Between old structures and equipment to be modernized, a good idea would be to take an example from five particularly effective foreign education systems.
Estonia
Let’s start from Estonia , a country we have already dealt with in the past precisely because of how it decided to focus on the school system. One figure above all: ten years ago there were about 400 foreign students studying in Estonia, today they are more than 4000, or ten times as many. The merit of empowered teachers – through wide autonomy in the management of the educational program and a worthy economic reward – and of a teaching in step with the times, which includes, for example, the ProgeTiger , a program created to teach the fundamentals of computer programming at all levels , from kindergarten to lifelong learning for adults.
In Finland up to the age of sixteen there are no exams or grades and schools are always public and free.
Finland
A little further north we find another excellence. This is the Finnish system , which despite being recognized as one of the best in the world does not stop innovating. The latest news came from a couple of years ago: Finnish schools must guarantee a “collaborative” approach, letting students choose a topic of interest to them around which to set up part of the work. The changes are part of a system that is already very different from ours, as evidenced by the fact that the equivalent of our elementary school starts at seven and that up to the age of 16 there are no exams or grades. Those who wish can then enroll in secondary school, which lasts up to 19 years and prepares for university, always public and free. On closer inspection, all Finnish schools are public, a feature that allows great uniformity in education, regardless of social class, and raises the teaching bar upwards, with graduated teachers (even for primary school) and forced to pass very strict tests to access the role.
Swiss
Remaining in Europe, there is the case of Switzerland : compulsory education, up to the age of sixteen, is managed by the cantons in a federalist way, just like high schools. In the hands of the central state are the vocational schools, which can last up to four years. To distinguish the Swiss method is the care for the school environment : the pupils are provided with textbooks, which they will then leave the following year to the younger one-year-olds, along with pencils, colors and various tools. Blackboards, desks and technological equipment are state-of-the-art, but to make us reflect is a more human factor than ever: from primary school, pupils are invited to carry out the journey from home to school on their own ,so that they are empowered and that they learn to move around the city, to manage the difficulties of the road and not to have to depend on a parent.
Singapore
Finally, two other successful models outside the old continent. The first is that of Singapore , where teachers are selected from among the graduates of the national training institute. During the study period, aspiring teachers live side by side with more experienced colleagues, earning a salary ever since . Incentives linked to their performance are also provided for teachers , assessed at the end of the year on the basis of the results obtained by their students and their schools. With a focus on professional updating, to which teachers dedicate up to one hundred hours each year .
Canada
In North America, on the other hand, Canada stands out , which also through school has been able to manage the migratory flows that have brought millions of people to the country over the decades. In order not to find pockets of the population who are not literate or unskilled, Canada has made sure to favor the inclusion in the school system of all social strata, guaranteeing free education up to university. This despite the fact that the federal structure of the country makes the regional management of the school very different, while maintaining the common characteristic of not having specialized high schools, as in Italy, but generic high schools on the American model.
