Education Portal for Students in India

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Education is about learning skills and knowledge, It also means helping people to learn how to do things and support them to think about what they learn. It is also important for educators to teach ways to find and use information. Education may help and guide individuals from one class to another. Educated people and groups can do things like help less-educated people and encourage them to get educated. A school class with a sleeping schoolmaster, oil on panel painting by Jan Steen, 1672
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Why Finland’s schools are so successful?

“This is what we do every day,” says Kirkkojarvi Comprehensive School principal Kari Louhivuori, “prepare kids for life.” Stuart Conway It was the end of term at Kirkkojarvi Comprehensive School in Espoo, a sprawling suburb west of Helsinki, when Kari Louhivuori, a veteran teacher and the school’s principal, decided to try something extreme—by Finnish standards.

One of his sixth-grade students, a Kosovo-Albanian boy, had drifted far off the learning grid, resisting his teacher’s best efforts. The school’s team of special educators—including a social worker, a nurse and a psychologist—convinced Louhivuori that laziness was not to blame. So he decided to hold the boy back a year, a measure so rare in Finland it’s practically obsolete.

Finland has vastly improved in reading, math and science literacy over the past decade in large part because its teachers are trusted to do whatever it takes to turn young lives around. This 13-year-old, Besart Kabashi, received something akin to royal tutoring.

“I took Besart on that year as my private student,” Louhivuori told me in his office, which boasted a Beatles “Yellow Submarine” poster on the wall and an electric guitar in the closet. When Besart was not studying science, geography and math, he was parked next to Louhivuori’s desk at the front of his class of 9- and 10-year- olds, cracking open books from a tall stack, slowly reading one, then another, then devouring them by the dozens.

By the end of the year, the son of Kosovo war refugees had conquered his adopted country’s vowel-rich language and arrived at the realization that he could, in fact, learn, Years later, a 20-year-old Besart showed up at Kirkkojarvi’s Christmas party with a bottle of Cognac and a big grin.

1. You helped me,” he told his former teacher.
2. Besart had opened his own car repair firm and a cleaning company.
3. No big fuss,” Louhivuori told me.
4. This is what we do every day, prepare kids for life.” This tale of a single rescued child hints at some of the reasons for the tiny Nordic nation’s staggering record of education success, a phenomenon that has inspired, baffled and even irked many of America’s parents and educators.

Finnish schooling became an unlikely hot topic after the 2010 documentary film Waiting for “Superman” contrasted it with America’s troubled public schools. “Whatever it takes” is an attitude that drives not just Kirkkojarvi’s 30 teachers, but most of Finland’s 62,000 educators in 3,500 schools from Lapland to Turku—professionals selected from the top 10 percent of the nation’s graduates to earn a required master’s degree in education.

Many schools are small enough so that teachers know every student. If one method fails, teachers consult with colleagues to try something else. They seem to relish the challenges. Nearly 30 percent of Finland’s children receive some kind of special help during their first nine years of school. The school where Louhivuori teaches served 240 first through ninth graders last year; and in contrast with Finland’s reputation for ethnic homogeneity, more than half of its 150 elementary-level students are immigrants—from Somalia, Iraq, Russia, Bangladesh, Estonia and Ethiopia, among other nations.

“Children from wealthy families with lots of education can be taught by stupid teachers,” Louhivuori said, smiling. “We try to catch the weak students. It’s deep in our thinking.” The transformation of the Finns’ education system began some 40 years ago as the key propellent of the country’s economic recovery plan.

1. Educators had little idea it was so successful until 2000, when the first results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a standardized test given to 15-year-olds in more than 40 global venues, revealed Finnish youth to be the best young readers in the world.
2. Three years later, they led in math.

By 2006, Finland was first out of 57 countries (and a few cities) in science. In the 2009 PISA scores released last year, the nation came in second in science, third in reading and sixth in math among nearly half a million students worldwide. “I’m still surprised,” said Arjariita Heikkinen, principal of a Helsinki comprehensive school.

“I didn’t realize we were that good.” In the United States, which has muddled along in the middle for the past decade, government officials have attempted to introduce marketplace competition into public schools. In recent years, a group of Wall Street financiers and philanthropists such as Bill Gates have put money behind private-sector ideas, such as vouchers, data-driven curriculum and charter schools, which have doubled in number in the past decade.

President Obama, too, has apparently bet on compe­tition. His Race to the Top initiative invites states to compete for federal dollars using tests and other methods to measure teachers, a philosophy that would not fly in Finland. “I think, in fact, teachers would tear off their shirts,” said Timo Heikkinen, a Helsinki principal with 24 years of teaching experience.

• If you only measure the statistics, you miss the human aspect.” There are no mandated standardized tests in Finland, apart from one exam at the end of students’ senior year in high school.
• There are no rankings, no comparisons or competition between students, schools or regions.
• Finland’s schools are publicly funded.

The people in the government agencies running them, from national officials to local authorities, are educators, not business people, military leaders or career politicians. Every school has the same national goals and draws from the same pool of university-trained educators.

The result is that a Finnish child has a good shot at getting the same quality education no matter whether he or she lives in a rural village or a university town. The differences between weakest and strongest students are the smallest in the world, according to the most recent survey by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

“Equality is the most important word in Finnish education. All political parties on the right and left agree on this,” said Olli Luukkainen, president of Finland’s powerful teachers union. Ninety-three percent of Finns graduate from academic or vocational high schools, 17.5 percentage points higher than the United States, and 66 percent go on to higher education, the highest rate in the European Union.

• Yet Finland spends about 30 percent less per student than the United States.
• Still, there is a distinct absence of chest-thumping among the famously reticent Finns.
• They are eager to celebrate their recent world hockey championship, but PISA scores, not so much.
• We prepare children to learn how to learn, not how to take a test,” said Pasi Sahlberg, a former math and physics teacher who is now in Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture.

