations are not used for ranking the educational institutes but, instead for development purposes.
National evaluations of education at all levels are mainly carried out by the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (FINEEC). FINEEC operates as an independent unit within the Finnish National Agency for Education.
The assessment methods include, among other things
- the evaluation of learning outcomes
- monitoring the impacts of educational reforms
- assessing the state of quality management in education.
FINEEC also supports ECEC and education providers and higher education institutions in their quality assurance work.
Decisions regarding directions and financing of national evaluations are taken by the Ministry of Education and Culture. FINEEC draws up an action plan for external educational evaluation in accordance with the guidelines and financial resources set by the Ministry of Education and Culture. FINEECs Plan for Education Evaluation 2024–2027
In addition to conducting evaluations, FINEEC makes proposals for improving educational assessment practices and fostering research and collaboration in the field.
Provisions on the duties and organisation of FINEEC are laid down in the Act on the National Centre for Educational Evaluation 1295/2013 and Government Decree on the National Centre for Educational Evaluation 1317/2013