Hallo,
I come from Finland (though I live in Hong Kong right now) and I can tell you this much:
Finland's educational system is rather well known for it's high level. I've wondered about that sometimes myself
(sometimes I've really questioned whether what I've been taught is really *high quality*) but so I've heard and seen on studies.
We have 9 years of elementary studies, divided in two sections. 1st level is 6 years and the second 3. School is usually started at the age of 7. English studies start at 3rd grade. We also start studies of Swedish language (a political issue in my opinion and worthy of a different thread someday) on 7th grade.
That is the first level education that is compulsory to everyone.
After that you can study in a second level institutions. You can choose to go on a vocational school that prepares you to a profession, or you can go the matricular examination way and get more general education that will aid in one's quest to continue to higher levels.
In Finland we have two university level institutions: the universities and the polytechnics (university of applied science = a more profession oriented university). From a polytechnic, by definition, you can only graduate as bachelor's however, though it is considered a higher degree than that of a university bachelor.
The basic difference, I think, between Finnish educational system and many others is that Finnish schools have a more practical approach to things. Instead of just reading stuff from books and preparing for exams, we do a lot of project-work, groupwork, and practical assignments. Especially this is a difference in the university level compared to, say, western European countries.
I found a chart that explains the Finnish system:
The route I took was from the elementary educations through matricular examination to a polytechnic, to study international business - and now I've just graduated as BBA.
I hope this explains our system a little. If you're questions, I'm more than happy to try answer.
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