- The school year begins in the middle of August and ends towards the end of May.
- Vacations are as follow: The fall break is a long weekend originally used to harvest fall berries. Winter break is two weeks over Christmas (83% of Finns belong to the
Evangelical
Lutheran
Church ; however, Finnish people are very secular in their views). There is a two week long skiing break in winter and a spring break for Easter. The Finnish Independence Day is December 6th and is a national holiday.
- Dress at most schools is casual. Students usually wear shirts, sweaters, slacks or jeans.
- Grades are based on a scale from 4-10, ten being the highest, in primary school and 1-5, five being the highest, in university. Eight is about average for most students.
- Prior to Finnish independence from in 1917, education was available only to the elite class. Now education is a civil right and free education is a highly prized institution.
- Students work very hard because the prevailing mentality is that future employment in today’s globally connected, technological world depends on higher education.
- In light of the self-sufficiency of Finnish students, there is a lot of individual and group work employed in the classroom.
|
|
