Educational System Comparison: Maldives vs. Finland Analysis

This report offers a comprehensive comparative analysis of the educational systems of the Maldives and Finland. It begins with an executive summary outlining the report's objectives and key findings. The introduction provides context by discussing the historical development of education in both countries, highlighting the shift from traditional to Western-style education in the Maldives and the evolution of the Finnish education system. The discussion section delves into the educational philosophies, priorities, and concerns of both nations. In the Maldives, the report examines the influence of Islamic principles, national development goals, and the evolution of the education system, including the transition from traditional schooling to a unified system. In contrast, the Finnish system is analyzed for its emphasis on free education, student well-being, and innovative teaching methods. The report then compares and contrasts the educational philosophies of both countries, highlighting the differences in curriculum, teaching methods, and overall goals. The report also explores the lessons that can be learned from the Finnish education system and how these lessons might be adapted to improve the Maldivian system, followed by recommendations for improvement. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the importance of understanding and adapting successful educational models to meet the unique needs of each country.

Running head: EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN MALDIVES VS. FINLAND
EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN MALDIVES VS. FINLAND
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN MALDIVES VS. FINLAND
Executive Summary
This report introduces that various countries have their own education system which
is followed all over. It discusses in brief regarding the education systems in Maldives and
Finland and differences between them. It further discusses in details the principles of
education system in Maldives which include following of Islamic believes in their system.
They focus on teaching students to read and learn Quran. They provide equality and
opportunities of education to every citizen. Whereas Finland follows a system called Finnish
system of education which includes free education for everyone irrespective of their cast,
creed and color. Finland is believed to have the best education system in the world.

2EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN MALDIVES VS. FINLAND
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................4
Analysis of Educational Philosophies in Maldives................................................................4
Maldives’s current educational Priorities and Concerns:.......................................................5
Analysis of Educational Philosophies is Finland...................................................................7
Comparison of the Philosophies.............................................................................................9
The learning from the Finnish Education System and adaptation in Maldivian schools.....11
Recommendations................................................................................................................12
Conclusion................................................................................................................................15

3EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN MALDIVES VS. FINLAND
Introduction
Educational system is a financial organization whose capital purpose is to equip
education to children. Every country has its own educational system that is followed all over.
According to the educational system in Maldives, the children of ages three or above used to
receive education in traditional schools called edhurge. Here children were made to sit in a
single room or under the shade of a tree in order to provide education (Rasheed, 2015).
Children just earn some simple arithmetic and recite the Quran. According to Rasheed,
(2014) this schooling system did not exist for long. They were replaced by the western style
of education in 1980s – 1990s. Initially the education was provided to the boys only but later
on the government felt it important to build schools for girls as well. With the help of
UNESCO, Maldives government implemented the Educational Development Project since 6th
October 1976 (Hudgins et al., 2017). This program includes Curriculum development,
Teacher training, Community Education Programme, Printing and Textbook development.
Finland is a progressive country in case of its educational system. It not only
innovates its system but the innovation also yields results. According to Program for
International Student Assessment (PISA) Finland is among the highest performing countries.
PISA is an important organization which measures the education systems worldwide
(Sahlberg, 2017). Educational system in Finland is followed by providing subsidiary meals to
the full time students. Nowadays the educational system of Finland includes daycare projects
meant for babies, then kindergarten. After kindergarten, they are given a secondary education
followed by higher education and adult education. According to Doeser, (2017) Finland also
follows the Finnish strategy for providing education to the students. This strategy has been
introduced in order to achieve excellence and equality in the educational system. Finland is
believed to have the best education system in the world. This report discusses the educational
systems of both the countries in details in the discussion part. It further compares and

4EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN MALDIVES VS. FINLAND
contrasts their educational systems. Some recommendations are also been given to improve
their systems.
Discussion
Analysis of Educational Philosophies in Maldives
Maldives’ educational philosophies are based on their goals of national development,
these goals are as follows:
 They aim to develop people possessing occupational skills, attitudes and
knowledge for the development of their nation (Shareef, 2016). They also aim
to protect environmental resources.
 They develop students within the education system based on Principles
followed by Islam (Ibrahim, 2017). They remind the students that along with
being a part of the country they are also a part of Muslim Ummah.
 They ensure comprehensive primary education as well as equal opportunity of
education for every citizen. This is done to promote equity and justice.
 According to Tang, (2015) they provide educational opportunities to all the
citizens for lifelong.
 In order to improve their quality of life they conduce a spirit of self-direction
and self-reliance.
 In order to preserve the nation’s cultural heritage and strengthen their national
consciousness, they promote the cultural values, national language and
tradition (Bent, 2015).
 Along with the education they also look after citizens’ physical as well as
motional development, moral and social development.

5EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN MALDIVES VS. FINLAND
Maldives’s current educational Priorities and Concerns:
 The three main topics have added up to the system of education in Maldives in
these days, they are Islamic instructions that are provided through tutors,
Informal training which is received by the students from their families and
then direct learning that happens face to face and modern western schooling
(Joshi & Yadav, 2016).
 The traditional education system comprised of schools of three types, they are
edhuruge, madhrasa and makhtab (Yamada, Fujikawa & Pangeni, 2015).
These schools were private and self-financing. Communities present in that
island run them.
 Though the overall attainment through the traditional method was quite less
but it managed to achieve many educational objectives.
 The traditional systems has helped in removing a certain amount of illiteracy
from the country as well as preserve the tradition and national culture.
 According to Minowa, (2015) Kiyavaage was a group of children in a home.
This group was taught to read and learn Quran as well as read and write
Dhivehi, which is a local language.
 A huge change took place in the traditional form of learning in 1932, this was
when the first Constitution was introduced for the country. The involvement of
government resulted in formation of a group in December 1932 to look after
the education system (Di Biase, 2018).
 In 1940s and 1950s outstanding developments in the education system was
noticed (Thirlwall & Pacheco-López, 2017). This was for the first time that
education was regarded as a medium of national development.

6EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN MALDIVES VS. FINLAND
 People were encouraged and motivated by the government to provide
education to their children. Many islands had built schools with the help of
their own resources.
 English medium schools were introduced in 1960, it marked beginning of the
pattern of public school system. In most of the parts of the country,
introduction of this new education system has been beneficial but in some
parts it did not achieve success. This was due to the government’s withdrawal
of support from those areas (Meierkord, 2018).
 The policy changes in late 1970s have led to outstanding growth in
educational opportunities. The recent historical development in the system
took place in 1978 when a decision was taken to apply a unified educational
system and to provide an equal facilities for all. The policy majorly focused on
Primary as well as Middle schools. According to World Health Organization.
(2015) they focused in improving training given to teachers and establish new
schools.
 Their main objective was to provide basic education to maximum citizen
within the year 2000.
 They assured improvement in the quality of growth along with quantitative
growth. They also took care of the relevance of education with the local
environment.
 They tried to increase the number of trained people for national development.
 They realized that it is important to strengthen the management and
organization of the system.

7EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN MALDIVES VS. FINLAND
Analysis of Educational Philosophies is Finland
Finland follows a wonderful design for establishing the best education system which
consists a philosophy of better development and lifelong learning. This gears towards not
only self development but also the development of nation. The main philosophical points
included in Finland’s educational system are as follows:
 The education is free for everyone. They also provide fully subsided meals for
all the students. This encourages the people to send their children to school,
specially the people with financial problems (Niemi, Toom & Kallioniemi,
2016). Families with less or no income annually find it impossible to send
their children to schools due to the fees. Free education and meals for children
encourages their parents to continue their school.
 As per Aro and Lyytinen, (2016) parents with new born babies are provided
with books to read out to children. This inhibits the habit of reading in the
parents and the children stay in touch with studies since a very young age.
 It is compulsary for all the children to learn two foreign languages along with
Finnish (Bärlund & Kauppinen, 2017). This learning of languages helps them
to adapt in foreign countries.
 Children are taught to live in harmony with everyone and respect every
culture, faiths and traditions from a very young age.
 They not only provide the best education to the children but also keep their
educational system updated. Introduction of new methods of learning are
never missed out.
 Most of the parts of the world is facing a major issue of unemployment, this is
due to the field of expertise of the students. Most of the students do not get
employed in the field they are expert. This leads to job dissatisfaction. Finland

8EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN MALDIVES VS. FINLAND
has undertaken a radical reform which improves gradually. They follow the
method of traditional teaching. They teach subjects like Maths, History,
English and some more in a discreet manner and focus on topic areas. Topics
which would actually help them in professional life as well.
 They include topics such as business planning along with a combination of
some languages, communication skills, writing skills and Maths (Laine &
Hämäläinen, 2015). They may also learn about European Union, this will be a
combination of economics, languages, history and geography.
 The inclusion of these subjects help the students to link between the subjects
they learn and ways in which can be applied in real life.
 Students are made to work in groups from an early age, this helps them to
improve communication skills, help in solving problems themselves by
discussing with each other, thinking new ideas and gain knowledge and to
embed a psyche of collaboration (Kurhila and Vihavainen, 2015).
 Students under this educational framework will also improve their planning
and assessment of the phenomena-based topics (Williams, Brien and LeBlanc,
2017).
 There is a lot to learn from the Finnish education system. Education systems
across Asia includes highly skilled professional but they focus more on exams
and scholastic achievements. According to Goldstein, (2014) Finland believes
in a principle called fewer classes and more breaks. Students in Finland have
very few classes per day. Continuous study leads to the stagnation of body as
well as brain. These breaks help in relaxing their brain for better learning.
 They take less tests and allow the students to learn more. The tests that are
taken in most institutions make children worry about it the whole year (Wong,

9EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN MALDIVES VS. FINLAND
2017). The purpose of their studying is to score good marks. Students are
judged on the basis of their grades. In Finland students do not have to worry
about exams.
 They teach their students fewer topics but in depth. It is very common that in
schools students are provided with a huge number of books, each book having
vast syllabus (Bergh, Ros & Beijaard, 2015). This system of education does
not allow the students to learn the subject well. In Finland students are taught
fewer topics but in depth.
 Finland believes less homework yields in more participation. According to
OECD, the Finnish students are given the least number of homework
compared to the students of other institutions all over the world (Säävälä,
Turjanmaa & Alitolppa-Niitamo, 2017). This has actually showed outstanding
results. Finnish students score far better than the students in other schools.
 They include fewer students in a particular class in order to give proper
attention to every student. In order to give proper individual attention to every
student they include very less number of students in a class.
Comparison of the Philosophies
Educational philosophies in Maldives and Finland differ a lot in many fields. They
focus in developing potential individuals with the necessary occupational skills, attitude and
knowledge for the national development. Their education system is based on principles of
Islam. Maldives mostly concentrate in providing the children the religious education. They
continuously remind the students that besides being a part of the nation they are also a part of
Ummah. They focus on teaching the students to read Quran and write the Islamic language.
For them the religious knowledge is the first priority. At every step, the students are reminded
of their religion and the policies their religion follow. They do not focus on teaching the

10EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN MALDIVES VS. FINLAND
students some subjects that would help them in their professional life in future. The idea of
education was also introduced from a group who were taught to read Quran. The introduction
of western system of education also includes the teaching of Islamic principles as their main
aim. Their education system deprived of encompass democracy, nationalism, equity,
independence and some more factors after some stages. According to Rasheed, (2015) the
curriculum developers of the Maldivian education system have overcome various difficulties
faced by them. These problems are some curriculum developers were not trained enough
especially on the aspects of applying modern technologies in the education system, they are
not allowed enough access to internet. The teachers hardly interacted among themselves;
regular feedback was not received from the teachers (Shareefa, 2015).
Educational Philosophies in Finland are far better than the educational system of most
of the countries in the world. They believe in the fact that less formal schooling yields more
options. The best part of their education system is that Finland allows their children to be
children, they teach them through playing rather than making the students to sit still and
attend classes in a locked up room. In most of the countries the children are burdened with
books since a very young age but in Finland children are taught formally after they are
completely prepared for it. Students are allowed to choose between the subjects they want at
the age of 16. They allow the students to take more rest and spend less time in school. The
school usually ends at around 2:00 pm. They shift the school timings whenever necessary,
sometimes school starts early and sometimes late. Specially the students belonging to Finnish
education system are provided more freedom and flexible school timings. They have several
breaks in between the classes. They provide enough rest to the students as well as teachers
which makes them more efficient in learning as well as teaching. They also believe that the
less instruction time the more planning time. According to Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Finnish education system the teachers teach

11EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN MALDIVES VS. FINLAND
approximately 600 hours annually (Jenset, Klette & Hammerness, 2018). In the US education
system teachers teach around 1080 hours annually. Thus leaves the teachers as well as
students exhausted. The students do not get enough time for self-studying or for
extracurricular activities. This learning system decreases the productivity of the students and
teachers. In Finland, a particular class has the same teacher for more than four years. This is
done to ensure the quality of teacher. Continuous change of teachers make the students
uncomfortable to open up with them. Once a student gets comfortable with a particular
teacher they are free to share their problems and clear their queries regarding their academics.
Finland believes that the art of teaching cannot be gained by studying. It is a passion and gift.
The learning from the Finnish Education System and adaptation in Maldivian
schools
Finnish education system aims in providing equal access of good quality education to
everyone. People should be allowed same educational opportunities irrespective of their age,
ethnic origin, wealth or their lifestyle. Education is free at all the levels. Finnish education
system provides a life-log learning policy. Adult education is very popular in Finland. This
helps in improving the employment rate, extends working life and improves productivity. The
adaptations that can be done in the Maldivian education system from the Finnish system are
as follows.
 According to the Finnish education system the education is made free at all
levels. They provide daily meals as well as transport facilities to the students.
Adult education is the only level in the education system where payment is
required. Maldivian Education system can adapt this characteristic in their
education system. The free meals provided may encourage the financially poor
families to send their children to school.