The InformED Report for November 29, 2016 looked abroad. In London, students and lecturers marched against a government bill that would let well-rated universities raise tuition fees and make it easier for new providers to call themselves universities. In Warsaw, teachers and parents protested a plan to close Poland’s middle schools. The edition ended in Finland, where schools were bringing in phenomenon-based teaching, and with a look at what American schools might learn from the Finnish system.
In this edition
- Thousands of students and lecturers marched in London against the government’s higher education bill and rising tuition fees.
- Teachers and parents rallied in Warsaw against a plan to phase out Poland’s middle schools, with estimates ranging from 15,000 to 50,000.
- Finland introduced phenomenon-based teaching, built around real-world topics that cross subject lines.
- Business Insider set out four things Finland does differently, as Finland ranked 12th and the U.S. 36th on PISA.
Students march in London for free education
On Saturday, November 19, students and lecturers marched through central London in a demonstration organized by the National Union of Students (NUS) and the University and College Union. Estimates of the crowd varied widely. Breitbart London put it at about 15,000, while a Press Association report carried by the Daily Mail described hundreds of demonstrators. The marchers called for free, quality education and carried signs on tuition fees and wider politics.
Their main target was the government’s Higher Education and Research Bill. In The Guardian, Rebecca Ratcliffe explained that the bill would introduce a teaching excellence framework to rank universities by quality, and would let the best-performing institutions raise their fees in line with inflation. It would also make it easier for new institutions, including for-profit ones, to gain the title of university, a status that had usually taken decades to earn. NUS president Malia Bouattia called the plans a risky “market experiment.” The union’s vice president for higher education, Sorana Vieru, told the crowd that the changes were “not about the needs of students, but about the needs of businesses.” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn sent a video message of support.
For American readers, the argument had a familiar shape. Tying what a university may charge to a quality rating, and opening the field to for-profit providers, raised the same questions that U.S. regulators and families were asking about cost, quality and who protects students when a new provider fails.
Poland’s teachers protest school reform
In Warsaw, teachers and parents protested the conservative Law and Justice government’s plan to change the school system. DW reported that organizers counted up to 50,000 people on Pilsudski Square, while police put the figure closer to 30,000. ABC News, reporting for the Associated Press, gave a police estimate of 15,000. The plan would replace the three-tier system with two levels by phasing out the three-year middle schools, which the Associated Press described as serving children aged 12 to 16. Poland would return to the model used under communism, an eight-year primary school followed by a four-year secondary school. The middle schools had been introduced in 1999, also over strong objections.
The Education Ministry said the middle schools did a poor job of educating students. Teachers feared losing their jobs when the schools closed, and protesters also objected to proposed curriculum changes that would include “patriotic values” favored by the ruling party. Slawomir Broniarz, head of Poland’s main teachers’ union, urged the government “not to destroy the assets” of the existing system. For any system leader, the protest was a reminder that restructuring grades moves people as well as students. Closing a whole tier of schools changes where every teacher in that tier works.
Finland and phenomenon-based teaching
Finland has long been held up as a model, and its schools were trying something new. Chris Brandt of the University Herald reported that the country’s new national curriculum framework, which took effect in 2016, emphasized a multidisciplinary approach through phenomenon-based teaching. Students study real-world phenomena, such as climate change, their community or the European Union, from several points of view, so that a single topic draws on many subjects at once. It resembles problem-based learning, but deliberately crosses the lines between subjects.
Business Insider’s Abby Jackson noted that Finland’s PISA ranking had slipped to 12th in the most recent results, still well above the U.S. at 36th. She described four differences. Finland relies far less on standardized testing, with one major exam, the National Matriculation Examination, at the end of high school, graded by teachers. Finnish law requires a 15-minute break for every 45 minutes of instruction. College is free, including master’s and doctoral programs and for foreign students. And teaching is a highly respected profession with a high bar to entry: only about one in 10 applicants to teacher education programs is admitted.
The comparison came with limits. Rankings measure outcomes, not which policy caused them, and Finland is a small country with its own history and funding. Still, for U.S. leaders interested in interdisciplinary units or in longer breaks, Finland offered working examples to study rather than a package to copy.
Sources
- Breitbart London, “Students march through London demanding free university education,” Breitbart, November 19, 2016.
- Rebecca Ratcliffe, “Students and lecturers march against Tories’ education bill,” The Guardian, November 19, 2016.
- Press Association, “Demonstrators marching in London urge more funding for education,” Daily Mail, November 2016.
- DW, “Thousands of teachers in Poland protest government education reforms,” November 2016.
- Monika Scislowska, “Poland’s Teachers Protest Education Reform, Feared Jobs Loss,” Associated Press via ABC News, November 2016.
- Abby Jackson, “Finland has one of the best education systems in the world — here are 4 things it does better than the US,” Business Insider, November 16, 2016.
- Chris Brandt, “Finland Education Reform Introduces Phenomenon-Based Teaching,” University Herald, November 19, 2016.
About the InformED Report
The InformED Report is edCircuit’s short news program on education. This edition first ran on November 29, 2016. In 2026, edCircuit re-presented it with a new anchor and this full written account. Both report the stories as they stood on that date and link the original reporting, so readers can see exactly where each claim came from.
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