“We are not much interested in PISA. It’s not what we are about.” Maija Rintola stood before her chattering class of twenty-three 7- and 8-year-olds one late April day in Kirkkojarven Koulu. A tangle of multicolored threads topped her copper hair like a painted wig.

1. The 20-year teacher was trying out her look for Vappu, the day teachers and children come to school in riotous costumes to celebrate May Day.
2. The morning sun poured through the slate and lemon linen shades onto containers of Easter grass growing on the wooden sills.
3. Rintola smiled and held up her open hand at a slant—her time-tested “silent giraffe,” which signaled the kids to be quiet.

Little hats, coats, shoes stowed in their cubbies, the children wiggled next to their desks in their stocking feet, waiting for a turn to tell their tale from the playground. They had just returned from their regular 15 minutes of playtime outdoors between lessons.

1. Play is important at this age,” Rintola would later say.
2. We value play.” With their wiggles unwound, the students took from their desks little bags of buttons, beans and laminated cards numbered 1 through 20.
3. A teacher’s aide passed around yellow strips representing units of ten.
4. At a smart board at the front of the room, Rintola ushered the class through the principles of base ten.

One girl wore cat ears on her head, for no apparent reason. Another kept a stuffed mouse on her desk to remind her of home. Rintola roamed the room helping each child grasp the concepts. Those who finished early played an advanced “nut puzzle” game. After 40 minutes it was time for a hot lunch in the cathedral-like cafeteria.

Teachers in Finland spend fewer hours at school each day and spend less time in classrooms than American teachers. Teachers use the extra time to build curriculums and assess their students. Children spend far more time playing outside, even in the depths of winter. Homework is minimal. Compulsory schooling does not begin until age 7.

“We have no hurry,” said Louhivuori. “Children learn better when they are ready. Why stress them out?” It’s almost unheard of for a child to show up hungry or homeless. Finland provides three years of maternity leave and subsidized day care to parents, and preschool for all 5-year-olds, where the emphasis is on play and socializing.

1. In addition, the state subsidizes parents, paying them around 150 euros per month for every child until he or she turns 17.
2. Ninety-seven percent of 6-year-olds attend public preschool, where children begin some academics.
3. Schools provide food, medical care, counseling and taxi service if needed.
4. Stu­dent health care is free.

Even so, Rintola said her children arrived last August miles apart in reading and language levels. By April, nearly every child in the class was reading, and most were writing. Boys had been coaxed into literature with books like Kapteeni Kalsarin (“Captain Underpants”).

1. The school’s special education teacher teamed up with Rintola to teach five children with a variety of behavioral and learning problems.
2. The national goal for the past five years has been to mainstream all children.
3. The only time Rintola’s children are pulled out is for Finnish as a Second Language classes, taught by a teacher with 30 years’ experience and graduate school training.

There are exceptions, though, however rare. One first-grade girl was not in Rintola’s class. The wispy 7-year-old had recently arrived from Thailand speaking not a word of Finnish. She was studying math down the hall in a special “preparing class” taught by an expert in multicultural learning. / Author Lynnell Hancock says that an attitude of doing “whatever it takes” drives not only Kirkkojarvi principal Kari Louhivuori, shown here, but also Finland’s 62,000 other professional educators in 3,500 public schools from Lapland to Turku. Stuart Conway / “Play is important at this age,” says veteran Kirkkojarvi teacher Maija Rintola with a few of her twenty-three 7- and 8-year-old first graders. “We value play.” Children in Finland spend less time in classrooms and more time playing than American students. Stuart Conway / Finland’s schools have not always been so freewheeling. Timo Heikkinen, who is principal of the Kallahti school in Helsinki, shown here, remembers a time when most of his high-school teachers simply dictated to the open notebooks of compliant children. Stuart Conway / Helsinki’s Siilitie schoolteacher Aleksi Gustafsson, with first graders taking his measure, developed his “outdoor math” curriculum at a free workshop for teachers. “It’s fun for the children to work outside,” he says. “They really learn with it.” Stuart Conway / Three wars between 1939 and 1945 left Finland deeply in debt. Still, says Pasi Sahlberg, “we managed to keep our freedom.” Stuart Conway / Finland graduates 93% of their high school students. Only 75.5% of U.S. high school students graduate. Chart Resources: Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland; U.S. Department of Education; Graphic by 5W Infographics / Finland does not require any mandated standard tests. Chart Resources: Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland; U.S. Department of Education; Graphic by 5W Infographics / Finland spends $3,472 less per secondary school student than the U.S. Chart Resources: Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development; Graphic by 5W Infographics / Finland ranks near the top in reading, science and math. Chart Resources: Programme for International Student Assessment Test Scores; Infographic by 5W Infographics Rintola will teach the same children next year and possibly the next five years, depending on the needs of the school.

“It’s a good system. I can make strong connections with the children,” said Rintola, who was handpicked by Louhivuori 20 years ago. “I understand who they are.” Besides Finnish, math and science, the first graders take music, art, sports, religion and textile handcrafts. English begins in third grade, Swedish in fourth.

By fifth grade the children have added biology, geography, history, physics and chemistry. Not until sixth grade will kids have the option to sit for a district-wide exam, and then only if the classroom teacher agrees to participate. Most do, out of curiosity.

Results are not publicized. Finnish educators have a hard time understanding the United States’ fascination with standardized tests. “Americans like all these bars and graphs and colored charts,” Louhivuori teased, as he rummaged through his closet looking for past years’ results. “Looks like we did better than average two years ago,” he said after he found the reports.

“It’s nonsense. We know much more about the children than these tests can tell us.” I had come to Kirkkojarvi to see how the Finnish approach works with students who are not stereotypically blond, blue-eyed and Lutheran. But I wondered if Kirkkojarvi’s success against the odds might be a fluke.

Some of the more vocal conservative reformers in America have grown weary of the “We-Love-Finland crowd” or so-called Finnish Envy. They argue that the United States has little to learn from a country of only 5.4 million people—4 percent of them foreign born. Yet the Finns seem to be onto something. Neighboring Norway, a country of similar size, embraces education policies similar to those in the United States.

