, 2019 Studies

20192202119

Economic Studies Series:

Strategic Strategic September Building a knowledge based economy starts from the school: What can learn from the Finnish experience?

Author: Ghada Abdulla Abstract

Like Bahrain, Finland was a resource dependent economy with a mediocre educational system in the 1980s. In just a couple of decades Finland was able to transform its educational system and become a global leader in education. This rapid improvement in education coincided with accelerating economic growth and an impressive transformation from an agrarian economy into a modern industrial knowledge based economy. The Finnish experience provides many lessons for Bahrain, as it shows how education and knowledge production can spearhead economic growth. Bahrain realizes that the shift to a knowledge based economy is the only way to achieve sustainable economic growth. This paper discusses how simple educational reforms can help Bahrain move closer to becoming a knowledge based economy through lessons learned from the Finnish experience.

Ghada Abdulla ([email protected]) is an analyst at the Bahrain Center for Strategic, International and

Energy Studies. The author would like to thank Mr. Pasi Sahlberg for his helpful comments regarding the paper. Views expressed in this study are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the Bahrain Center for Strategic, International and Energy’s point-of-view.

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Building a knowledge based economy starts from the school: What can Bahrain learn from the Finnish experience?

1. Introduction

Bahrain is focusing on shifting from a hydrocarbon economy to a knowledge based economy (The Economic Vision 2030 for Bahrain, 2008), which is reflected in the Bahrain Vision 2030. A primary goal is to transform the economy by increasing productivity and innovation. It identifies education as the key component to achieving this goal: “Because education is essential for making this Vision a reality, we need to develop an education system that provides every citizen with educational opportunities appropriate to their individual needs, aspirations and abilities. Education and training need to be relevant to the requirements of Bahrain and its economy, delivered to the highest possible quality standards, and accessible based on ability and merit” (The Economic Vision 2030 for Bahrain, 2008).

For most countries, a knowledge economy structure is the most likely source of sustainable development (Harris, 2003), as technological progress has been the most important driver of economic advancement over the course of the last three centuries (Islam, 1995). Powell and Snellman (2004) define the knowledge economy as: “production and services based on knowledge-intensive activities that contribute to an accelerated pace of technical and scientific advance”. They also identify intellectual capabilities rather than physical inputs or natural resources as the main component in a knowledge economy. Similarly, according to the OECD: “The knowledge based economy is an expression coined to describe trends in advanced economies towards greater dependence on knowledge, information and high skill levels, and the increasing need for ready access to all of these by the business and public sectors” (OECD, 2005a). The World has identified four pillars that forms the base of the knowledge economy: Economic incentive and institutional regime, Innovation and technological adoption, Education and Training, and ICT infrastructure (, 2013).

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This paper discusses how Bahrain can increase its innovation level and move closer to becoming a knowledge-based economy through lessons learned from the Finnish experience in educational reform. Finland is chosen because, like Bahrain, Finland was a resource-dependent economy with a sub-elite educational system in the 1980s (Darling- Hammond, 2009). In just a couple of decades Finland was able to transform its educational system and become a global leader in education (Salhberg, 2014). This rapid improvement in education coincided with an accelerating economic growth and a remarkable transformation from an agrarian economy into a modern industrial knowledge-based economy (Schienstock, 2007). The Finnish experience is highly instructive as it shows how education and knowledge production can spearhead economic growth.

2. Overview of the Economy

This section describes the economies of Bahrain and Finland. The discussion below shows that the today is similar to the in the 1980s. After the economic and educational reforms that were undertaken in the 1990s, Finland’s economy today is what Bahrain aspires to become.

2.1. Bahrain

Bahrain is a small country with a total land area of 760km2 and a population of 1.5 million (World Fact Book, 2019). Bahrain has a GDP of 33 billion USD (Information and eGovernment Authority (IGA), 2017), and a GDP per capita of $24,000 (World Bank, 2017). Natural resources play an important role in the Bahrain economy: in 2017 the mining sector, which includes crude oil, , and quarrying, constituted 18% of GDP (IGA, 2017).

