Ladies and gentlemen,

On behalf of the Finnish government I would like to warmly welcome all of you to Finland and especially to my home town of Helsinki. I am pleased to see such a large audience of educationalists and policy-makers here today. As you know, this Schooling for Tomorrow -conference is part of a major project coordinated by the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI).  CERI has recently widened international participation in the project and taken new partners, like Finland. I am glad that we have been offered this possibility and I am convinced that international cooperation will generate new ways of tackling the changes that education is facing.

Our mood in opening this conference today is very much different from the one we expected only a week ago.  A deep sorrow brought Finland to a halt last Tuesday.  The shocking and incomprehensible tragedy in Kauhajoki left a deep scar in every Finn's sense of security.  Our day-to-day life, which we thought so safe and secure, was totally upset.

Today it is still too early to seek answers to the question: Why?  The Government lends all its support to Kauhajoki and the neighbouring areas in providing help in the crisis.

In addition to Kauhajoki,  after-care is being carried on in every school and home in Finland.  The whole Finnish school community is in need of support.  We must not leave the schools alone in this.

Over the past days, we have had to reflect on the quality of life of our young people.  We have to rethink what care and support our school system — teachers, psychologists, and other pupil welfare — could provide better.  The school community we thought so safe has become the victim, the scene of a mindless act of violence, through behaviour models copied from the internet. The current debate certainly goes beyond the confines of the school: to the responsibility of adults for children and young people; to the efficacy of the actions of authorities and our legislation; and to the question: Do we listen to our fellow beings any more?   As yet, we are trying to recover from the shock and to learn from it.
 

Dear guests,

Schools need to adapt to the changing society. These changes affect children's and young people's well-being and are reflected in schools. Learning environments and communities outside the school are becoming more diverse. Parenting resources are consumed by competition and by insecurity in working life. Family structures are changing in most countries. All these changes are directly felt in schools and we should be prepared to face the changes beginning from early childhood education. Children and young people still need adults support in growing up, both at home and in schools. But it is us parents who have the strongest influence in our childrens lives. We need to give our children time.    

When society changes, the school has to change too. And the more we know of that change, the better we are prepared. In a few moments you will hear more about megatrends and big issues in the context of education in Henno Theisen's and David Instance's presentation.

It has been shown that education decision-making is predominantly short-term, although education and learning are crucial for long-term futures. Holistic thinking is essential in education policy as well as in practice. Education systems should be developed overall to meet global challenges and respond to changes in occupational and demographic structures. By fostering creativity and a wide range of talent and innovativeness in our school systems we can guarantee versatile knowledge and know-how in the future.

The Finnish government emphasizes creativity, competence and a high standard of education in its education policy. In order to strengthen the knowledge base, we are reforming education and training and increasing the research and development resources. We are also enhancing the utilisation of research results in the economy and in society. We are working to increase cross-sectional cooperation in research and development. It is important to strengthen the innovation base and improve the quality of all levels international cooperation.

Internationalism of the education system and international research cooperation are keys for success in global competition.

The school system needs to bolster everyone’s capacity for learning. To guarantee that in Finland, we are currently working to enhance the quality of basic education, which is unquestionably the basis of all education. Although Finnish basic education has been a success story, it is important to concentrate on guaranteeing its future success.

We have already decided to allocate more resources into basic education. Our goal for the coming years is to reduce group sizes, to strengthen special needs teaching, guidance counselling and student welfare and to invest in schools clubs. Special needs education, like any other form of support, should be started as early as possible. Educational and vocational guidance and prevention of dropout in basic education are also important government policy lines. Preventing the escalation of problems relating to learning is cost-effective but most of all, it makes for humane education policy.

Besides basic education, the quality of higher education is strong on our government's agenda. We have begun a history university reform. The goal is to increase world-class expertise and create higher education entities that are regionally stronger and more effective in terms of knowledge. The mobility of students, teachers and other experts should be a natural feature of cooperation in the field of education. Openness and the sharing of good practices, as well as opportunities for students, teachers and researchers to establish international contacts will enhance our work for better education. 

It is important to support lifelong learning in order to encourage the adult population to maintain and develop their knowledge. To ensure this in Finland we are currently carrying out a comprehensive reform of adult education. We are also working to ensure resources for liberal adult education and developing educational opportunities for immigrants and people at risk of exclusion. Through these measures we want to make sure that everyone has the possibility to develop professionally and that everyone has access to education. This is impossible without highly competent teaching staff. We also need measures to ensure access to competent and knowledgeable teachers. Teachers' working conditions need to be improved and opportunities for systematic upgrading of their competencies need to be guaranteed. In Finland we already have too many examples of teachers who have left teaching profession and chosen another career. I believe this is another common challenge we have and a key element on our way to a better school.
 

Ladies and gentlemen,

The strategic key areas in Finnish education policy are quality, efficiency, equity and internationalisation. All these essential elements are common objectives for most of the countries you represent and are easiest to develop in cooperation. As I said earlier, education systems need to be developed so that they meet global challenges and respond to changes in occupational structures and in society at large.

I hope this conference will provide you plenty of opportunities for productive dialogue. I also hope it enhances your vision of tomorrow's schooling and education policy. Questions like what we would like schooling to be in the future and how we can get there we never ask too often.  I hope you all have an interesting day and pleasant stay in Finland.