It employs standardized exams and teachers without master’s degrees. And like America, Norway’s PISA scores have been stalled in the middle ranges for the better part of a decade. To get a second sampling, I headed east from Espoo to Helsinki and a rough neighborhood called Siilitie, Finnish for “Hedgehog Road” and known for having the oldest low-income housing project in Finland.

The 50-year-old boxy school building sat in a wooded area, around the corner from a subway stop flanked by gas stations and convenience stores. Half of its 200 first- through ninth-grade students have learning disabilities. All but the most severely impaired are mixed with the general education children, in keeping with Finnish policies.

A class of first graders scampered among nearby pine and birch trees, each holding a stack of the teacher’s homemade laminated “outdoor math” cards. “Find a stick as big as your foot,” one read. “Gather 50 rocks and acorns and lay them out in groups of ten,” read another.

1. Working in teams, the 7- and 8-year-olds raced to see how quickly they could carry out their tasks.
2. Aleksi Gustafsson, whose master’s degree is from Helsinki University, developed the exercise after attending one of the many workshops available free to teachers.
3. I did research on how useful this is for kids,” he said.

“It’s fun for the children to work outside. They really learn with it.” Gustafsson’s sister, Nana Germeroth, teaches a class of mostly learning-impaired children; Gustafsson’s students have no learning or behavioral issues. The two combined most of their classes this year to mix their ideas and abilities along with the children’s varying levels.

• We know each other really well,” said Germeroth, who is ten years older.
• I know what Aleksi is thinking.” The school receives 47,000 euros a year in positive discrimination money to hire aides and special education teachers, who are paid slightly higher salaries than classroom teachers because of their required sixth year of university training and the demands of their jobs.

There is one teacher (or assistant) in Siilitie for every seven students. In another classroom, two special education teachers had come up with a different kind of team teaching. Last year, Kaisa Summa, a teacher with five years’ experience, was having trouble keeping a gaggle of first-grade boys under control.

• She had looked longingly into Paivi Kangasvieri’s quiet second-grade room next door, wondering what secrets the 25-year-veteran colleague could share.
• Each had students of wide-ranging abilities and special needs.
• Summa asked Kangasvieri if they might combine gymnastics classes in hopes good behavior might be contagious.

It worked. This year, the two decided to merge for 16 hours a week. “We complement each other,” said Kangasvieri, who describes herself as a calm and firm “father” to Summa’s warm mothering. “It is cooperative teaching at its best,” she says. Every so often, principal Arjariita Heikkinen told me, the Helsinki district tries to close the school because the surrounding area has fewer and fewer children, only to have people in the community rise up to save it.

After all, nearly 100 percent of the school’s ninth graders go on to high schools. Even many of the most severely disabled will find a place in Finland’s expanded system of vocational high schools, which are attended by 43 percent of Finnish high-school students, who prepare to work in restaurants, hospitals, construction sites and offices.

“We help situate them in the right high school,” said then deputy principal Anne Roselius. “We are interested in what will become of them in life.” Finland’s schools were not always a wonder. Until the late 1960s, Finns were still emerging from the cocoon of Soviet influence.

1. Most children left public school after six years.
2. The rest went to private schools, academic grammar schools or folk schools, which tended to be less rigorous.) Only the privileged or lucky got a quality education.
3. The landscape changed when Finland began trying to remold its bloody, fractured past into a unified future.

For hundreds of years, these fiercely independent people had been wedged between two rival powers—the Swedish monarchy to the west and the Russian czar to the east. Neither Scandinavian nor Baltic, Finns were proud of their Nordic roots and a unique language only they could love (or pronounce).

In 1809, Finland was ceded to Russia by the Swedes, who had ruled its people some 600 years. The czar created the Grand Duchy of Finland, a quasi-state with constitutional ties to the empire. He moved the capital from Turku, near Stockholm, to Helsinki, closer to St. Petersburg. After the czar fell to the Bolsheviks in 1917, Finland declared its independence, pitching the country into civil war.

Three more wars between 1939 and 1945—two with the Soviets, one with Germany—left the country scarred by bitter divisions and a punishing debt owed to the Russians. “Still we managed to keep our freedom,” said Pasi Sahlberg, a director general in the Ministry of Education and Culture.

• In 1963, the Finnish Parliament made the bold decision to choose public education as its best shot at economic recovery.
• I call this the Big Dream of Finnish education,” said Sahlberg, whose upcoming book, Finnish Lessons, is scheduled for release in October.
• It was simply the idea that every child would have a very good public school.

If we want to be competitive, we need to educate everybody. It all came out of a need to survive.” Practically speaking—and Finns are nothing if not practical—the decision meant that goal would not be allowed to dissipate into rhetoric. Lawmakers landed on a deceptively simple plan that formed the foundation for everything to come.

Public schools would be organized into one system of comprehensive schools, or peruskoulu, for ages 7 through 16. Teachers from all over the nation contributed to a national curriculum that provided guidelines, not prescriptions. Besides Finnish and Swedish (the country’s second official language), children would learn a third language (English is a favorite) usually beginning at age 9.

Resources were distributed equally. As the comprehensive schools improved, so did the upper secondary schools (grades 10 through 12). The second critical decision came in 1979, when reformers required that every teacher earn a fifth-year master’s degree in theory and practice at one of eight state universities—at state expense.

From then on, teachers were effectively granted equal status with doctors and lawyers. Applicants began flooding teaching programs, not because the salaries were so high but because autonomy and respect made the job attractive. In 2010, some 6,600 applicants vied for 660 primary school training slots, according to Sahlberg.

By the mid-1980s, a final set of initiatives shook the classrooms free from the last vestiges of top-down regulation. Control over policies shifted to town councils. The national curriculum was distilled into broad guidelines. National math goals for grades one through nine, for example, were reduced to a neat ten pages.