Bahrain was one of the earliest countries in the (GCC) to focus on diversifying its economy away from hydrocarbons. In the 1970’s Bahrain established itself as a regional financial center (Gerakis, 1983). Today, the second largest contributor to GDP after mining is financial services which constitutes 17% of GDP. The third largest sector is the manufacturing sector (15%) – which is

4 dominated by aluminum related products – followed by transport and communications (7.3%) and construction (7.0%) (IGA, 2017). Even though Bahrain was able to reduce the share of mining in GDP from 28% in 2005 to 18% in 2017, the economy remains dependent upon natural resources (Neumann et al., 2018).

The government has become the main driver of economic activity in Bahrain, as oil revenues accrue to the state (Kotilaine, 2018). The share of oil and gas revenues in the government budget in 2017 was 76% (Ministry of Finance, 2017). One of the main ways used to redistribute oil revenues is through public sector employment: approximately 35% of employed Bahrainis work in the public sector (IGA, 2017). The private sector’s contribution to the economy remains limited (Kotilaine, 2018), resulting in a heavy dependence on imports. These imports are financed through exports which are dominated by hydrocarbons and resource-based manufactures, such as petrochemicals and aluminum. In 2018 oil exports constituted around 63% of the total goods exported in Bahrain (CBB, 2019).

The government of Bahrain realizes that this model of economic growth is unsustainable, as the future of oil prices is uncertain (Callen et al., 2014), and oil reserves are finite and therefore will be depleted eventually (Shafiee &Topal, 2009). Bahrain Vision 2030 was launched in 2008, with the goal of diversifying the economy and empowering the private sector to become the main driver of growth (The Economic Vision 2030 for Bahrain, 2008). The government hopes to effect a transformation into a knowledge-based economy.

2.2. Finland

Like Bahrain, Finland has a small population of 5.5 million (World Fact Book, 2019), and a high GDP per capita. Finland’s GDP per capita in 2017 was $46,000 (World Bank, 2017). Finland is a highly diversified and industrialized country, and consistently ranks highly in economic indicators, such as economic competitiveness, good governance, transparency, technological advancement, and innovation (see section 3 below). Finland ranks eighth in the Economic Complexity Index, which measures the knowledge intensity of an economy by gauging the knowledge intensity of the products it exports (OEC, 2019). 5

Like Bahrain, Finland’s economy was highly dependent on natural resources and imported technologies. In the 1960s, around two thirds of Finland export revenues came from its most important resource: forest and timber (Dahlman et. al, 2006). In 1988, wood constituted 41% of Finnish exports (World Bank, 2019). In the early 1990s Finland experienced a severe economic crisis (Honkapohja & Koskela, 1999), with unemployment levels reaching 17% in 1995 (World Bank, 2019) and debt levels rising from 10% of GDP in 1990 to 58% in 1994 (World Bank, 2019). Finland responded to this crisis by diversifying away from the forest-industry and investing in innovation and high technology industries such as mobile communication (Dahlman et. al, 2006). Finland started focusing its production, exports and R&D on knowledge-intensive goods and services.

Rather than direct in research and development (R&D) by the government, the government focused on encouraging private sector innovation and reciprocal collaboration between the private and public sector (Van Beers et al., 2008). Finnish universities became closely connected to research and development in the private sector (Dahlman et. al, 2006). The privatization of public organizations accelerated (Dahlman et. al, 2006). At the same time education policies were introduced in the 1990s that focused on improving mathematics, science and technology and in encouraging creative thinking and problem solving (Sahlberg, 2014). As a result, the economy grew rapidly driven mainly by the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) sector (Dahlman et. al, 2006). The share of manufacturing sector started to increase and the production of high-tech products and electronics accelerated. The share of exports in GDP increased from 21% in 1991 to 36% in 1995 and to 42% in 2000 (World Bank, 2019).

