A report published by JETRO on August 4, 2025, as the third installment of a three-country European education digitalization comparison, providing detailed analysis of Finland's teacher-led approach.
Finland's "National Core Curriculum for Basic Education" implemented since 2016 defines "ICT competence" as one of seven transversal competencies, but implementation methods are delegated to municipalities, schools, and teachers. All teachers in compulsory education beyond primary level hold master's degrees, and the nation places full trust in teachers, emphasizing field judgment without imposing policies.
Cooperative relationships among teachers are characteristic, with no evaluation system creating collaborative rather than competitive relationships, and digital teaching materials spreading through teacher word-of-mouth networks. The edtech sector features a developed ecosystem where companies, academia, municipalities, and government agencies collaborate, with cases of teachers themselves developing digital materials for problem-solving.
A specific example is Kindiedays, developed by a former kindergarten teacher. Finnish early childhood education requires creating "Curriculum Goals" records twice yearly documenting diverse opportunity provision to children, but traditional methods relied inefficiently on memory. This tool enables daily recording, improving teacher efficiency, allowing management to identify opportunity provision biases, and facilitating information sharing with parents. Currently expanded to about 30 countries, it also provides online courses conveying Finland's curriculum.
At Carousel Nursery, implementation effects include curriculum goal achievement visualization for lesson planning support and attendance management for optimal teacher allocation. However, the importance of analog backup during network failures is also noted. Digital education tools emphasize balance with analog methods through multi-person collaborative use, reduced screen time, and constant teacher attendance.
The article concludes that among Sweden, Finland, and Ireland, the common finding is that digital introduction itself is not the goal, but rather complementary relationships between analog and digital methods.