After spending a week in Finland for Helsinki Education week and the HundrED Innovation Summit, I can confirm that the country has set a new standard for teaching and learning.
The teacher profession highly revered and has an extremely selective process where only about 10% of applicants are accepted. The school day is 9am – 2pm. There are no to few tests and teacher have to great creative license in how they teach. It is common in Primary years for teachers to follow their students as a cohort from grade 1 – 6.
Perhaps most interesting of all, Helsinki is officially considered part of the learning environment. There are kids everywhere in the city marching around in their one-piece snowsuits. Teachers are required to take students outside regularly. As you can imagine this gave me many ideas to bring back to GS.
As many of you know the Bio Bus was selected to attend The HundrEd Innovation Summit as one of the top 100 Education Innovations in the world. I am happy to report that not only was Green School very well received, but Bio Bus won Student Ambassador “Innovation of the Year”. There were only two awards given out during the summit!
There was every type of innovation imaginable from the slickest technology coming out of the Silicon Valley to basement maker spaces. Alongside the innovators, there were thousands that attended the events. The Indonesian Embassy of Finland was personally invited and I was able to meet with the officials. Overall there were many proud moments for Indonesia, Green School and Bio Bus.
Let’s keep pushing the boundaries of education we are helping change the world!
By: Kyle King, Head of High School and Co-Founder Bio Bus
