Yes Finland has been quite at the top in these school rankings for a long long time, when it comes to primary & secondary school...I suppose it's because of a couple of things: we're a small country where all the schools are strictly state controlled and funded - actually even way too strictly, meaning that nearly every year we receive updated goals that pretty accurately explain what does every student have to achieve in any given subject/class/course and such...it's very taxing for teachers also as they keep changing the goals/evaluation etc. a lot, but certainly keeps us on our toes.
Also, most people go through Upper Secondary School, which is three years of hard reading, ending in written exams that take two weeks and where you need to be able to write lengthy essays on basically anything studied, the issues are secret every year and it's a big thing people read like crazy for to get good grades.
Of course, a lot of people want to excel in those because also University studies, like all schools, are completely free of charge for everyone, also foreign students, and there's a lot of competition to get to many fields of study. I also spent three years just trying to get in to study at the Uni. But once you're in, you get free housing, living money, plus government-backed loan if you want more luxuries in life while studying.
Besides that, teachers here, I guess everywhere but especially here, they tend to be extra, erm, shall we say, trustworthy and take things like work duties to heart very personally and won't let things slide one bit. The schooling is long, usually at least 17 years of schooling in total, and the training really drives in things like sense of responsibility for people's learning etc.
But, from highschool grades onward, I don't think we fare so well, there's no universities ranking that high up or well known...most really great students want to go abroad to complete/add to their studies, to same well-known international one.
Dee
"When life's a biatch, be a horny dog"
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