1. Sifting and sorting children into so-called ability groupings was eliminated.
2. All children—clever or less so—were to be taught in the same classrooms, with lots of special teacher help available to make sure no child really would be left behind.
3. The inspectorate closed its doors in the early ’90s, turning accountability and inspection over to teachers and principals.

“We have our own motivation to succeed because we love the work,” said Louhivuori. “Our incentives come from inside.” To be sure, it was only in the past decade that Finland’s international science scores rose. In fact, the country’s earliest efforts could be called somewhat Stalinistic.

1. The first national curriculum, developed in the early ’70s, weighed in at 700 stultifying pages.
2. Timo Heikkinen, who began teaching in Finland’s public schools in 1980 and is now principal of Kallahti Comprehensive School in eastern Helsinki, remembers when most of his high-school teachers sat at their desks dictating to the open notebooks of compliant children.

And there are still challenges. Finland’s crippling financial collapse in the early ’90s brought fresh economic challenges to this “confident and assertive Eurostate,” as David Kirby calls it in A Concise History of Finland, At the same time, immigrants poured into the country, clustering in low-income housing projects and placing added strain on schools.

A recent report by the Academy of Finland warned that some schools in the country’s large cities were becoming more skewed by race and class as affluent, white Finns choose schools with fewer poor, immigrant populations. A few years ago, Kallahti principal Timo Heikkinen began noticing that, increasingly, affluent Finnish parents, perhaps worried about the rising number of Somali children at Kallahti, began sending their children to one of two other schools nearby.

In response, Heikkinen and his teachers designed new environmental science courses that take advantage of the school’s proximity to the forest. And a new biology lab with 3-D technology allows older students to observe blood flowing inside the human body.
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Is Finland’s education system one of the best in the world Finland has decided?

Read the passage and choose the best title from the list below it. Finland’s education system is considered one of the best in the world. In international ratings, it’s always in the top ten. However, the authorities there aren’t ready to rest on their laurels, and they’ve decided to carry through a real revolution in their school system.

Finnish officials want to remove school subjects from the curriculum. There will no longer be any classes in physics, math, literature, history, or geography. Instead of individual subjects, students will study events and phenomena in an interdisciplinary format. For example, the Second World War will be examined from the perspective of history, geography, and math.

And by taking the course “Working in a Cafe,” students will absorb a whole body of knowledge about the English language, economics, and communication skills. The Finnish education system encourages collective work, which is why the changes will also affect teachers.

The school reform will require a great deal of cooperation between teachers of different subjects. Around 70% of teachers in Helsinki have already undertaken preparatory work in line with the new system for presenting information, and, as a result, they’ll get a pay increase. The changes are expected to be complete by 2020.

A) The world’s best education system. B) Finland plans to scrap school subjects. C) Teachers in Finland welcome education reform. Note: What do you think of the idea described in the passage? (Source: click here for full article ) The comments to this entry are closed.
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How a Venus flytrap traps an insect ielts?

The Venus Flytrap is a small plant with six to seven leaves growing out of a bulb-like stem. At the end of each leaf is a trap, which is an opened pod with cilia around the edges like stiff eyelashes. The pod is lined with anthocyanin pigments and sweet-smelling sap to attract flies and other insects.
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What happened to Australia’s megafauna Reading answers?

5 Answer: A – Explanation: The bones of a variety of animals which had died out had fallen through the holes in the ground above. They had then got trapped there after falling into the ground. Some of the oldest belonged to mammals far larger than any found today in Australia.
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How successful are Finland schools?

Finland’s education system is one of the best school systems in the world.66% of students in Finland go to college which is the highest rate in the European Union. Also, 93% of students graduate from academic or vocational high schools. These are some of the country’s many achievements in education,

They came as results of Finland’s education system’s transformation some 40 years ago. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a standardized test administered to students in over 40 locations globally. In 2000, it showed that Finnish students were the best in the world when it comes to reading.

On 2003 PISA test they achieved the best results in math. And in 2006, Finnish youth were first out of 57 countries in science. So, what is the Scandinavian secret of school success?
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Why Finland’s schools are so successful ielts?

The headline of the passage: Why Are Finland’s Schools Successful? – Questions 1-6: List of headings Question no.1: Paragraph A The answer can be found in different lines of paragraph A. First, we find two names in the first paragraph, Principal Kari Louhivuori and the young learner Besart, who was an immigrant student.

We also find the information that Besart was “was falling behind, resisting his teacher’s best efforts.” Here, falling behind = facing problems, Then, in lines 10-16, the writer of the text says, “, ‘ I took Besart on that year as my private student,’ explains Louhivuori. When he was not studying science, geography and math, Besart was seated next to Louhivuori’s desk, taking books from a tall stack, slowly reading one, then another, then devouring them by the dozens.

By the end of the year, he had conquered his adopted country’s vowel-rich language and arrived at the realization that he could, in fact, learn.”

• Here, I took Besart on that year as my private student, & Besart was seated next to Louhivuori’s desk, taking books from a tall stack, slowly reading one, then another = an approach,
• he had conquered his adopted country’s vowel-rich language = helped a young learner,
• So, the answer is: vi (An approach that helped a young learner)
• Question no.2: Paragraph B

Paragraph B deals completely with the PISA test records by Finnish students. The numbers clearly show the success of the students. Take a look at these lines, “, In this year, the first results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a standardized test given to 15-year-olds in more than 40 global venues, revealed Finnish youth to be the best at reading in the world.

1. Here, By 2006, Finland was first out of the 57 nations & In the latest PISA scores, the nation came second in science, third in reading and sixth in math = proof of education success,
2. So, the answer is: vii (Statistical proof of education success)
3. Question no.3: Paragraph C

In paragraph C, lines 1-7, the writer says, “In the United States, government officials have attempted to improve standards by introducing marketplace competition into public schools, In recent years, a group of Wall Street financiers and philanthropists such as Bill Gates have put money behind private-sector ideas, such as charter schools, which have doubled in number in the past decade.