Finland’s policy of focusing on knowledge production through education and innovation as the main means to recover from the economic depression was highly successful (Sahlberg, 2014). The experience of Finland shows that a small country which with a natural resource based economy is able to become a leader in innovation and a successful knowledge economy.

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3. Comparing Bahrain and Finland’s Performance in Knowledge Economy Indicators

Section 2.2 described how Finland was able to achieve remarkable economic growth through focusing on knowledge production. This phenomenon is universal throughout the world as economic development and knowledge are closely related (Nelson, 1996). New ideas not only lead to new products and methods of production but also increase the stock of knowledge in a country and its ability to produce further new ideas (Smith et al., 2005)). By studying 19 European cities, Lever (2002) finds a significant relationship between access to knowledge and economic change. Similarly, empirical results from shows that knowledge capital contributed significantly to regional economic growth in China, and that R&D spillovers are large (Kuo and Yang, 2008). This section compares Bahrain and Finland in knowledge economy indicators and shows that Bahrain is lagging behind in these indicator. Consequently, there is large potential for growth in Bahrain by improving education and encouraging innovation.

Figure 3.1: Research and Development expenditure as a % of GDP, 2014

Bahrain 0.1

Finland 3.2

Middle East and North Africa (2012) 0.9

OECD 2.4

World 2.1

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5

Source: World Bank/UNESCO

The Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) by the World Bank is a broad measure of the preparedness of a country for the knowledge economy. The KEI measures performance based on 12 variables

7 corresponding to four knowledge economy pillars: economic and institutional regime, education and skill of the population, information infrastructure, and the innovation system. According to the latest available KEI, in 2012 Finland ranked second in the world after while Bahrain ranked 43rd. Furthermore, the KEI confirms the strong correlation between the knowledge and development as countries with higher KEI values tend to have higher levels of economic development, and vice versa. Similarly, econometric tests show that a higher level of knowledge accumulation measured by the KEI leads to higher future growth (World Bank, 2008).

Sustained in R&D is an essential foundation for encouraging innovation and building a knowledge based economy. R&D expenditure and the number of researchers in R&D are the key inputs to innovation. Figure 3.1 shows the share of R&D expenditures in Bahrain compared to Finland and other regions in the world. As can be seen Bahrain spent only 0.1% of GDP on R&D, and this figure is very low compared to the MENA region (0.9%) and the world average (2.1%). On the other hand, Finland’s expenditure on R&D (3.2%) is very high it exceeds the expenditure in the highest region in the world: North America (2.7%).

Similarly figure 3.2 shows that Bahrain is lagging behind in the number of researchers in R&D per million people. In 2014 – which is the most recent year of data available – Bahrain only had 369 researchers per million, which is again lower than the world average. In contrast, Finland had more than 7,000 researchers per million, which significantly exceeds the world average of 1,473 researchers.

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Figure 3.2: Researchers in R&D per million, 2014

Bahrain 369

Finland 7,011

OECD 3,977

World (2015) 1,473

- 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000 8,000

Source: World Bank/UNESCO

To measure the innovation performance of a country, the number of scientific and technical publications and patents are often used (although these measures are imperfect, they do provide good proxies for the level of innovation in a country; Watanabe et al, 2001). Figure 3.3 shows the number of scientific and technical journal articles per million published in Bahrain, Finland and the different regions in the world. Again, we find that Finland is a leader in the publication of scientific and technical journal articles. In 2016, the difference between Finland and the highest region, North America, was large: Finland had more than 1,900 papers published per million, while North America had around 1,300. In contrast, Bahrain had 148 publications per million in 2016, which is lower than the MENA region (224) and the World average (308).

