Li Andersson Minister of Education from Finland

I think there are few secrets that we could disclose that we have found that are very important for the Finnish education system and model the first one has been realizing that equality, inclusion and quality works hand in hand and for us it has been very important to build our education system on the foundation that we really provide equal opportunities for all children and all our students and that there are no closed doors in our education system, so if you want to go to vocational education after primary education you can continue to University if you want to and I think its also important for our young students to know that that there's always doors open equal opportunities for everybody.

The second secret is Teachers. We have invested a lot in teachers and also seen how important they are for our education system and for quality education and I think what is special for the Finnish model is their professional skills we put a lot of trust in teachers in their professional skills, professionalism we don't have no standardized test inspection we trust you to know what you're doing in the classroom because you are the experts on teaching/ pedagogics.

The third secret would be collaboration working together with a lot of stakeholders when we do education policy at a National level, teachers unions, University's, so we are also sure that what we do is based on Research so we have asked the right questions and hopefully also get right answers.

I have heard a lot also about teachers being listen to also by authorities by government and that's the collaborations but also dialogue and conversation between the teachers and students as well as this decision makers.

Yes! when we talk about trusting the system it's really based on a us trusting the teacher should have a lot of autonomy in their work so they decide on their assessments, they decide on teaching methods, they are also involved in making both local and National curricula which of course is very important for the implementation of this national curriculum and also like I've said as a Minister that the one most important stakeholders when we do lost on educational policies its the teachers union, so really working together with teachers representatives also when we decide on what's going to happen in our education system.

That's wonderful when a lot of people are afraid of unions you and you actually embrace them and bring them in, in order to make decision.

Yes because we've seen that this collaborative model of working really works very well and I think from politicy point of view its also brought the stability in a way to our education system that we all agree on the main lines of policy, we might disagree on smaller things but when it comes on the big issues of the quality, teachers, education equal opportunities we are all on the same page.

what was the trigger in the Finish moddle what made the Finish model shift towards this success.

Finland from a historical perspective I would say I would say tha the important thing was that finish decision-makers ond decision-makers understood the role and the power of education and they were brave enough to make bold decisions when it comes to education policy a hundred years ago or a little more than a hundred years ago finland was not the country it is today but it was quite a poor and Rural society that just got its independence after being under Russian Rule and Swedish rule for centuries before that and there was even a civil war within the Country just a year after the independence so from these circumstances in a hundred years we have gone to being a Welfare Society with a knowledge-based economy many times did call the happiest nation in the world and I think the one most important decision that was made was that decision-makers decided to build an education system that was common for everybody based on this idea of equal opportunities of public education system one system for all free of charge. I think that one decision has had the most impact on equality on finnish Society and in really shows the transformative power of education.

I think when we talk about education policy, it's important that policy makers address a knowledge and remember that we cannot just copy a system into another country I mean each policymaker, each country has its own challenges, its own opportunities, its own issues that is needs to address and take into consideration when we talk about the education policy so no we cant just copy a model from one place to another but at the same time i think identifying certain key factors the role of Teachers, the role of trust, equal opportunity these certain type of key factors in each country policymakers can think about how can we work around these in my country what's it mean what's the word trust mean in my education policy system or how can we raise education level of teachers here I think identifying this core elements is important.