• Here, introducing marketplace competition into public schools = A business-model approach to education,
• So, the answer is: i (A business-model approach to education)
• Question no.4: Paragraph D

The first lines of paragraph D say, “There are no compulsory standardized tests in Finland, apart from one exam at the end of students’ senior year in high school.,” Then, in the final few lines, the writer mentions, “, Every school has the same national goals and draws from the same pool of university-trained educators,

1. Here, Every school has the same national goals, draws from the same pool of university-trained educators & good chance of getting the same quality education = Ways in which equality is maintained in the Finnish education system,
2. So, the answer is: iv (Ways in which equality is maintained in the Finnish education system)
3. Question no.5: Paragraph E

In paragraph E, the writer explains how the government is supporting families in work and living. Take a look at these lines, “, Finland provides three years of maternity leave and subsidized day care to parents, and preschool for all five-year-olds, where the emphasis is on socializing.

• In addition, the state subsidizes parents, paying them around 150 euros per month for every child until he or she turns 17,
• Schools provide food, counseling and taxi service if needed,
• Health care is even free for students taking degree courses.” Here, Finland provides three years of maternity leave and subsidized day care to parents, and preschool for all five-year-olds,,

,the state subsidizes parents, paying them around 150 euros per month for every child until he or she turns 17, Schools provide food, counseling and taxi service if needed & Health care is even free for students = government support for families, So, the answer is: viii (Support for families working and living in Finland) Question no.6: Paragraph F In lines 3-6 of paragraph F, the writer of the text says, “,

• But in 1963, the Finnish Parliament made the bold decision to choose public education as the best means of driving the economy forward and out of recession,
• Here, the Finnish Parliament made the bold decision to choose public education as the best means of driving the economy forward and out of recession = the reforms take had been introduced by the government, Then, in the following lines, the writer explains what reforms were taken by the government in detail.

Also, the final few lines explain the positive results of the reforms. So, the answer is: ii (The reforms that improved education in Finland) Questions 7-13: Completing sentences with NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER In this type of question, candidates are asked to write a maximum of two words to complete sentences on the given topic.
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Why Finland’s child education system is best or not the best?

Emphasis on foundational basics is an important reason why Finland has the best education system in the world because students are provided with the time and scope to build the best foundation and basics at their own pace.
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What is the most successful education system in the world?

United States – The United States takes the number one spot on the list due to its large number of prestigious universities and well-developed higher education system. With world-famous universities such as Harvard, Yale, and Stanford among its ranks, the US has a wide range of educational opportunities for international students.
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What is Finland secret on education?

The Finnish system is based on the assumption that all students can succeed, irrespective of their social background, and that all schools, no matter where they are located, should be of high quality. Finland also shows that there are different paths to success.
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Do Venus flytraps hurt bugs?

Credit: PHOTO BY RANDOLPH ZERR Sign up for Scientific American ’s free newsletters. ” data-newsletterpromo_article-image=”https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/4641809D-B8F1-41A3-9E5A87C21ADB2FD8_source.png” data-newsletterpromo_article-button-text=”Sign Up” data-newsletterpromo_article-button-link=”https://www.scientificamerican.com/page/newsletter-sign-up/?origincode=2018_sciam_ArticlePromo_NewsletterSignUp” name=”articleBody” itemprop=”articleBody”> Lissa Leege, a plant ecologist and assistant professor of biology at Georgia Southern University, explains. Perhaps the best known of the insectivorous (insect-eating) plants, the Venus flytrap ( Dionaea muscipula ) exhibits a unique system by which it attracts, kills, digests and absorbs its prey. Because it is a plant and can make its own food through photosynthesis, the Venus flytrap does not eat and digest its prey for the traditional nonplant objectives of harvesting energy and carbon. Instead, it mines its prey primarily for essential nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorous in particular) that are in short supply in its boggy, acidic habitat. So, yes, the Venus flytrap does have a digestive system of sorts, but it serves a somewhat different purpose than an animals does. How does a stationary organism manage to attract, kill, digest and absorb its prey? First, it lures its victim with sweet-smelling nectar, secreted on its steel-trap-shaped leaves. Unsuspecting prey land on the leaf in search of a reward but instead trip the bristly trigger hairs on the leaf and find themselves imprisoned behind the interlocking teeth of the leaf edges. There are between three and six trigger hairs on the surface of each leaf. If the same hair is touched twice or if two hairs are touched within a 20-second interval, the cells on the outer surface of the leaf expand rapidly, and the trap snaps shut instantly. If insect secretions, such as uric acid, stimulate the trap, it will clamp down further on the prey and form an airtight seal. (If tripped by a curious spectator or a falling dead twig, the trap will reopen within a day or so.) Once the trap closes, the digestive glands that line the interior edge of the leaf secrete fluids that dissolve the soft parts of the prey, kill bacteria and fungi, and break down the insect with enzymes to extract the essential nutrients. These nutrients are absorbed into the leaf, and five to 12 days following capture, the trap will reopen to release the leftover exoskeleton. After three to five meals, the trap will no longer capture prey but will spend another two to three months simply photosynthesizing before it drops off the plant. Plant owners should beware of overstimulating a Venus flytrap: after approximately 10 unsuccessful trap closures, the leaf will cease to respond to touch and will serve only as a photosynthetic organ. The Venus flytrap occurs in a very restricted range in sandy shrub-bogs in coastal North and South Carolina, where it is listed as an endangered species. The ecosystem that supports Venus flytraps experiences frequent fires that clear out competing plants and volatilize nitrogen in the soil. Hence, Venus flytraps have a corner on the nitrogen market immediately following fire, when they obtain three quarters of their nitrogen supply from insect prey. If fire does not reoccur within 10 years, however, competition with other plants restricts the Venus flytraps access to light and insects, and populations begin to decline. Venus flytraps provide a fascinating example of how organisms adapt to stressful conditions, in this case behaving as predators to make up for the nutrient deficiencies in the surrounding soil. Answer originally published August 19,2002.
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Do Venus flytraps snap?

