Atle Hetland<\/p>\n
We are still enjoying the school summer holidays, whether we are pupils, teachers, parents, other relatives, or community mem\u00adbers. Some may even be looking forward to the schools reopen\u00ading, as they serve as places to engage children and youth, keeping them occupied rather than having them hang around at home, playing loud music, scrolling through Facebook on their mobile phones, or asking for takeaway food from the nearest outlet. It\u2019s better that they attend classes and do some real homework. However, we should also remember that school hol\u00adidays are an integral part of the school year and our culture of learning and growing up\u2014if we are fortunate enough to be able to go to school.
\nMost of us have pleasant memories of our school holidays. It is no wonder, then, that Norwegians were quite up\u00adset at the start of this year\u2019s holidays when an influential group suggested do\u00ading away with long holidays in favour of shorter breaks and some summer class\u00ades and vacation camps. True, we can do new and different things, but we should not completely discard the old tradi\u00adtions. During long holidays, children of\u00adten do something completely different from school, reminding them that life is not only about attending school and learning but also about doing something productive and socializing in new ways.
\nBy the way, with so many out-of-school children in Pakistan, when the school buildings are empty over the summer and the teachers and pupils are free, perhaps there would be an op\u00adportunity to offer out-of-school chil\u00addren a chance to learn. I actually think that a summer vacation with some old\u00ader pupils and youngsters, and a teacher popping in for supervision, could make a whole group of children literate in a short time. We could try it; it\u2019s too late for this summer, but it could be done next summer, don\u2019t you think?
\nNow, I will move specifically to the main message of my article today: we learn best when we enjoy what we are doing, whether during school holidays or ordinary school days. We keep work\u00ading at what we like or are challenged by, whether it is old or new, and we become more proficient as we keep practising\u2014sometimes even excelling, though that isn\u2019t necessary. On the other hand, if we feel forced to learn something we don\u2019t like, or something someone has told us we are not capable of, then learning be\u00adcomes a burden and a struggle. Some\u00adtimes, I wonder why we teachers can\u00adnot understand such simple and obvious things; we know them, but we don\u2019t fol\u00adlow them. True, we shouldn\u2019t only do what is easy and enjoyable, but also make an effort and do our best with more dif\u00adficult tasks. After a while, we may even begin to enjoy what we initially disliked.
\nA few days ago, I read an article in a Pakistani newspaper about education in Finland, where Dr. Asghar Zaidi, a for\u00admer Vice Chancellor, had a lot of praise for the country\u2019s education system. The concept of enjoying learning is central to it all. Coming from Finland\u2019s neigh\u00adbouring country, Norway, and being an international educationalist myself, Dr. Zaidi inspired me to reflect more on Finland\u2019s educational success, both in terms of pupils\u2019 high achievements and their well-being at school. The philos\u00adophy of early childhood education and quite a way through the 9-year compul\u00adsory school is that scoring high and do\u00ading well academically is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that the children learn to like themselves, enjoy their school days, and care for each other. They should be con\u00adcerned about their classmates, helping them when needed and being open to receiving help themselves.
\nBefore children begin ordinary school at the age of seven, the emphasis is on learning through play, not through teach\u00ading and a top-down curriculum. In fact, they say that children should learn but not be taught, and when the time comes for them to start ordinary school, they will be curious and motivated to embark on that lifelong learning journey.
\nIn Finland, special education is used ex\u00adtensively when children need help to cope with academic subjects and social situa\u00adtions at school, with little, if any, stigma attached to it. Children move in and out of special education classes and groups, with the need for help shifting between clever pupils in certain fields and those who may generally be weaker. Again, the importance of being kind and supportive is emphasized. Furthermore, in Finland, class sizes are small, typically around twelve pupils, often with more than one teacher or adult. Finland is known for having well-educated teachers, in a pro\u00adfession that is highly respected and diffi\u00adcult to enter; I have seen reports saying that only ten percent of applicants are ad\u00admitted to teacher training.
\nIt is well known that Finland\u2019s educa\u00adtional philosophy for basic education is superb. Less known is that much of the same philosophy continues through sec\u00adondary and higher education, with an emphasis on students thriving and en\u00adjoying what they do, often combining theory and practice. Dr. Asghar Zaidi\u2019s article, which I referred to above, re\u00adminded me of the simple fact that youth and adults also learn best in pleasant, student-centred environments. More\u00adover, vocational secondary education can qualify students for higher educa\u00adtion in polytechnics and universities of applied sciences, with pathways avail\u00adable to move between traditional uni\u00adversities and more practical institutions. The phenomenology or case-study focus ties theory to practice in functional pro\u00adgrammes, avoiding making theory a sep\u00adarate, abstract area.
\nYet, in Finland, as in the rest of the world, higher education will see ma\u00adjor changes in the years and decades to come. Perhaps some of the innova\u00adtions Finland is making, even at the secondary level, will spearhead devel\u00adopments. However, I also believe that deeper changes will be necessary, even in Finland\u2019s higher education and re\u00adsearch, considering that much of what universities and colleges do will in the future be done by students indepen\u00addently or in groups, with lecturers and professors acting as advisers, organiz\u00aders, and motivators rather than teach\u00aders and examiners in the old-fashioned sense. These discussions, however, need further analysis and more arti\u00adcles, so I will leave it for now.
\nFinally, since we know that new tech\u00adnologies will bring many changes to learning situations in schools and uni\u00adversities in the near future, we must be very careful when building our new in\u00adstitutions, exams, and certification sys\u00adtems. The Finnish approach to edu\u00adcation, from pre-school through basic education to university and technical schools\u2014along with long summer hol\u00adidays filled with play and fun\u2014must be preserved in the \u2018new world of learn\u00ading\u2019. Education must be enjoyable and beneficial for both pupils and teachers, and good for society. The time is soon over when teachers sit on their high stools and dictate what learners should do and learn. The time has come for the world outside the institutions and the learners themselves to decide what to do and how to combine practical and ordinary life with advanced thinking, jobs, and lifelong learning.
\nThe writer is a senior Norwegian social scientist with experience from university, diplomacy and development aid. He can be reached at atlehetland@yahoo.com
\nCourtesy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Atle Hetland We are still enjoying the school summer holidays, whether we are pupils, teachers, parents, other relatives, or community mem\u00adbers. Some may even be looking forward to the schools reopen\u00ading, as they serve as places to engage children and youth, keeping them occupied rather than having them hang around at home, playing loud music, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[12984],"class_list":{"0":"post-422189","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-article","7":"tag-atle-hetland"},"yoast_head":"\n