Why do students from South Korea and Finland have so good results?

[Helsinkian]

It might be politically incorrect to say nowadays, but cultural homogeneity does play a part in the success.

Finland and Sweden are very similar societies, but until very recently a major difference has been the fact that Sweden has had a substantially larger immigrant population. While Finland has been number 1 in education comparisons among European countries, Sweden's results have been abysmal by comparison. With the numbers of immigrants now rising rapidly in Finland as well, I am certain that our results will go down too.

When part of the students in the class have difficulty speaking the common language, they aren't going to excel at tests.

Not saying it's the only issue, though. Respect for the teacher's profession (and the high academic qualifications required of teachers) and the fact that almost everyone goes to a public school matter as well. The phenomenon of wealthy parents sending their children to private schools has been basically non-existent here.