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Figure 3.3: Scientific and technical journal articles per million, 2016

Bahrain 148 Finland 1,919 World 308 Sub-Saharan Africa 23 North America 1,297 Middle East & North Africa 224 Latin America & Caribbean 151 Europe & Central Asia 832 East Asia & Pacific 317

0 200 400 600 800 1,000 1,200 1,400 1,600 1,800 2,000

Source: World Bank/ UNESCO

Figure 3.4: Total patent applications by applicant’s origin per million, 2017

World 426

Finland 2,298

Bahrain 36

0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500

Source: WIPO

Figure 3.4 shows the total patent applications by applicant’s origin per million for Bahrain, Finland and the World. The difference between the three is considerable: in 2017, there were 36 patent applications per million by Bahrainis, while the world average was 426. In contrast, Finland is a global leader in patent applications, with 2,300 patent applications per million in 2017.

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Table 3.1: Bahrain and Finland’s rankings in selected knowledge economy indicators, 2018

Source: WEF Global Competitiveness Report, 2018

To put the above discussion into a broader perspective, and to compare the performance of Bahrain and Finland to the other countries in the world, Table 3.1 compares the ranks of Bahrain and Finland out of 140 countries in a selected number of knowledge economy indicators from the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Competiveness Report 2018. Finland is ranked in the top across all indices. Bahrain performs relatively well ranking in skills, extent of staff training, quality of vocational training, skills set of graduates, ease of finding skilled employees, school life expectancy and critical thinking in teaching.

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However, Bahrain performs less favorably in innovation indicators such as innovation capability, scientific publications, R&D expenditures, and quality of research institutions.

The data discussed in this section shows that Bahrain has considerable room for improvement in knowledge economy indicators, while Finland has already achieved the status of top performer. Bahrain should consider policy changes that improve levels of skills and innovation. The next sections discuss what Finland has done to achieve such high performance and draws lessons for Bahrain.

4. What has Finland done?

The knowledge economy revolves around gathering, processing, utilizing and producing knowledge. The educational system is the main means to developing the basic knowledge and skills which form the foundation for building a knowledge economy (Ozga et al., 2013). Finland has focused on developing a high quality egalitarian public education system as a key component of a knowledge economy (Sahlberg, 2014). The high quality education in Finland has been the foundation for the thriving R&D and innovation in the country (Dahlman et al., 2006). Finland was able to transform itself to a knowledge economy mainly through reforming its educational system and improving its ICT infrastructure (Dahlman et al., 2006). There have been significant improvements in the ICT infrastructure in Bahrain, and today Bahrain has a high quality ICT infrastructure similar to the most developed countries in the world (Neumann et al., 2018). However, the education system in Bahrain still has room for further improvement, as reflected by a number of indicators discussed in Abdulla (2018). The following section describes how Finland developed an innovative economy through its educational system.

4.1. Innovative Teachers as Roles Models for Students in Finland

The Finnish educational system is built around high quality teachers who are themselves highly innovative (Aspfors & Eklund, 2017). The teacher education system in Finland is arguably the most competitive and academically challenging in the world (Sahlberg, 2014). Opinion polls in Finland consistently reveal that teaching is the most admired profession of high school graduates, above

12 medicine, law and engineering (Sanomat, 2004). However, only the best, most talented and those with the highest potential to innovate are chosen to become teachers. Only the top 10% of students who apply to teacher education programs are admitted (Epstein, 2011).

Finland views teaching even for students at a very young age as a very demanding profession that requires strong academic qualifications (Sahlberg, 2014). Therefore, all teachers for all levels of education in Finland are required to complete a five years’ research-based educational program which includes a Bachelors and a Master’s degree (Finnish National Agency for Education, 2019). Teachers’ education in Finland revolves around three equally important pillars: education theory, research methodologies, and practice (Sahlberg, 2014). Teachers not only acquire knowledge and teaching skills, but also skills for conducting research on practical and theoretical aspects of education.

