Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics - IEA

PART 2: FINLAND
79
Finland
Composition of the teacher labor force
Finland’s education system employed about 66,000 Finnish- and Swedish-speaking
instructors in 2002. Of this number, 45,568 were teaching in primary and lowersecondary
schools, 7,846 were teaching in general upper-secondary schools, and 12,486
were working within vocational education. The numbers have declined somewhat in
subsequent years, according to the World Bank’s World Development Indicators. Just
over 90% of the entire teaching cohort works full-time. The majority of teachers are
female, with 75% in primary and lower-secondary schools and 67% in upper-secondary
schools. Ninety-five percent of the teachers in the general upper-secondary schools and
75% of the teachers in vocational education had formal qualifications. There were also
about 20,000 class (primary) and preschool teachers and approximately 16,400 subjectspecialist
teachers.
Finland’s teachers are generally older than teachers in other countries. Age distributions
show that the largest number of upper-secondary school teachers is in the 50 to 59 year
range, while the largest number of basic-education teachers is in the 40 to 49 and the
50 to 59 year ranges. There are also relatively few vocational education teachers under
30 years of age, as these teachers usually acquire ample work experience before they
enter schools. On average, non-urban areas have a slightly larger proportion of older
teachers. Also important is the fact that the relative sizes of the population’s younger
age cohorts are declining.
It is thus becoming increasingly important for Finland to pay attention to the risk of
teacher labor shortages because of the present age distribution. By 2010, as the baby
boomers retire, local authorities will have to compete harder for educated labor. In
recent years, many teachers have indeed retired, taken early retirement, or entered semiretirement.
It is estimated that a total of about 20,000 teachers will retire between 2000
and 2010. The older teachers might also experience difficulty meeting the challenges of
a rapidly changing society and handling increasingly complex work conditions. Some
of these teachers have already claimed stress and mental debilitation as a reason for
early retirement.
The teacher labor market faces the additional problem of many teachers moving from
rural to growing urban areas. This situation is causing a shortage of certain types of
qualified teachers in both areas, especially for mathematics and science. Furthermore,
because people are migrating away from the rural areas of eastern and northern Finland,
the proportion of children and working adults in these areas has also declined. This
development has led to the closure of smaller schools in remote areas, and the building
of new facilities in urban regions. Over the long-term, this redistribution of the quality
of facilities and educational services could influence where teachers are willing to
work.
Promoting an ideal distribution of qualified teachers around the country consequently
is another issue of growing concern, especially given that Finland’s education system
upholds the principle that every citizen should be able to receive quality schooling.
Sometimes, teacher education graduates do find jobs in rural localities near the
university they graduated from or in their home towns, but further incentives are
needed to attract and retain teachers in those localities.