Finland is a country that knows how to break records. Not only have they been named one of the world’s happiest and richest countries in the world but they are also a world leader in education too. Not only do Finnish students score some of the highest test scores in the world but they also do the least amount of school work. This has a few experts puzzled about the Finnish school system and how it works. 

In Finland, students only spend just around 5 hours per day in school and have little homework outside of school. For every 45 minutes of learning, students enjoy 15 minutes of play. Finnish students also do the least number of class hours per week in the developed world, yet get the best results in the long term. The school day starts between 8-9 am and is finished by 2 pm. This is very different to students in many Asian countries, who attend school for longer days, and many attend private tutoring schools for hours each day outside of official school hours.  

What might be the most interesting fact about schools in Finland is that the students have the same teacher for up to 6 years. This is one of the main ideas of education in Finland. The purpose is to have a very strong student/teacher relationship, which grows year on year, allowing a much deeper level of trust and respect. The teachers are able to more easily find their students' weaknesses and work on improving them together.  

Interestingly, Finnish Students also learn more languages than most students in the world. They learn Finnish from their first day at school. At age 9 they start learning Swedish, which is Finland’s second language. By age 11, they start learning their third language (which is usually English). Many students even start learning a fourth language when they are 13. Finnish students are able to speak some of the best English as a second language in the world.

With all this success, you must be thinking that Finnish students do a lot of homework. That would be wrong. With one of the best education systems in the world, Finnish students surprisingly do any homework. They believe that aside from homework, there are several other things that might improve a child’s education, such as eating dinner with their family, exercising, or getting a good night’s sleep. Spending too much time studying and trying to learn can be too exhausting for the student. Instead, Finnish schools want their students to be able to learn for themselves rather than what their teachers want them to. This means it's about giving the students special ‘life skills’ that will make them better learners, not only just in school, but throughout their lives.