Graduates of the teacher education program are equipped with the most recent advances in educational research and have the research skills required to apply them in the subjects that they teach (Westbury et al., 2005)). Teachers in Finland are highly qualified, both in terms of mastering the knowledge of the subjects they teach and in terms of pedagogical competences (Niemi, 2016).

Because teachers are highly competent in knowledge of content, pedagogy, and research, they are trusted to choose how and what to teach (Sahlberg, 2013). Teachers in Finland are given professional autonomy to create their own learning environment; they are responsible for curriculum planning, student assessment, school improvement, and community involvement. The strong teacher education together with the freedom and autonomy that teachers have in the classroom allows teachers to be analytical and open-minded in their teaching, and allows them to use their research knowledge together with their own professional experiences and observations to continually update their teaching methods and to innovate in the classroom. Teachers are able to customize their teaching for each student's strengths, weaknesses, skills and interests. This professional autonomy and freedom to innovate is what attracts and retains highly talented and innovative people to the teaching profession (Sahlberg, 2014).

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Figure 4.1: Number of teaching hours per year, 2017 1000 777 800 673 695 647 589 600 547 400 200 0 Primary Lower Secondary Upper Secondary Finland OECD

Source: OECD

Furthermore, teaching hours in Finland are low by international standard. Figure 4.1 compares the number of teaching hours per year in 2017 in Finland with the OECD average. The number of teaching hours for primary school teaches is 673 hours, while lower secondary teachers taught 589 hours and upper secondary teachers taught for 547 hours per year.

Teachers in Finland are given a low number of teaching hours so that they can plan and reflect on their teaching, engage in school improvement, curriculum planning, and personal professional development during their working hours (Sahlberg, 2014). Teachers should spend at least three hours per week for planning and development work with colleagues (Sahlberg, 2014). Additionally, teachers also have time for one-to-one teaching and support for students who may need additional help. This additional free time that teachers have allows them to be more innovative through continuous reflection on their progress both collectively and individually.

This innovative teaching environment in Finland directly reflects on students. Teachers have a very influential role on the behavior of young people. Teachers are often viewed as role models for professional norms and values (Almquist & Angrist, 1971). According to the social learning theory, behavior and learning is acquired through direct experience or by observing the behavior of others

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(Bandura, 1977). Furthermore, people observe the consequences of various actions and form their future behavior around the actions that are more likely to have positive consequences (Bandura 1977). Therefore, by observing continuous innovation by their teachers and the positive consequences of these innovations students learn to be innovative themselves.

Highly qualified teachers who continuously reflect on their performance and innovate in the classroom are able to create an open, secure environment in which creativity can flourish. Furthermore, the freedom of teachers in Finland to set their own curriculum, teaching methods and assessments, and to focus on students’ needs and abilities helps students develop a strong interest in an area and pursue it in depth.

4.2. Students Learn to Innovate in Schools

Finland has focused on keeping learning creative and open to new ideas rather than having fixed predetermined curricula and assessments (Halinen, 2008). The Finnish National Agency for Education sets up the national core curriculum, but teachers, schools and local authorities draw up their own curricula within the framework of the national core curriculum. The national core curriculum outlines that all schools should provide opportunities for experimentation, exploration, active learning, physical activity and play (Finnish National Agency for Education, 2019).

Finland has focused on making classrooms fun and interactive so that they develop the curiosity of students, which in turn leads to innovation. Rather than focusing on typical presentation style teaching, where students are passive recipients of information, Finland has focused on developing a flexible and interactive learning environment where students have an active role in their learning (Sahlberg, 2014).

For example, instead of teaching students about the water cycle, schools in Finland would take students to walk near the lake on a rainy day where they can experience experimental play. Such outdoor activities allow students to learn soft skills such as communication, leadership, and the ability to adapt to one’s surroundings. Contact with nature has important benefits for children’s mental, emotional and social health, as hands on learning in nature can lead to improved self-esteem and a sense of empowerment (Maller, 2009). Experimental learning in nature not only leads to cognitive and intellectual development,

15 and enhances social relationships, but it also triggers students interest and curiosity and promotes imagination and creativity (Heerwagen and Orians, 2002; Kellert, 2002).

