Valencia region strikes schools deal with Finland, world number one for education

Finland pupils have little or no homework, do not start school until age seven, spend much of their early primary school life playing, and spend fewer hours in the classroom than almost anywhere else in Europe.

But the child-centred, highly-individual tuition, with its emphasis on teamwork and age-appropriate play and creative skills, means results are statistically the best on the planet with highly-qualified, well-adapted all-rounders stepping out of the classroom and into the adult world.

Valencian regional president Ximo Puig (PSOE) has met with Finnish education minister Sanni Grahn-Lääsönen (pictured here together) to fine-tune a deal which will allow knowledge-sharing and student teacher exchanges.

Puig, and his education minister Vicente Marzà, say they want to turn schooling round in the eastern region and many of their ideas for the future of the classroom are inspired by the Scandinavian country.

Spain's State education system has long been criticised as stale, stagnant and unproductive, churning out pupils with an excellent memory for and extensive knowledge of facts and figures, but limited critical-thinking skills, academic autonomy, life-skills, or qualifications that link closely enough to workplace needs.

The system has long been based upon the assumption that the more hours spent studying, the better a child will do in exams, which have taken priority above 'soft skills', versatility and vision for change.

On the plus side, Spain's workforce is among the most highly-qualified in Europe: it is rare for pupils not to continue to sixth form, and commonplace to go on to university – in fact, even a master's degree is now considered almost requisite for all bar menial jobs.

Yet on the down side, the education system lends itself to the top-down, limited-delegation and non-questioning culture that is holding back many Spanish companies, preventing them from expanding and offering more and increasingly-meaningful jobs.

But many regions want to change all that – widespread rejection of the current PP government's schools reform, which would encourage more of the same and even be a backward step in teachers' view, and an increasing focus on child psychology, nurturing the top-end as well as the bottom-end students, life and social skills, creativity, critical-thinking and debating, and quality over quantity is becoming more mainstream in educational philosophy.

Valencia as a region has taken tentative steps towards becoming a pioneer in this area: most schools have now axed the nine-to-five schedule with a two-hour lunch for a nine-to-two timetable with optional after-school activities to help working parents.

And last year saw a nationwide 'homework boycott' in protest over children's punishing workload.

Finland's education system represents the polar opposite of what Spain's has been accused of in the past, and the Scandinavian nation's schooling techniques match exactly what Spain wants its own to be – at least in most regions.

This means the knowledge-sharing and teacher exchange deal is a ground-breaking agreement that could speed up the changes the educational community desperately wants to see.