Dionaea muscipula Status: Not Listed Description The Venus flytrap is a flowering plant best known for its carnivorous eating habits. The “trap” is made of two hinged lobes at the end of each leaf. On the inner surfaces of the lobes are hair-like projections called trichomes that cause the lobes to snap shut when prey comes in contact with them.

This type of movement is called thigmonasty—a nondirectional plant response to being touched. To prevent the plant from wasting energy if prey isn’t actually there, the trap will only shut when the trichomes are touched multiple times. The hinged traps are edged with small bristles that interlock when the trap shuts to ensure the prey can’t squirm out.

There are other carnivorous plants in the wild, but the Venus flytrap is one of the very few that exhibits motion to actively trap its prey. Range The Venus flytrap is endemic to North and South Carolina, but it has been introduced to a few other states, including Florida and New Jersey.

It is popular as a potted plant in many parts of the world, but unfortunately most of the Venus flytraps sold have been cultivated or collected from declining wild populations. The plant grows in moist, acidic soil that may be poor in nutrients. Venus flytraps need an open understory (the part of the forest below the canopy) to live.

Part of what keeps the understory open is natural fires that sweep through and burn away parts of trees and shrubs. These fires can become dangerous to humans, so often we stop them before they have a chance to provide benefits to the forest. This results in less suitable habitat for the sun-loving Venus flytrap.

• Diet The Venus flytrap gets some of its nutrients from the soil, but to supplement its diet, the plant eats insects and arachnids.
• Ants, beetles, grasshoppers, flying insects, and spiders are all victims of the flytrap.
• It can take a Venus flytrap three to five days to digest an organism, and it may go months between meals.

Life History Venus flytraps are perennial plants, which means they bloom year after year. The flowers are white with green veins running from the base of the petal toward the edges. Pollinated flowers eventually give rise to seeds. Each trap on the plant can only open and close several times before it dies and falls off.

• Then the plant produces a new trap from its underground stems.
• The lifespan of the Venus flytrap isn’t known for certain, but it’s been estimated to live up to 20 years and possibly longer.
• Fun Fact Like all plants, the Venus flytrap gets its energy from the sun in a process called photosynthesis.
• It digests insects and arachnids to get nutrients that are not available in the surrounding environment.

Sources National Geographic Education NatureServe Explorer Smithsonian Magazine
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Do Venus flytraps eat flies?

What is a venus flytrap? – Venus flytraps are the most well-known carnivorous plant and are able to trap flies and insects and absorb them. They are incredibly interesting evergreen plants which use sweet nectar to attract flies into their jaw-like leaves.

• When something touches the inside hairs of their ‘trap’, an electric charge is sent through the plant signaling that prey is present and the trap snaps shut, enclosing the insect.
• Interlocking teeth line the edge of the closed trap and the more the prey moves, the tighter it closes, making escape hard for the captured fly.

The trigger hairs must be stimulated twice within 20 seconds for the trap to close, suggesting that venus flytraps have good short-term memory. John Aravosis / EyeEm // Getty Images
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What megafauna is still alive?

How do we co-exist with megafauna today? – Many theorize that the reason why megafauna exists (primarily in Africa) is because humans co-evolved with them. It is sometimes an uneasy task as in the case of the villagers who live just outside the borders of the Kaziranga National Park in northeast India,

1. It is home to a population of Asian elephants.
2. Every night the elephants push their boundaries, trampling crops and knocking down walls of villager’s barns to get at their stores of food.
3. Their sheer size and numbers are terrifying families.
4. And every night the park rangers respond to the villager’s phone calls, arriving to encourage the familiar elephants back into the park.

Interestingly, it is the two species of elephants who have survived, the African elephant and the Asian elephant are animals who have learned to live with humans, serving in warfare and as rescue and work animals, Burma’s teak industry relies heavily on elephant labor and India’s forest rangers rely upon them for transportation.

During Asia’s monsoon season, elephants are often the only reliable transportation as their feet are webbed, designed to sink through mud until they hit the ground and are easily able to lift again. Where once the world was teeming with megafauna, the only terrestrial megafauna remaining today are elephants, giraffes, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses and large bovines.

Four out of the five remaining species of terrestrial megafauna live in Africa. Only large bovines (cattle, buffalo and bison) live elsewhere.
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What are the 3 megafauna animals?

3D interactive model of Diprotodon jaw – 3d model of a Diprotodon optatum jaw bone encased in plaster. View full screen in Pedestal3D, The extinction of megafauna around the world was probably due to environmental and ecological factors. It was almost completed by the end of the last ice age.

1. It is believed that megafauna initially came into existence in response to glacial conditions and became extinct with the onset of warmer climates.
2. In temperate Eurasia and North America, megafauna extinction concluded simultaneously with the replacement of the vast periglacial tundra by an immense area of forest.

Glacial species, such as mammoths and woolly rhinocerous, were replaced by animals better adapted to forests, such as elk, deer and pigs. Reindeers (caribou) retreated north, while horses moved south to the central Asian steppe. This all happened about 10 000 years ago, despite the fact that humans colonised North America less than 15 000 years ago and non-tropical Eurasia nearly 1 million years ago. Diprotodon Image: illustrator: Anne Musser © Anne Musser At the end of the last ice age, Australia’s climate changed from cold-dry to warm-dry. As a result, surface water became scarce. Most inland lakes became completely dry or dry in the warmer seasons.

• Most large, predominantly browsing animals lost their habitat and retreated to a narrow band in eastern Australia, where there was permanent water and better vegetation.
• The diprotodon, one of Australia’s megafauna, may have survived on the Liverpool Plains of New South Wales until about 7000 years ago.

