The problem with nearly all rankings of countries in any area is that the factors used to determine the ranking can be cherry picked to get just about any result one wants. Also, it is legitimate for various people to value things differently. I might say that kids need to learn the value of hard work and long hours (that's generally what leads one to financial success in most modern, industrialized places). Finland's short school days would move them down on my list, whereas it is seen as a positive here.

For the record, I'm not arguing this point here. I don't even necessarily agree with it. I'm just giving an example of how rankings like this are of little real value.

OK, you talked about demography, but 'abnormally low student to teacher ratio' is no demographic issue but an issue about how much money the country is willing to spend on education, and how this money is spent. I would always argue, that smaller classes is always a way to success, so it comes down to the willingness to spend the money on the teachers.

I see your argument about standardized tests as competition+fair comparison on equal grounds. Tell me if I misrepresent it. For competition: I am opposed to standardized tests, not to testing at all. But a test tailored from the teacher to his class is much better than something made for everyone in the country. it still provides ground for competition and personal betterment. You can try to improve your grade in comparison to last year or in comparison to your classmates. The second reason is silly in my opinion. The idea to have grades that can gauge the success of the student on a national scale is ridiculous in my opinion. I am not sure if grades work in that way at all. They are good for competition and helping you to see your personal progress. But universities should ignore grades altogether and have always individual entrance exams to chose the most qualified students. This works much better than grade that are only semicomparable, even with all the tries at standardization. Again, this means bigger investments education as entrance exams need more personell to evaluate. SATs simply are the cheap way.

So yes, in my opinion more and better trained educators are great for better results. The other stuff may have effects too, but is not that impactful.

This is not true and was never true. Hard work and long hours were always reserved for the ones on the lower end of society. Success is either determined by ingenious thoughts or (more likely) by money of your family.

I remember questioning my 11th grade history teacher as to why we get multiple choice questions and he gave us a reason. Their mindset is that if questions are “fill in the blank” then students will only have to “remember” the answer and not really know it. But with multiple choice students will see multiple answers and if they really know it they’ll pick the correct answer. I think that’s completely backwards. That same teacher did give us a surprise fill in the blank quiz and nearly everyone failed miserably.

I live in Saint Lucie Country Florida and here teachers aren’t allowed to give kids a 0 grade if they don’t do the work. The lowest grade they’re allowed to give is a 50%. So if there’s a struggling student who gets say a 58% after trying really hard then a lazy ass who doesn’t do the work at all there’s only 8% difference in their score. I think that’s bull and it’s only done as a way to make the schools not look as poor as they’d look if they gave kids zeros. I’ve had this discussion with my son’s teachers and they also agree that it’s foolishness.

I'm at work so I can't really watch the video at the moment, but based on the summary that was posted it sounds like a school system that the kids would love, as it's basically easy mode, but it doesn't seem like it would be very successful.

Because instead of learning how to score well on a test, and spending ~1/3rd of your time doing that.
They are just promoteing learning, and keeping students happy & intrestested in learning.

They arnt slaveing away, panicking about test scores.
Their focused instead, entirely on learning.

Sounds stupid? but apparently it works.

Also its all public schooling, no privatising of the schooling system so only the select few, rich can get a good education.
The many > the few (rich), leads to a overall better education system (big picture).

They probably spend less money on education too than in the US.
Its just the US system is heavily ineffecient, and its run like a corporation/business, where profits to the ones provideing the educations weights high.

Even without watching the video, I can fairly confidently say it sounds exactly like the system we have here.

Teacher here and their system seems terrific. However, there's always push back when teachers here try to implement some of those ideas from Finland. Personally, I'm not a fan of standardized testing and I try not to give homework but parents and some other teachers always question it. Change is coming but it is slow. I feel we still have one of the better education systems here but we can do better. We need a more systematic approach here, and the funding that goes along with it to get there quicker.

Hell no, my school put math and science above all other subject matter, tons of cut fine arts, music, civics programs and assloads of homework. The systems goal is to try and land you "a job" instead of finding what it is you actually are passionate about. I got up at 5AM to catch the city bus to school, didn't come back home until 6PM, to which I had hours of homework waiting. And it's not necessarily even teaching you anything, it's busy work.

I get it, repetition is the a key to learning, but it's not necessarily THE key. 3 and 4 hour days? Hell, we'd be ecstatic about an early leave day which was about 2 hours off of the 7-8 hours in school. Weekly tests and exams which 2 of my professors said your name and grade after each exam out loud...damn I hated that place. I swear if I have kids and I'm still living in the US they're being home schooled. Go go Finland. The US schooling system is trash, and needs a complete overhaul because obviously it isn't working as well as we thought.