A new Finnish delegation is in town this week to work with Makana Municipality, the Department of Education, and teachers towards developing a new school curriculum.
A new Finnish delegation is in town this week to work with Makana Municipality, the Department of Education, and teachers towards developing a new school curriculum.
This is their third meeting on the topic.
In 2010, the municipalities of Makana and Raseborg, Finland initiated a cooperation agreement, to help bridge geographic, cultural, and circumstantial differences between the cities. The aim was to invest in a sustainable future in the fields of education, culture, and municipal services.
The delegation focusing on education has begun comparing Finnish and South African school systems, visiting local schools and talking to teachers.
Finally, in this visit, they will discuss possible models to be implemented in Makana schools.
The main difference between Finnish and South African education systems is, as Börje Mattson puts it, “In Finland, things are done from the bottom up, and in South Africa it’s the opposite.
"Here the government directs how a curriculum is applied in schools.”
The Finnish support strong independence of schools in the way they put a curriculum into practice. This allows them to introduce different methods of teaching, or additional subjects of local relevance.
In the light of the struggle to keep a workable teacher-pupil ratio in local schools, Mattson said, “A new curriculum could increase the productivity of teachers and decrease high administrative costs.”
A pilot model for a curriculum will be completed by the second half of 2014, and its implementation is planned for certain local schools in Makana as soon as in two to three years.
The Finns are planning to share ideas and discuss a new curriculum with representatives of the Department of Education in Johannesburg at the end of their visit this week.
