Jarno Syrjala, ambassador of Finland to Saudi Arabia, attended the event to celebrate the announcement of the first Finnish school in the Kingdom. He expressed his wish to start several educational programs with the Saudi government.

“Education is one of the priority sectors, and this initiative will open the door for educational cooperation with Saudi Arabia. It is a Saudi initiative, but we are very happy to have this school in Jeddah.”

He added, “The school will be a traditional Finnish school, which will teach the history of Finland. Despite the number of Finnish families being small in Saudi Arabia, a considerable amount of students from Finland join the American schools and graduate with no knowledge about their history.

A Finnish school will familiarize the students with different topics about Finland, such as its history and the environment,” he said.

According to Syrjala, the Finnish Ministry of Education together with the Embassy of Finland in Saudi Arabia had presented a memo with suggestions to establish cooperation between the Saudi government and Finland to offer scholarship programs for Saudi students.

Elis Tarvaninen, a business director at EduCluster Finland Ltd. and director of the Finland school, spoke to Arab News about her further plans to develop Saudi education through a special teaching environment and experts.

“We cooperate with Saudi businesswomen to launch the first Finland educational program that serves all levels of society. Saudi and expatriate students as well as Finnish students will get the opportunity to study in the school, following an international educational program. High-quality and world-class education will be offered to all society segments,” she said.

She added, “Our school will serve low-class people as well as the growing expatriate community. It is a great opportunity to present such educational program in Jeddah. We hope to have several other branches around the Kingdom as well.”

Elis has a long history in the field of teaching in Finland and, according to her, she wants to present her experience to Saudi Arabia and the expatriate community here.

“We will bring other experts and organizations from Finland to support this project. Our role will be consulting and creating an educational program. We will also cooperate with local experts in Saudi Arabia,” she said.

Architect Stephan von Walzel, Middle East regional director of Vahanen, had been chosen by Finland and Saudi partners to design the school in Jeddah.

“We are specialized in designing schools and universities. It is very important to create an environment that sympathizes with both Saudi and expatriate students, without crossing the Arabic limits,” he said.

According to Stephan, there is a great difference between Saudi government schools, private schools, and international American schools and the Finnish school.

“The Arabic cultural aspect will be taken into consideration, but we will do that in a modern way. We cannot follow the typical Arabic design, as we have studied that and concluded that it doesn’t help in developing education,” he said.

Sara Al-Khariji, the project’s owner, confirmed that the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia had facilitated all requirements for her and welcomed the cooperation with Finland.

“We in Saudi Arabia witness a great leap in the field of education. Many Saudi and expatriate mothers have been talking to me and are looking forward to having a school that teaches the students how to create,” she said.

Sara said she searched two years to find the perfect educational program worldwide, and she found that education in Finland was ranked first in the world in many subjects.

“The school will be an opportunity to offer special education for the Saudi and expatriate community in Jeddah. Students will go through a new and strange educational program that they have never experienced before,” she said.

According to Sara, the school will bring experts from Finland to train Saudi teachers. “Within the first four years, Saudi teachers will be qualified to teach at our school,” she said.