ETJ 013: January Newsletter - Part 1/2
New President of Finland & The Minister of Education at Educa 2024
The largest democratic process of Finland, the Presidential Elections, just culminated in Alexander Stubb being elected as our new president to take office on March 1, 2024. This edition of the Newsletter will specifically highlight selected comments from the final presidential debate with all nine candidates that was held at the Educa Fair in Helsinki on January 27 of 2024. The debate and entire presidential election process was a strong testimony to how incredibly educated and civilized this democratic process is in Finland.
I have to first thank Alexander, but also your entire campaign team! This has been a fair fight, there has been no smear campaigning. In fact, Finnish democracy is based on this, that we have voluntary people, who do great campaigns. Let's send warm greetings to Alex's team, to their camp.
- Pekka Haavisto, Presidential Candidate 2024
After a second round between the two finalists and upon learning that he had received 51.6% of the votes, about 100 000 votes more than his rival, our new President elect visited his co-finalist Pekka Haavisto's camp and was received with the comment above. Thanking his rival, the new President elect replied:
Last Thursday, after our 56th election debate, we agreed with Pekka that whoever comes first to the finish line, comes first to the runner-up's campaign camp. And this we did. I'd like to thank you Pekka personally for the journey that we've gone through together. Back then, behind the screen, we shook hands and I think we hugged a little too. This would have been quite a lot harder journey for both of us, if we weren't good friends, if we didn't respect each other. You are one of the nicest people I have ever met.
- Alexander Stubb, Presidential Candidate 2024
Memorable comments and opinions were indeed given by most of the candidates throughout the highly respectful campaigning the last few months. Also quite emotional ones about the candidates' own school times were heard during the Educa Fair, showcasing the crucial importance of strong values and a lifelong-learning mentality, much beyond school, in order to succeed in life.
In school, I was really bad. I'm dyslexic and I had an average of six [out of 10]. I missed a year twice and I didn't understand how I could have been born this stupid. And that gave me the strength in the end to show everyone that I'm not as stupid as they think there in school.
- Harri Harkimo, Presidential Candidate 2024
It probably always starts with an open and curious mind. I was never terribly good at school either. But at University, I got an academy awakening that took me quite a long way forward. And if I can throw out a thought, it comes from Adam Grant's book 'Think Again'... meaning that when you're wrong, you've actually learnt something...
- Alexander Stubb, Presidential Candidate 2024
Asked about what things you need to know in order to succeed in the world, Olli Rehn replied:
I still believe that the power of a small nation lies in culture and education. It's not a cliché. It's scientifically proven to be true. And when you look at Finland's transformation, especially after the Second World War, we have changed from a developing country to a welfare society largely precisely because education has expanded in Finland. First, the vocational schools, which are often forgotten, the avalanche of vocational schools in the 50s and 60s, which made it possible to learn from the vast majority of working class and rural children and young people... - I'm of the primary school 'guinea pigs", so not only a 'North Karelia project', but a primary school 'guinea pig' - so also the primary school from the 70s expanded the possibilities of competence and education. So yes, I'd say that a very decisive factor in the nation's success is that we take care of the foundation of our competence and education, and here the teacher is the starting point, and the teacher does extremely valuable, important work.
- Olli Rehn, Presidential Candidate 2024
The moderator, Anna-Stina Nykänen from Helsingin Sanomat, succeeded very well in challenging the still highly appraised PISA studies, by asking the candidates if they at all are an essential measurement system to follow regarding how countries are compared and at all an important thing nowadays.
