What can we learn from countries with the best education?
It is very difficult to identify exactly what factors lead to a great education system. The amount of government funding, teacher salaries, and classroom size are all factors that are continually debated. Although there’s no simple answer, there are things that we can learn from the most successful education systems. We took a closer look at education around the world to see if we could find any trends.
Pearson published a list of the countries with the best education in both 2012 and 2014 through The Learning Curve programme. This index is based on various input and output factors, as well as general socio-economic indicators of the country. A complete description of the method used to determine the rankings can be found on The Learning Curve website.
On this map, the darker colours indicate countries with a higher rank. The top countries are predominately in North America and Europe.
It’s nice to know which countries are doing well, but we wanted to take a closer look to see why some countries do better than others and what better education means for the country.
Education Inputs
The education budget always seems to be on the top of everyone’s mind. But what we found was pretty surprising. The only clear trend that was noticed was that countries rank higher for education when the government spends more per pupil as a percent of the GDP per capita. This indicates that spending more on education may improve the education system.
This is still unclear, however, as there was no trend observed in the amount spent on education as a percentage of total government spending. There is also no clear case for additional public expenditure for tertiary education, as countries who spent more per pupil did not necessarily achieve a higher rank.
Additional insights:
- There is no significant correlation between the teacher salary compared to the average gross wage and the country’s rank.
- There is no relation between the average class size and the country’s rank.
- The quality of education in the country has no relation to the number of years that students are expected to stay in school.
Education Outputs
The Human Development Index is higher for countries with better education. Although the Human Development Index uses education as one of its input variables, it also users indicators such as the life expectancy and income per capita.c
The proportion of the labour force with a post-secondary degree is higher for countries with a better education system. This indicates that better elementary and high school education may encourage students to pursue higher levels of education.
GDP per capita is higher for countries with better education. However, higher quality education has no effect on the GDP growth within the country.
Although there is no clear trend, homicide rates increase significantly for countries below a rank of 30. Unemployment is not affected by the quality of education. The lowest unemployment rate was reported in Thailand, which is ranked 35 on the list.
What is Education Like in the Top Countries?
South Korea
After the Korean war in the 1950’s, 78% of Koreans were illiterate. By 1970, the per capita income was only $200. They considered education the best way to improve the country’s economy, and it seems to have worked.
South Korea overhauled their schools and committed to an equal-opportunity system promising to educate every child. They set up a lottery system so that all kids, regardless of where they lived or how much money they had, got access to a great elementary education.
South Korean students study non-stop, more than any other country in the world. Education is also very test-driven. Parents spend more on education than any other nation. Culturally, South Korea is very invested in education, with their social status and their marriage prospects being directly tied to their level of education.
Japan
Japanese students are able to handle extreme amounts of stress. Students must score well on a test in order to make it to a good middle or high school. They will study constantly in order to be accepted into a better school to have the opportunity to make it into a better college.
Students have very close relationships with their teachers, with has been shown to be directly correlated to their ability to learning non-cognitive skills. These skills include persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit, and self-confidence. Non-cognitive skills are generally a better predictor of success than cognitive skills.
Japanese culture highly values persistence. They accept that sometimes things will not go your way, but trying harder is the best way to succeed. Japanese schools are also careful to avoid segregating students based on learning abilities, to avoid group identity. Classifying yourself as less intelligent can cause you to do worse in school.
Singapore
Classroom instruction in Singapore is highly scripted and uniform across all levels and subjects. Teaching primarily focuses on the coverage of curriculum, the transmission of knowledge, and preparing students for examinations. Teachers monitor student learning and provide feedback and learning support to students, but they largely do so in ways that focus on whether or not students know the right answer, rather than on their level of understanding.
Singapore has developed an education system which is centralised, integrated, coherent and well-funded. It is also relatively flexible and expert-led. National high stakes examinations at the end of primary and secondary schooling stream students according to their exam performance and prompt teachers to emphasise coverage of the curriculum and teaching to the test. The alignment of curriculum, assessment and instruction is exceptionally strong.
Parents, students, teachers and policy makers also share a highly positive view of the value of education at the individual level. Students are generally compliant and classrooms orderly.
Hong Kong
The Hong Kong government has recently moved to make it easier and more likely that the majority of students will receive 12 years of education by removing fees. They also removed a set of public exams that prevented some students from attending high school. Private independent schools offer different languages of instruction and international curricula that appeal to both expatriate and local parents.
Entry to post-secondary education is based on the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKSDE) exams. High schools are very competitive, with admission based on test scores. Education in the past has been very exam oriented, but is now moving towards fewer exams and more formative assessments. Schools generally have a strict discipline code and students wear a school uniform.
There are minimum teaching qualifications for all teachers, including kindergarten teaching staff and principals. Class numbers are traditionally much higher than in Western countries, as many as 45. Tertiary education and lifelong learning are important in Hong Kong.
Finland
Students are very rarely held back in Finland as teachers are trusted to do whatever it takes to teach their students. Nearly 30 percent of students in Finland receive some kind of special help during their early years of education. Many schools are small enough that teachers know every student. When teaching methods fail, teachers consult with their colleagues and try something else.
Schools are publicly funded, with every school having the same national goals and drawing from the same pool of university-trained educators. Every students receives the same quality education no matter where they are from. This leads to the differences in the weakest and strongest students to be the smallest in the world.
There is only one mandated standardized test in Finland, at the end of each student’s senior year of high school. There are no rankings, comparisons, or competition between students and schools.
What do the Top Countries Have in Common?
It is interesting to note that the top 4 countries are all in Asia. These countries focus heavily on competition for better schools. Finland on the other hand, focuses on teachers going beyond the call of duty and doing whatever it takes to help their students succeed.
The strength of these education systems are all fairly recent, with significant government support identifying education as a method to improve the economy of the country.
Beyond these commonalities, we found the following was very similar amongst the top 5 countries:
- Students are rarely held back in school
- Education is highly valued culturally, including lifelong learning
- Admission to better schools is based on merit rather than money
- Education continues after formal education, through private schooling or tutoring
These common trends should be considered when designing the education system in countries that want to improve. However, the success of a country’s education system seems to be very closely tied to the culture of the country. Although, we wish that there was an easy fix that would tell us how to improve education globally, we must pay attention to the culture that this system will be introduced to. Studying for 16 hours a day is almost unheard of in Western cultures, but is part of what makes the education system in Asian countries work so well.
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