Which country currently has the best education in the world?

Jake Way

This is an interesting question to answer, because some of the top performing world education systems can't be more different from one another. East Asia and Scandinavia rank the highest. I'm going to answer this by giving a quick epithet about a high performing American system at the local level, and then talk about Finland and South Korea. 

I believe there exist local education systems in the United States that can compete with the best globally. Compared with the rest of the world the American education system is very decentralized and allows for some incredibly effective education systems at the local level. Unfortunately, this cannot be said of the whole American education system. 

An example of a great local education system that is very competitive with the rest of the world would be that of Palo Alto, California. Here, STEM courses are highly valued. Education is rigorous, competitive but also very stressful. Students that would be at the top of their class in other places in the country might only be considered mediocre in Palo Alto. 

Palo Alto is much different than the education system of say, Denmark. Denmark has a world class education system but its society doesn't value individual achievement as highly as Americans do so there are fewer opportunities for star students for the sake of moving the whole group along. This shows that there is and always will be pros and cons amongst all education systems. 

South Korea, according to Pearson has the best education system in the world. This is a remarkable achievement because after the Korean War, 78% of Koreans were illiterate. The Korean government insists on equal access to education for all, a teacher is a highly coveted career (only 5% of applicants will be accepted into the elementary school teaching program) and having a good education is very consequential to your social status. Heck, even your parents are judged by their peers when you perform poorly in school. South Korea continuously searches for ways to be efficient with education dollars. While it invests much more in teachers, it expects these teachers to teach larger classes. The first pushing costs up, the latter pushing costs down. With South Korea, intense government and public interest in Education, plus an incredible work ethic by students tangled with the social costs of performing poorly, is a recipe for this: 

South Korea vs. United States 2009 PISA Results (From NCEE)

Unfortunately, the cost of doubling the performance of that of American counterparts is an immensely stressful environment that (it is argued) stifles out of the box thinking and creates high rates of teen suicide. Students study night and day in Korea in their pursuit of that perfect test score. After they finish school many turn up in one of the many after school academies, or "Hagwons," where they will study well into the wee hours of the night. This high performance comes at a cost. 

Now let's talk about Finland that is home to another top performing education system. Finland is another example of a nation that once fared poorly with the rest of the world but now is ahead of the pack after effective reforms. It couldn't be any more different from South Korea, since it has eliminated standardized tests and elementary education mandates lots of free time to build social skills. 

Finnish elementary school kids working on a project. 

In Finland, all teachers complete 3 years of graduate level preparation, paid for by the government. Teacher education was a focus in the 1970s and overhauled making it longer and making it free. This investment of time and money worked. 

With this is an effective balance between centralization and decentralization. While there is a common core, it consists of 10 or so pages of guidance for teachers who then collectively develop curriculum and assessments. Before the common core overhaul, teachers were workout out of 700 page documents that commanded curriculum to the t. 

As with other high performing education systems, Finland provides ample time for teacher collaboration with weekly meetings and continued professional development for education professionals. 

With the South Korea and Finland examples, as well as some others I haven't discussed, high performing education systems have the following in common: 

-The country puts a high value on education, with noticeable differences with how education is talked about in daily conversation, on the news and amongst students themselves. 
-The country values teachers highly, and pays them accordingly.
-High performing education systems have high standards. 
-Education and other public policy are aligned and complement each other.
-High performing systems value equality and universal access. 
-Frequent teacher feedback

What they don't have, or what doesn't matter:

They don't use conventional wisdom, and waste money on moot issues like:
-Small class sizes (doesn't matter)
-Expenditure per pupil (doesn't matter)
-Teacher certification (doesn't matter)
-% teachers with advanced degrees (doesn't matter)

They don't have:
-Teachers that make only $25,000 per year and have student loans. 
-Public debate over issues like, whether or not to put a sticker saying evolution is just a theory on the science textbook.
-Common core that doesn't allow for teacher input.

Thanks for reading! 

This was written by someone outside of the education profession. I'd appreciate if professionals in education can chime in on my South Korea and Finland anecdotes and my does have/does not haves in my conclusion.