Finland has focused on building a culture of experimentation in schools. This is especially the case in the sciences where the science curriculum has been transformed from traditional academic knowledge- based to one oriented to hands-on experiments and problem solving (Sahlberg, 2014). Finland has put a strong emphasis on the sciences in its curriculum: the share of science of all compulsory subjects is higher than the average in OECD countries (Finnish National Agency for Education, 2016). Through scientific experimentation, students actively engage in the process of learning and therefore gain knowledge and skills in a more exciting and enjoyable way.

Furthermore, rather than focusing on students simply receiving knowledge, Finland has focused its educational system on building lifelong transferable skills that go beyond specific knowledge or occupational area and are essential in an individual’s intellectual success (Finnish National Agency for Education, 2019). The core curriculum outlines that transversal competences should be part of every subject taught in schools. The Finnish National Agency for Education lists these transversal competences as follows:

 thinking and learning to learn  cultural competence, interaction and self-expression  taking care of oneself and managing daily life  multi-literacy  ICT competence  working life competence and entrepreneurship  participation, involvement and building a sustainable future

These transversal competences are important in all professional fields and are the key skills required for building a knowledge economy (Pereira & Costa, 2017). These transversal competences show that the overall goal of education in Finland is to support a child’s holistic development and growth, and therefore it concentrates on student wellbeing, development of personality, and ability to manage daily life.

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Additionally, Finland has focused on understanding, critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity rather than teaching of facts. According to Binkley et al (2012) these skills are extremely essential to meet the demands of the 21st century as today manual labor and routine skills can be accomplished by machines. What is required in the 21st century is decentralized decision making, communication, team work, applying skills and knowledge to solve complex problems, and to be flexible to adapt and innovate in response to changing circumstances (Binkley et al., 2012). Therefore, the Finnish educational system is increasingly focusing on developing 21st century skills. The Finnish core curriculum emphasizes the development of creative, critical and social skills which are important for students to become active members of the modern society (Vahtivuori-Hänninen et al., 2014). In Finnish schools, students learn to set goals and solve problems both collectively and individually (Vahtivuori-Hänninen et al., 2014).

Education policy in Finland gives high priority to personalized learning (Sahlberg, 2014). The curriculum and assessments are flexible so that they can accommodate for different abilities and personalities. There are no uniform standardized tests in Finland until high school. Students’ progress in school is primarily judged against their respective characteristics and abilities. The reason for this is to ensure that students develop a positive self-image (Ojala & Talts, 2007), which leads to personal growth in students with different kinds of competencies. Such positive self-image and confidence lead students to excel and innovate each according to his/her unique talent.

Overall, the Finnish educational system empowers students. Finnish educators believe that all students can excel given the right environment. Therefore, experimentation and active learning are emphasized so that students can each identify their areas of interest. Flexibility in the curriculum and assessments and personalized learning lead to more specialization. Specialization and developing one’s unique proficiencies are the precursors to innovation. Additionally, Finland has focused on developing transversal competences which allow student to excel on a personal and professional level. The skills emphasized in the Finnish educational system such as problem solving and critical thinking are the key skills required for building a knowledge economy. A knowledge economy requires the whole population to be highly educated each in his/he area of expertise, and this is what Finland has emphasized throughout its educational policies.

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5. Finnish Lessons for Bahrain

In its Vision 2030, Bahrain has emphasized the importance of continuously improving its educational system to meet the needs of the economy. The vision indicates that the educational system in Bahrain should take into consideration students’ different needs and abilities while maintaining a high standard education for all. As discussed in section 4, Finland has achieved this high standard of education while differentiating between students according to their individual differences. Finland became a world leader in education through a complex system of high quality teachers, high quality and flexible curricula, interactive teaching, and experimentation; as well as by focusing on developing important transversal skills. Finland’s experience in educational reform provides critical lessons and practical models for Bahrain which are discussed below. For a fuller description of Bahrain’s educational system, see Abdulla (2018).