Well, actually today I just met representatives of Estonian TV and I asked a journalist 'what is Estonia's secret?' and they said it's the teacher's authority and teachers' freedom to act, which maybe is still preserved in Estonia or is stronger than in Finland, but I've thought about my own experiences of my school days that have influenced me. First of all, our school taught expression skills. Today it would be rhetoric or something else. It was an optional subject, but considering the success of Finland, we still have that ability to express ourselves. To express our thoughts is perhaps a bit more limited than in our neighboring country Sweden, how you know how to market yourself there in Sweden and make Sweden known. Here we have a lot to learn and I don't think that all these things are thought about in the PISA studies. Perhaps another similar experience from that time in school is how important schools' hobby clubs are. I've probably been in 10 or 15 [afternoon] clubs, a nature club, a photography club and an arts club and a drama club, and that added a lot on top of my school education. Then perhaps the last thing that has remained in my mind from school was the teachers' personalities. Inevitably you don't think about what subject someone taught, but that they were absolutely great people, who actually taught life, taught how to look forward in life in a certain way, taught how to get out of difficult situations, supported in a difficult moment and the overall personality of the teachers left a strong impression on me.
- Pekka Haavisto, Presidential Candidate 2024
Of course, it's important to emphasize that PISA doesn't measure everything that is done in schools. It doesn't measure much that is related to the well-being of students, pupils, children and young people. It doesn't measure the broad educational task that our teachers have. But they do measure quite important things, because they specifically measure a lot of subjects that are related to basic skills. Reading skills, counting, in other words the foundation upon which all other learning is based. And in my opinion, more essential than the ranking among countries, which always involves certain uncertainties due to our systems and societies being different, it's essential how we ourselves develop. That is, what the PISA results tell about Finland and the development within Finland over the years. And in that, the message that worries the most is precisely related to this polarization, that is the differentiation of learning results, to the fact that we have a growing number of poorly performing children in our schools. And this is clearly the biggest national problem that we should address.
Then, regarding Pekka's comment about Estonia. In fact, Estonia has taken quite a lot of the model from Finland when it comes to teachers' autonomy and teachers' training. But one factor that clearly sets Estonia apart from Finland at the moment is that there are still terribly pro-education attitudes there. And this is another thing that I would argue has changed in Finland, and where we should work at the level of society as a whole, and where I see that the president of the republic in particular can play a very central role in highlighting the importance of civilization and education.
- Li Andersson, Presidential Candidate 2024 (Education Minister 2019-2023)
The moderator continued with the following statement and question:
"It is true that our faith in the good that education brings has eroded. Our faith in science and research and also in the media, quality media, has eroded, that where the right information comes from, it is questioned all the time. So what kind of threat do you see this as?"
It's a threat to democracy. Because if we don't have the same understanding of what is fact and what is fiction, then you can't have a democratic conversation or discourse in a democracy... Democracy was built in the 16th century, 17th century, 18th century on this "system two" [slower kind of thinking], where the system had to be slow, and information was born one way or another. But now we live in the "system one" world, where politicians previously had to react to something with a three-month delay, then a three-week delay, then a three-day delay....
We need to somehow adopt the current communication system to work in this democracy, because currently that communication happens too fast. And I'll add one more point, which is perhaps the biggest concern for me when we think about digital democracy or digital dictatorship. It's the algorithms, because algorithms practically limit our own autonomy to think. And if we don't find a solution for this, then democracy will continue to be challenging.
- Alexander Stubb, Presidential Candidate 2024
I think ... that today we can all be producers of information and become a media outlet for example on TikTok, Insta and Facebook, and this responsibility for producing information has not been transferred to these producers. If you think about the press, there is a certain responsibility for defamation and a certain responsibility for spreading the right information. And this responsibility in social media doesn't exist at all. And here we have an absolutely huge educational task, what does it mean when young people and young adults are producers of information and can say what they want in these media. Algorithms, which Alexander referred to here, are of great importance, what kind of information the algorithms support. But we also need legislation that regulates this. Now let's think about this bullying culture that has come to social media. We can't continue in this way, that we have social media, where you can freely publish videos, humiliation videos, for example, of other children and so on. This has gotten out of hand and we need regulation also here.
- Pekka Haavisto, Presidential Candidate 2024
To be continued in part 2/2.
Published by Joni AlWindi
The EdTech Journeys Newsletter is a monthly compilation of events, columns, podcasts and stories highlighted at the EdTech Journeys platform. Feel free to visit edtechjourneys.substack.com for more information.