I refer briefly to Finland to justify the two and a half day trip to that country. As a member of the Joint Committee on Education and Science I was delighted at the opportunity to visit Helsinki during the summer and to meet all the partners in education. We met the Minister of State, the head of the Department of Education with responsibility for policy, the head of the Education Board and his staff, teachers at different levels, teacher unions, a few parents and associated teacher services. I was fascinated by a number of things. I acknowledge the Department of Education and Science is taking an extremely keen interest in the system in Finland which I welcome. The report puts Finland at the top of the class. So many things are done differently there, as adverted to by Senator Ulick Burke. Children go to pre-school at six years of age. There is no comprehensive pre-national school network because I challenged teachers, parents and others on the board and in the department. It does not have a national network but there is pre-school which most children attend from the age of six to seven years. At seven they attend formal school and continue in the same school up to the age of 16 years. About 3% drop out. Early school leavers is not an issue there. Between the ages of 16 and 19, they divide, two thirds and one third, between academic – what we call secondary school – and vocational school. At the age of 19 they sit their first State examination, the matriculation. Up to then there are many in-house examinations. According to the information I have been given, for those who leave the system before the age of 19 there is no State examination. This is an interesting aspect, to which Senator Ulick Burke adverted.