Since the OECD started testing students worldwide through its Program for International Student Assessment, Finland has been adjudged to have the best education system among developed countries. So when a member of the Finnish Board of Education criticises the practice of national testing and ranking of school performance, as Pirjo Sinko did at a gathering of literacy experts in Hobart last week, it's worth taking notice.
Many educators were already disturbed by Federal Government moves to make school performance 'transparent' to parents. The New South Wales Teachers Federation, as well as the South Australian branch of the Australian Education Union, have recently committed themselves actively to oppose the use of national test results to rank schools. According to federation president Bob Lipscombe, league tables reflect 'a lack of respect for the profession'.
It would be easy enough to dismiss his statement as sentimental. Many might argue that how teachers feel about their job is not as important as producing comparative data on schools for the purpose of providing information to consumers.
But if we're going to talk about 'best value for money', we should note that studies show a reciprocal link between teacher morale and student achievement. This suggests that publicising data to lift student achievement may actually be counterproductive if it leads to demoralisation within the teaching profession.
The proposal highlights a weakness in the Australian education system. Relationships between stakeholders are adversarial. Education is no longer the great social enterprise it once was, when parents and governments worked to support schools in their function within the community. Instead, much of the argument for league tables focuses on the right of parents to choose the right school for their children.
This is a false argument because parents are able to make this choice, and have been making such choices, without league tables. It is also a dangerous argument because it sets up a culture of hostility towards schools and teachers, in which parents are always right.
This is a far cry from the situation in Finland, where, in the words of its foremost education expert, Dr Reijo Laukkanen, 'We can trust that [teachers] are competent. They know what to do.' Nobody will be surprised to know that the morale of Finnish teachers is high.
The most concerning feature of the arguments about parental choice and school accountability is that they do not address the role that families play in children's achievement at school. Values,