The story of the evolution of the finnish education system over the past two decades is inextricably linked to the development of the modern finnish economy. The rise of the comprehensive school in the 1970-1990 periods needs to be seen in the context of the development of the finnish welfare state and the national push for much greater social and economic equality. However, the less visible but equally profound changes in finland’s schools over the past two decades need to be seen in the context of the deep changes taking place in the finnish economy.
Two major events occurred in the early 1990s that triggered a significant shift in the economic development strategy promulgated by finland’s governmental and private sector leaders. The first was the initiation of the accession process that led to finland’s acceptance into the European union in 1995. With the collapse of the Soviet union (a major trading partner), Finland had no choice but to diversify its export strategy and begin to move away from its historic reliance on forest products and other traditional industries. The second and more powerful stimulus was a major economic recession in the early 1990s, set off by a collapse of the financial sector reminiscent of the banking crisis the us has recently experienced. Unemployment in Finland approached 20%; gross domestic product (gdP) declined by 13% and public debt exceeded 60% of gdP.
The government used this crisis as an opportunity to develop a new national competitiveness policy designed to support private sector innovation and focused heavily on the development of the telecommunications sector, with nosier as the central player. in a remarkably short time, Finland managed not only to dig itself out of recession but to reduce its historical reliance on its natural resources and transform its economy into one based on information and knowledge.
Investments in research and development provided the fuel for