First, Bahrain should put more effort into raising the quality of its teachers. Teachers play an important role in the educational processes, and were the cornerstone of the success of the Finnish educational system. In its Vision 2030, Bahrain correctly identifies the importance of raising the quality of teachers: “Focus on developing our most important educational resource, our teachers, by improving their recruitment and training, enhancing the management of their performance, improving their image in society, and increasing the attractiveness of careers in teaching.” This is exactly what Finland has today, it has very high standards for teacher education and training, teachers are highly respected and trusted in the Finnish society and the teaching career is the most attractive career in Finland.

Significant efforts have been taken in Bahrain to raise the quality of teachers in Bahrain. The Bahrain Teachers College (BTC) have been established in 2008 with the aim to raising the quality of teachers in Bahrain. In order to attract only highly qualified people to the profession, the BTC has recently raised the requirements for becoming a teacher. Currently the BTC requirement for enrolling in a teacher educational degree is having a cumulative grade point average of 80% in the high school certificate. Further efforts should be taken to attract the best candidates to these teacher education programs.

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Bahrain should also continue improving its teacher’s education programs. Raising the requirements to become a teacher and the quality of teacher education programs will attract highly talented people to the profession and will increase the trust given to teachers by society. Improving the quality of teacher will likely result in improved educational results in schools, as higher levels of teacher preparation and certification have a strong positive effect on student achievement (Darling- Hammond, 2000).

When compared to Finland Bahrain has lower requirements to becoming a teacher. Currently, in Bahrain all teachers in the first cycle of basic education (Grades 1 to 3), are required to hold a bachelor’s degree in education. While teachers at the second cycle (Grade 4-6) should have a diploma in education together with a bachelor's degree in one of the following categories: either 1) a bachelor in one of the following subjects Arabic, Islamic Studies, and Social Studies and good knowledge in the other two subjects or 2) a bachelor's degree in Mathematics, Physics, Biology, or Chemistry and should have good knowledge of the other three subjects. In intermediate and secondary school’s teachers are required to have a bachelor's degree in the same subject they are teaching and a postgraduate diploma in education. In Finland all teachers are required to have a research based master’s degree. Although Bahrain has high requirements for becoming a teacher, more research should be incorporated in teacher education programs. Including more research in teacher educational system equips teachers with the required skills for becoming creative and innovative in schools. Research and techniques of creative thinking should be part of the professional development of teachers so that they apply them themselves and help their students to do the same.

Additionally, more experimentation, exploration, active learning and creative play and should be incorporated in the educational system in Bahrain. Bahrain should revise the methods of teaching practiced in schools such that more interactive teaching is practiced as opposed to presentation style teaching. Higher interaction between students and teachers are crucial in enhancing students’ motivation and achievement (Komarraju & Musulkin, 2010). Experimentation should be incorporated in every subject in schools, but especially in the sciences. Interactive teaching and experimentation allows students to discover their talents and passion.

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The curriculum in Bahrain should focus more on building lifelong transferable skills such as learning to learn, ICT skills, and entrepreneurship. These are the key skills required for building a knowledge economy. For example, thinking and learning to learn is important in continuously expanding one’s knowledge and gaining new skills and expertise. Similarly, Foray and Lundvall (1998) emphasize the importance of ICT competence in building a knowledge-based economy as the ICT system gives the knowledge economy the technological base which changes the conditions for production, distribution and use of knowledge. Likewise, working life competence and entrepreneurship are key skills in the knowledge economy as entrepreneurship is the link between investments in new knowledge and economic growth. Entrepreneurs are the ones who commercialize ideas and knowledge produced through R&D and hence play a vital role in generating knowledge based economic growth (Audretsch & Keilbach, 2007).

