Teachers and doctors are paid well but because both school and health care are paid for by the state and they're both on similar level of qualification (you need to have a Master's degree to be a full-time teacher in Finland so it's 5 years in uni for both jobs). They're not raking in the wages that same jobs would have in the private sector in the US. Quick google came up with an article saying that average doctor in Finland earns $3k a month vs $8k of their US counterparts, I don't know about US wages but the Finnish one sounds about right. On the other hand the same article (
http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/20...ors/?mobile=nc) fails to point out that a US doctor will probably graduate with a hundred grand student loan whereas the Finnish student would had been paid by the state to go to a university that's free for them.
And hell yes there are tests, quizzes and exams. Teachers need them to grade you and you can't skip them. Only difference is that the end-of-12-years-in-school exams, whatever you call them, are optional (you don't even need to do the last 3 years of basic academic school if you want to jump straight into a vocational college or drop out of education altogether after 9th year) BUT if you want to apply to a university you NEED to sit and pass them.
Can't argue the recess point although it does vary between schools. Mine used to have 15mins between every 45min lesson during which we all got ushered out of the school building to "get fresh air" in the yard. It was nice when you wanted to nip to the corner shop for some sweets or take a book back into the library but not so nice when it was -30C outside.