As First Nations people have been in Australia over the past 60 000 years, megafauna must have co-existed with humans for at least 30 000 years. For social, spiritual and economic reasons, First Nations peoples harvested game in a sustainable manner. Words to know:

MEGAFAUNA – large animals such as elephant, mammoth, rhinocerous and diprotodon.GLACIAL – characterised by extensive masses of ice.TUNDRA – cold, desert, treeless plains of artic lowlands in Eurasia and North America.STEPPE – grasslands of temperate dry climate, such as in central Asia.BROWSERS – animals that feed predominantly on leaves.

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Why didn’t Africa lose its megafauna?

Africa’s megafauna evolved alongside hominins, and were able to adapt to their presence as humans evolved and grew more ferocious. As a result, they’re much more resilient than animals elsewhere when it come to coping with human hunting and disturbance.
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Why is Finland so successful?

PISA: Finnish youth at the forefront –

Finland’s rankings	2012	2009	2006	2003
Reading literacy
OECD countries	3	2	2	1
All participants	6	3	2	1
Mathematical literacy
OECD countries	6	2	1	1
All participants	12	6	2	2
Scientific literacy
OECD countries	2	1	1	1
All participants	5	2	1	1
Problem solving
OECD countries	4			2
All participants	9			2

Finland ranks at or near the top in all the PISA studies, organised every three years since the year 2000 by OECD. PISA measures the competence of 15-year-old pupils in mathematics, science and reading literacy. It is particularly noteworthy that among Finnish schoolchildren the difference between top-scorers and low-scorers is small, and that ability levels are strong in all types of schools. Finnish children start school the autumn of the calendar year that they turn seven. This gives them a longer time to play, use their imaginations and develop secure attachment before attending school. Photo: Amanda Soila In the modern world, a well-educated, skilful population forms the key to a country’s success.The rise of Finnish society to the ranks of the world’s richest countries in the second half of the 1900s stemmed largely from the population’s demand for public education and the country’s investment in it.

1. As early as the 1800s, major decisions sowed the seeds for the continuing success of the education system.
2. Finland decided on education for the entire nation.
3. In this way, the country avoided social inequality between an educated elite and an uneducated lower class.
4. The population’s desire to learn has also contributed to a general faith in education.

People are expected to stay informed about a wide range of issues and societal concerns.
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Are Finnish schools the best in the world?

From tests to teachers, here are 10 reasons why Finland’s education system is dominating America and the world stage. Image: REUTERS/Attila Cser
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Is school in Finland stressful?

Primary and secondary school The main nine-year bulk of a Finnish student’s education is considerably stress-free compared to their neighbouring countries.
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How is reading taught in Finland?

Supporting reading literacy, Finland Derren Hayes Tuesday, November 27, 2018 Globalisation and international migration have increased the number of students from immigrant backgrounds across Europe. For these students, learning the language can play a crucial role in their schoolwork, sense of inclusion in the school and integration into society.

In addition, rising child poverty in the UK increases the risk of the attainment gap growing between children living in poor areas and their wealthier peers. Finland has developed a solution to improving reading skills that sees volunteer grandparents recruited to support students struggling with reading.

The approach is being used in more than 60 schools and is being shown to improve reading literacy levels. CULTURE AND SOCIETY Children in Finland typically start school at the age of seven. Starting school later than is common in many other Western countries does not appear to hold Finnish children back when it comes to attainment – the OECD’s 2016 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results place 15-year-olds from Finland second among 28 European countries for reading literacy and fourth among the 73 countries assessed worldwide.

A 2016 study by John Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, judged Finland the most literate country in the world. The research looked at literacy achievement tests and also at what it called “literate behaviour characteristics” – everything from numbers of libraries and newspapers to years of schooling and computer availability in the countries.

Education experts have attributed Finland’s success to a school system that promotes student wellbeing and independence. For example, students receive regular 15-minute unstructured breaks during the day, which research has shown promotes alertness. Meanwhile, primary-age pupils are given open-ended projects that encourage critical thinking and creativity.

• REGULATION AND POLICY
• The National Board of Education, which is subordinate to the Ministry of Education and Culture, decides on the objectives and contents of instruction in different subjects, recording them in a national curriculum.
• Municipalities’ education providers have a significant amount of freedom in organising the schooling within the guidelines provided by the Ministry and the National Board.

Before compulsory education begins, the child participates in one-year pre-primary education which since August 2015 is obligatory. Compulsory education usually starts in the year when a child turns seven. The scope of the basic education syllabus is nine years, and nearly all children complete this by attending comprehensive school.

Finnish national curricula for different school and grade levels emphasise literacy in an age-appropriate way. At pre-school level the emphasis is on emergent literacy and play-like activities. In primary school the curriculum focuses on teaching reading using phonics but also reading comprehension strategies are introduced.

In lower secondary grades, students are expected to develop further their reading strategies, engage in increasingly diverse literacy activities, and adopt critical literacy, and in upper secondary level, literacy has a particularly strong focus on academic texts.

1. In response to a small rise in low-performing readers, in 2015 the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture launched the national development programme Basic Education of the Future – Let’s Turn the Trend! to provide analysis and recommendations for updating the Finnish basic education offer.
2. The new national curriculum has a separate chapter on literacy.

The concept of multiliteracy is introduced as a cross-curricular competence aimed at all subjects throughout basic education. Improving language fluency is a key aim of the new plan. A ¤5.5m government package announced in late 2017 will pay for training to help immigrants who already have an official qualification from their own country work as subject teachers and in kindergartens. PRACTICE There are a number of support programmes targeted at Finnish pupils struggling with reading. The Lukuinto programme (Joy of Reading) targets the reading motivation and multiliteracy competence of children and young people aged 6 to 16. In the Lukuinto project, schools and libraries work together to develop innovative learning approaches and promote multiliteracy, new reading and writing skills, as well as reading enjoyment.

For supporting the pupils struggling with reading, game-like approaches have proven to be effective. Especially for struggling learners and children starting to learn to read, digital gaming GraphoGame approach provides extra training in early reading skills. The Reading Grandmas and Grandpas project was established in 2012 by the Niilo Mäki Institute.