Moreover, more attention should be given to developing 21st century skills such as problem solving skills, critical thinking skills and creativity. Creativity should be just as important as literacy and should be treated with the same status. Techniques of creative thinking should be taught routinely in schools like other core skills. Creativity is encouraged through experimenting, taking risks, and making mistakes, as Albert Einstein said: “The only sure way to avoid making mistakes is to have no ideas”. The school environment should be more flexible so that individual differences are appreciated, communication is open, and mistakes are tolerated. Making mistakes allows students to try new, innovative approaches to problem-solving. Schools should provide encouragement and support for risk taking, leading to new ideas and innovation.

By focusing on developing transversal competences in the classroom and encouraging experimentation and creativity, an innovative culture can be built in Bahrain. Children today are the next generation of employees, entrepreneurs and innovators. Students should be equipped with the required skills and knowledge required to build a knowledge economy that depends on technological and scientific advancement.

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6. Conclusion

Finland provides a real life example of how educational reforms can lead to significant economic growth. Like Bahrain today, Finland in the 1970s had a sub-elite educational system and an economy dependent on natural resources and imported technologies. However, in just a few decades, Finland transformed its educational system and became a global leader in education. The Finnish experience shows that a transformation from a resource-based economy to a knowledge economy can be done in a short period of time through focusing on educational excellence. Accordingly, Bahrain should focus on capacity building, skills and innovation, similarly to Finland.

The Finnish educational policies are unique as Finland did not implement the widely followed policies in other countries in the world, such as increased standardization, focusing on core subjects/knowledge, increasing high stakes accountability, and using corporate management practices in education (see Abdulla (2019) for more on the differences between Finland and these mainstream approaches). Instead Finland focused on developing high quality teachers, high quality and flexible curriculum with a focus on interactive teaching, experimentation and transversal skills

Other successful policies that Finland undertook that were not discussed in detail due to the limited scope of this paper include equitable education policies that give priority to early childhood education, preventive special needs education, systematically building trust in schools and teachers as professional elements of the system, and relying on fully publicly funded system that reflects the value of education being common good. Additionally, education in Finland is and has for a long time been part of larger social ecosystem. This system includes health, culture, sports, wellbeing and many other areas touching children’s lives. The Finnish educational success is largely a result of this comprehensive approach that has an individual child at the center of what government policies and services aim to support.

The unique Finnish educational policies proved to be highly successful, as the Finnish educational system started outperforming other countries. Historically the Bahraini educational system was highly affected by the educational systems in countries such as the UK and the US. However, Finland’s educational system seem to outperform both the US and UK educational systems as Finland has been found

21 persistently among the top performing countries in a variety of international assessments such as PISA, PIRLS and TIMMS.

Economic conditions in Bahrain necessitate a transition to a knowledge-based economy, as sustainable economic growth cannot be achieved through dependence on hydrocarbon resources. Additionally, the dependence on the government for job creation is not sustainable in light of demographic changes and population growth (Neumann et al., 2018). A transition to a knowledge-based economy will lead to increased GDP growth, attract capital and create new jobs.

Bahrain recognizes that it should not wait for an economic crisis to change as Finland has done. Rather, Bahrain launched Vision 2030, which aims to transform into a knowledge-based economy in 2008, when Bahrain's economy was at its peak (Neumann et al., 2018). Bahrain recognizes that innovation and technological development are the cornerstones of sustainable economic growth.

Like Finland, Bahrain must focus on the production and development of knowledge-intensive goods and services. This goal can be reached by developing an educational system that supports the development of a knowledge economy. Bahrain can achieve this by first building highly qualified, innovative and empowered teachers; and second, by allowing creativity to flourish in classroom through personalized learning and experimentation. These two factors together are the precursors for building a high quality education that prepares students for the needs of the 21st century.

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