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Katherine Forestier

China to send 500 heads to study the Pisa-winning education system and use senior secondary model nationally in 2007

China is to send 500 principals to Finland from May to reform part of its education system in line with the internationally-acclaimed Finnish model.

The country, which topped the 2003 Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) survey in reading, science and problem-solving and came second to Hong Kong in maths, is being seen as a role model for the mainland's senior secondary curriculum.

A Finnish delegation  recently returned from Beijing after signing an agreement  to prepare senior secondary head teachers from four provinces  using the curriculum.

Guangdong,  Hainan,  Shandong  and Ningxia  have been  piloting the curriculum, which is due to be implemented in seven more provinces this year and nationally in 2007, since last September.

The agreement, with the Chinese Ameson Education and Culture Exchange Foundation,  follows meetings at the Ministry of Education in January and co-operation between the two countries since Minister of Education Chen Zhili  visited Helsinki in 2001.

The principals will attend one- to two-week courses on  the Finnish senior secondary curriculum from May, according to Jorma Kauppinen,  head of the Board of Education's  Upper Secondary School Unit  in Helsinki. They will meet policymakers, attend workshops in universities and visit schools.

Mr Kauppinen said  Ms Chen was so impressed with  a Finnish senior secondary school she visited during her trip that she identified the system as a model.

An agreement was signed for co-operation between eight schools in Finland and eight in China, involving student and teacher exchanges and help from officials with development of the curriculum.

'Of course, theirs is a Chinese version but the  curriculum and timetable are like ours,' he said.

Finland has a broad, modular-based senior secondary curriculum, with 47 to 51 compulsory courses and a minimum of  10 optional specialist courses. It is not taught in year groups and is designed to be completed in three years, but can take from two to four.

Students are assessed after completing each module and receive a school-leaving certificate.  They also take a national matriculation exam based on the curriculum for university entrance.

China's new senior secondary curriculum is based on subjects  around eight core areas of study,  including language and literature, mathematics, humanities and sociology, science, technology, art, physical education, and health and personal education.

As in Finland, students will not be taught in year groups but according to  courses,  mixing compulsory and optional  subjects. The  curriculum replaces a rigid study programme which has no options.

Mr Kauppinen said China was interested in extending  co-operation to other areas of education, in particular its vocational education.

Zhang Li, director of the Chinese Ameson Education and Culture Exchange Foundation, said China  was impressed by the  Finnish system. 'We can all see the outstanding performance in Finland after it reformed its curriculum,' he said. 'I believe China will have many benefits from translating the Finnish model.'

Gerard Postiglione, director of Hong Kong's Centre of Research on Education in China, said there was 'tremendous interest' in the mainland in what was going on in Finland. 'China reacts very quickly to education reforms going on around the world,' he said.



Mainland plans curriculum on Finnish model