School Evaluation

Finnish schools self-evaluate; in other words, they have no school inspectorate.  The government entrusts the schools, the providers of education, to carry out the National Core Curriculum and to evaluate and monitor their own quality.  

This school self-evaluation occurs every three years. It consists of surveys with parents, personnel, and students, in addition to teacher meetings over different issues within the school.  

An example:  School evaluation in Helsinki takes into account these factors:

1. School achievement compared to national samples
2. Parental opinions
3. Health reviews
4. Curriculum evaluations
5. Evaluating the annual plan

Schools start the year with an annual plan, and use these self-evaluations to ascertain if they have achieved their goals.  The ethos of self-evaluation implies a culture of trust within schools, and therefore eliminates the need for inspectorates and league tables.  The Evaluation Council for Education and Training works with the Ministry of Education to aid the self-evaluation of schools.