International Exhibition and Forum for Education 2013 — Why Finland?

Finland, a small country in the northern Europe, is known for being one of the most developed countries in the world. Together with our neighbors Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland we form a block called the Nordic Countries.
The Nordic countries are today looked at as the societies that are socially stable, innovative and forerunners in most aspects, when compared with the rest of the world. Finland is usually among the best three countries in the world in several different international studies or comparisons, with the other Nordic countries taking the other places around us. The fact that we have been able to build such a stable and forward-looking society, that we have today, is not something that happened overnight and accidentally.
As we are a nation with small population in a big world with tough competition, we have to be able to constantly develop ourselves as citizens and as a society.
Therefore we highly value planning, flexibility and innovation. This is something that we have to do in order to be able to stay among the best countries in the world. It is not an easy task to do, but we strongly believe in our capacity to be successful in the future too. One of the reasons why we believe in ourselves, in such a strong way, is that we see that we have been able to create a good base for future success through our education system. The education system has the purpose to produce citizens that are able to take Finnish nation forward.
As the International Exhibition & Forum for Education (IEFE 2013) is due to happen now it is good to open up our strengths for the reader. Finland has been invited to take part in the IEFE 2013 as the Official Guest Country and this article should therefore be seen as a short introduction to the question “Why Finland?”
Finland is usually among the top countries in the world in different international studies and comparisons. One of our key success areas has been education. In the international studies regarding education, we are seen as, more or less, the best country in the world. This is something that has been a bit surprising for us, as the focus in creating the education system that we have today was not to become the best in the world.
The focus was to create a system that serves our nation in the best way. But now that we are seen as the best in the world, there is of course a strong interest toward us and our know-how. We have therefore decided that we want to share our knowledge with the rest of the world. That is why we are happy and proud to be the Official Guest Country at IEFE 2013.
Coming back to the question of Why Finland, I would like to here open up the key success factors that have enabled Finland to become the “Education Superpower” that it is today.
The first thing that I have to mention is the fact that we indeed value education – we believe in it and that it gives us benefits, as individual citizens and as a nation. A study made in Finland shows that 75 percent of Finns see that the creation of our comprehensive school system is a crucial foundation for our national wellbeing today. From this foundational base value we can go deeper into the analysis in opening up our success story.
As we believe in education, and especially in the idea of educational equity through equal access to education, we have created a system without closed ends. It does not matter if one starts vocational studies, as the person is still able to access the higher education system after completing a vocational degree. This gives every citizen the possibility to constantly improve themselves through continuation education.
This is a benefits the whole society, as people with specific skills from the working life are able to bring their expertise into the academic world – and also vice versa. This way our society benefits, as the freedom of mobility within the education system ensures that our citizens are able to improve themselves and thus create more social capital into the society. A society with high level social capital is something that we need and want in order to be and stay competitive in today’s world. That is why we believe so strongly in the value of education.
The second thing that we see as success factor is autonomy and empowerment.
This is important in both school district level and when it comes to the individual teachers. Centralized steering takes place by means of objectives specified in legislation and by means of the national core curriculum. Local authorities are responsible for organizing and implementing education and the national objectives. Beyond that, schools and teachers have wide autonomy in how they provide instruction and what its contents are.
Our teachers are also having a great deal of autonomy. Since the teaching profession is very popular in Finland, universities can select the most motivated and talented applicants. Teachers are highly respected professionals, work independently and they enjoy professional autonomy. On top of that, all teachers are required to have a Master’s degree, including pedagogical studies and teaching practice. This way we create a “system of trust.”
In order to secure a strong support for development measures, education authorities work in close cooperation with teachers’ organizations and associations and with school leadership organizations. We need to be cooperative, in order to ensure that the system is up to date and produces the best possible results. International comparisons show that our learning outcomes are achieved with average amount of financial investment into the system. Cooperation and mutual understanding between the different levels in the system is therefore crucial.
These are all topics that Finnish educational professionals will be opening up more deeply at the Forum in IEFE 2013. We truly believe that our experience is something that can be shared with the rest of the world and in this case especially with the Saudi Arabian and other GCC country colleagues participating at the Forum in IEFE 2013.
As was stated above, we Finns strongly believe in cooperation. This is something that I want to emphasize in the Saudi -Finnish cooperation in the field of education too. Our background and experience in emphasizing cooperation when creating a highly successful society and effective education system is something that we do not want to push aside. Finns see that the best results are created through trust, cooperation and communication. This is what we do in Finland. Therefore is important to understand that we want to do the same thing when cooperating with Saudis. Only by creating a strong and true partnership based on the above-mentioned three factors can we create something new. We want share our know-how in the field of education, but we cannot, and do not want to dictate or just copy something from Finland and bring it to Saudi Arabia.
We do not see that it would be fruitful. Instead we want to work closely with our Saudi Arabian partners and colleagues and take the best from Finland and then take the best from Saudi Arabia to create something new and such that will be for the benefit of Saudi Arabia. We want to create something new through co-creation. That is why we are very proud and happy that we have been invited to the event as the Official Guest Country. We see that the event will deepen our understanding of each other and act as a base for future cooperation through co-creation.
— The writer is the Ambassador of Finland to Saudi Arabia.