Finnish Pedagogy vs Taiwan's Education System
Taiwan has spent decades trying to loosen the grip of a single entrance exam on its schools, most recently through the competency-focused 108 curriculum. Finnish pedagogy arrives at similar goals from a very different starting point, especially in the primary years.
- Taiwan's basic education runs six years of elementary school, three of junior high and three of senior high, covering roughly age six to eighteen.
- Since 2019, Taiwan has been rolling out its '108 curriculum', a national curriculum built around core literacies and competencies rather than rote memorisation, aiming to shift classrooms towards critical thinking and real-world application.
- University admission has broadened beyond a single test score: alongside standardised testing, Taiwan now uses recommendation-based and portfolio-based application channels intended to ease pressure on any one exam sitting.
- Despite these reforms, Taiwan's buxiban (cram school) culture remains deeply embedded, with large numbers of secondary students attending after-school tutoring for exam preparation, mathematics and English.
- Finnish pedagogy does not rely on a parallel private tutoring system and keeps primary school low-stakes, with no equivalent of Taiwan's senior high or university entrance examinations until much later, and in a very different form.
Two paths into structured schooling
Finnish children do not begin compulsory school until age seven, and the years before that are built around play-based early childhood education rather than formal academic instruction. Primary school itself stays deliberately unhurried, with no standardised national testing until well into secondary education.
Taiwan's elementary school begins at age six and introduces structured Mandarin and mathematics instruction from the outset, with English formally added by the upper years of elementary school. As in several of its neighbours, academic expectations build steadily through the primary years, well ahead of the exam-heavy junior and senior high stages that follow.
The 108 curriculum: reform aimed at easing exam pressure
Taiwan's 108 curriculum, introduced from 2019, is explicitly framed as a move away from 'standard answers' and rote memorisation towards 'essential literacies': competencies such as critical thinking, cross-disciplinary problem solving and applying knowledge to real situations. It represents one of the more significant curriculum reforms in East Asia in recent years.
Finland's national core curriculum has been organised around a similar idea, often described as transversal competencies, for considerably longer. The two systems are, in principle, reaching for comparable goals: less rote learning, more applied thinking. Where they differ is in how much of the surrounding exam and tutoring culture has had to change alongside the curriculum documents themselves, and how many years each system has had to build classroom habits around it.
Cram school culture and the school day
The buxiban is a defining feature of Taiwanese education. Large numbers of families enrol children in after-school and weekend tutoring, particularly around junior and senior high entrance assessments, and this tutoring sector has proven resilient even as the 108 curriculum has tried to reduce reliance on a single high-stakes test. For many Taiwanese students, the school day effectively continues into the evening.
Finland's primary schools look very different day to day: comparatively short hours, light homework in the early grades, and no equivalent tutoring industry sitting alongside the state system. The Finnish assumption is that a shorter, less pressured school day is compatible with strong foundational learning, rather than a trade-off against it.
What Taiwanese schools can take from Finnish pedagogy
Taiwan's own strengths are well established, including strong performance in international assessments and, more recently, a genuine national effort to move classrooms towards competency-based teaching. Finnish pedagogy is not a rejection of that direction; it is decades of practical experience in exactly the kind of low-stakes, competency-oriented, teacher-led classroom that the 108 curriculum is asking Taiwanese teachers to build.
For schools affiliating with Finnish pedagogy, the practical focus is usually the primary years: introducing play-based learning, formative rather than ranked assessment, and greater teacher autonomy, while still preparing students for Taiwan's secondary pathways. See how Finnish pedagogy is already being applied in Taiwanese schools for examples.
Reforming a curriculum on paper is one step. Reforming the exam calendar and cram school habits built up around decades of a single entrance exam is another, and Taiwan is working through both at once.
Frequently asked questions
What is Taiwan's 108 curriculum?
The 108 curriculum, in effect since 2019, is Taiwan's national curriculum framework for twelve years of basic education. It is built around core literacies and competencies rather than fixed content to memorise, with the stated aim of moving classrooms from 'standard answers' towards critical thinking, cross-disciplinary learning and applying knowledge to real situations.
Do Taiwanese students still rely on buxiban despite the reforms?
Yes, this is well documented. Attendance at buxiban (cram schools) remains common among Taiwanese secondary students, particularly ahead of major assessments, and the tutoring sector has continued to operate at scale even as the 108 curriculum has tried to shift emphasis away from a single high-stakes exam.
How does Finnish pedagogy relate to Taiwan's move towards competency-based education?
The two share a similar philosophical direction, valuing applied thinking over rote memorisation, but they are at different stages of putting it into daily classroom practice. Finnish pedagogy offers a long-running, practical model of what a low-stakes, competency-focused primary classroom actually looks like day to day, which is useful reference material for a system still in the middle of its own reform.
Related reading
Bring Finnish pedagogy to your school
OPPI affiliates a selective cohort of schools each year for its K-5 Finnish-pedagogy programme, backed by Education Finland. Tell us about your school and our team will reach out.
Backed by Education Finland. Over 20 schools have already affiliated, including DPS, Radcliffe and Sanctus. Places in each cohort are limited.
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