Not long ago a Korean woman married to a Finn and living in Finland had an unusual experience in her adopted country. One day her child’s nursery school teacher suggested the three-year-old needed some testing. It seems the child was having a hard time following along in class. A pediatrician and a psychotherapist examined the child for a few days to check the child’s hearing, learning ability and development. The child, they decided, was a late developer and should be placed in the nation’s 14-year education system rather than the normal 12-year one.

▶In Finland, 500,000 people or one in five of the economically active population receive vocational training provided free by the state. A factory worker can register for a restaurant management course to learn cooking and restaurant management skills. Finnish people speak English more fluently than people in many other non-English speaking countries, though their official languages are Finnish and Swedish. TV stations even air programs in English. The Finnish government helps its people acquire as much knowledge and training as possible so that they can play a role as valuable citizens. (…)

▶Finland finished top in science, second in math and second in reading skills in the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment, the results of which were released early this month. In fact, the country topped the overall list of world nations. It also topped the list in the first and second PISA surveys in 2000 and 2003. Finland also finished first in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index for three straight years from 2003 to 2005. Though it is a small country with a population of just five million, Finland has become a powerful and respected nation based on its robust human resources. (…)

Source: Chosun Ilbo, South Korea
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200712/200712190002.html