Funded by the Finnish Slot Machine Association, the project sees grandparents read with children aged eight to 12 who teachers have identified as struggling with reading. Volunteer grandparents are recruited to help teachers and improve students’ reading skills, visiting schools for 20-minute one-to-one sessions with the children.

During these sessions, children and volunteers read and discuss a variety of books, including both fiction and non-fiction. The grandparents model fluent reading, provide instant feedback to students, and encourage students about the importance of reading. Reading grandparents utilise evidence-based strategies to improve reading fluency, including echo reading, choral reading and shared reading with students.

The grandparents’ initial training is a two-hour session led by researchers at the Niilo Mäki Institute, but further peer-led group training is available. Of the original volunteer grandparents, only 28 per cent had a teaching background. The original group of volunteers ranged in age from 50 to 80.

IMPACT Results from the first study found that after 14 sessions of participating in the programme, students improved their own belief in their reading skills. Students completed pre and post measures, rating aspects of self-efficacy and the findings indicate that participating in the programme led to increased feelings regarding reading skills and continued ability to improve reading skills.

The motivation and encouragement provided by the grandparents played a vital role in these improvements, which is an important building block to improving reading. Benefits were also noted for the volunteer reading grandparents. For those that participated, volunteers noted increased feelings of self-worth, increased social activities, and increased social relationships.

The Reading Grandmas and Grandpas programme continues to grow and several different versions of the programme are currently being introduced and piloted. While the initial study focused on disfluent readers, a new programme addresses developing vocabulary skills for students that are learning Finnish as their second language.

Grandparents are trained to use nine evidence-based vocabulary development strategies to help build vocabulary through reading. A third version of the programme will see older members of immigrant communities encourage reading in the first language of immigrant students.

• Finland scores consistently highly for good levels of pupil literacy
• However, rising child poverty and children with Finish as a second language mean some pupils need additional support
• Programme established in 2012 pairs retired volunteers with children who need extra reading support
• Short and regular classroom-based sessions improve pupils’ vocabulary and confidence
• Scheme continues to expand, with specific programmes working with children from migrant communities

1. EXPERT VIEW
2. By Christina Clark, head of research, National Literacy Trust
3. This programme could certainly work in the UK, and many similar schemes already exist where adult volunteers go into schools to help children improve their reading skills, enjoyment and motivation.

In the UK, reading volunteers may be grandparents, but they may also be parents (ABC to Read’s parent helpers), business employees (Business in the Community’s Paired Reading programme) or members of the public (Beanstalk’s reading helpers). Remote reading schemes are also growing in popularity, with volunteers offering reading support for children online (TutorMate).

While grandparents may participate in many of the reading volunteer schemes run in the UK, there are no initiatives exclusively for grandparents. Internationally, in addition to the Reading Grandmas and Grandpas programme in Finland, many schemes exist to support children’s learning and literacy through increased integration between generations.

In the United States, the Foster Grandparents scheme matches volunteers over the age of 55 with children who need a mentor or tutor. The success of the Reading Grandmas and Grandpas programme lies in a number of areas. First and foremost, the training of volunteers is fundamental.

• The one-to-one reading sessions enable the child to get the volunteer’s undivided attention, while the number of sessions allow the pair to build a trusted and supportive relationship which can help motivate the child to keep reading and get more practice.
• The fact that the volunteers are grandparents means they are more likely to have the time and experience to be good volunteer readers.

: Supporting reading literacy, Finland
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Why does Finland value education?

Finland has reinvented itself in just one short century – and we’re still at it. Our national character and Northern heritage have boosted us to the top of many kinds of country rankings. The Finnish people highly value education. In Finland, the teaching profession is highly respected and most people consider the comprehensive school as one of the most noteworthy factors in Finnish history.
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Which country takes IELTS the most?

USA – The US has the most number of colleges that accept IELTS and it also has many top universities in the world. There are more than 3,000 universities and colleges that you can apply to for your Masters. Because of the sheer volume of applicants per year, the required band score is at least 6.5.
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Why is Finland so successful?

PISA: Finnish youth at the forefront –

Finland’s rankings	2012	2009	2006	2003
Reading literacy
OECD countries	3	2	2	1
All participants	6	3	2	1
Mathematical literacy
OECD countries	6	2	1	1
All participants	12	6	2	2
Scientific literacy
OECD countries	2	1	1	1
All participants	5	2	1	1
Problem solving
OECD countries	4			2
All participants	9			2

Finland ranks at or near the top in all the PISA studies, organised every three years since the year 2000 by OECD. PISA measures the competence of 15-year-old pupils in mathematics, science and reading literacy. It is particularly noteworthy that among Finnish schoolchildren the difference between top-scorers and low-scorers is small, and that ability levels are strong in all types of schools. Finnish children start school the autumn of the calendar year that they turn seven. This gives them a longer time to play, use their imaginations and develop secure attachment before attending school. Photo: Amanda Soila In the modern world, a well-educated, skilful population forms the key to a country’s success.The rise of Finnish society to the ranks of the world’s richest countries in the second half of the 1900s stemmed largely from the population’s demand for public education and the country’s investment in it.

As early as the 1800s, major decisions sowed the seeds for the continuing success of the education system. Finland decided on education for the entire nation. In this way, the country avoided social inequality between an educated elite and an uneducated lower class. The population’s desire to learn has also contributed to a general faith in education.

People are expected to stay informed about a wide range of issues and societal concerns.
View complete answer

What is the most successful education system in the world?

United States – The United States takes the number one spot on the list due to its large number of prestigious universities and well-developed higher education system. With world-famous universities such as Harvard, Yale, and Stanford among its ranks, the US has a wide range of educational opportunities for international students.
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Which country has the best education system in the world?

Denmark. Denmark is certainly a top mention when it comes to discovering the best education system in the world, with a whopping 99 percent literacy rate. Denmark offers free education from kindergarten to university.
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