Student assessment

In basic education, student assessment has two mutually reinforcing roles. The role of assessment is to

• to guide and encourage learning and develop pupils’ self-assessment skills (formative assessment).

• determine the extent to which the pupil has achieved the objectives set for the subjects (summative assessment).

In primary education, assessment focuses on learning, skills, work and behaviour. Formative assessment is used to guide and encourage learning and to develop self-assessment skills. Summative assessment is used to assess how well a pupil has achieved the objectives set for the different subjects.

As part of the summative assessment, the student is given a certificate at the end of the academic year. The school year assessment is carried out in grades 1 to 3 as a verbal assessment in all subjects and behaviour. In grades 4 to 9, the assessment is a numerical assessment. In primary school, the pupil is not given an actual interim assessment (‘Christmas certificate’) in the form of a certificate. Interim assessment takes the form of an assessment interview. In upper secondary school, the interim assessment is given in the form of a mid-term report in the form of a numerical assessment.

Assessment in basic education is based on the curriculum. The curriculum on assessment can be found here (availabe in Finnish).