While Finland Looks to 2045, Where Is New Zealand Looking?

This week, Finland quietly did something that should make education leaders around the world pause.

As Pasi Sahlberg shared on LinkedIn, Finland has released its new “Vision for Finnish Comprehensive Schools 2045.” He described it this way:

“The vision takes a strong stand on the fact that, in the midst of the changed operating environment, there is an increasing demand to reinforce not only basic skills but also our ability to work together. These changes are guided by bildung, hope, agency and our common good.”

Pause for a moment on that language:

Bildung. Hope. Agency. Common good.

Finland is not responding to global disruption with tighter monitoring or narrower targets. It is responding with a generational vision of human development.

The document frames education not merely as preparation for change, but as a force for shaping the future - a system that equips young people to build a meaningful life, sustain democracy, and live within planetary boundaries.

Finland is asking:

What kind of human beings do we need to cultivate for 2045?

That question matters, because it reveals what a country believes education is for.

And it prompts a harder question for us in Aotearoa:

What is New Zealand asking of its education system right now?

A Tale of Strategic Depth

To understand the contrast more clearly, it helps to visualise not just direction, but depth.

Education strategies can be framed at different layers. Some focus primarily on technical performance — attendance, targets, monitoring systems and measurable attainment. Others move outward into pedagogical redesign — competencies, professional agency and curriculum transformation. And some extend further still, articulating education as a civilisational project concerned with democracy, sustainability, identity and the common good.

When we examine the dominant framing of each jurisdiction’s current strategy document, a pattern begins to emerge.

The diagram below illustrates where the strategic centre of gravity appears to sit in each case.

Strategic Orientation of Contemporary Education Frameworks

In the model above, Finland’s Vision 2045 sits clearly within the outer layer — a civilisational vision that frames education around democracy, sustainability, agency and the common good. Wales’ Curriculum for Wales also reaches into this outer horizon, signalling national renewal through curriculum reform. British Columbia’s curriculum transformation is positioned primarily within the pedagogical reform layer, emphasising competencies, professional agency and systemic redesign.

New Zealand’s Strategic Intentions 2025–2029, by contrast, are located predominantly within the inner layer of technical performance measures — attendance targets, literacy benchmarks, standardised monitoring and system stewardship.

This is not an argument that foundational skills or accountability are unimportant. They are essential.

The question the diagram raises is different: at what layer does a system place its strategic centre of gravity?

In other words, what level of ambition is driving the narrative of reform?

What Finland Is Signalling

Finland’s 2045 vision is structured around three pillars:

• A meaningful life

• Life together

• Life on the planet

It emphasises:

• Human growth beyond technical skill

• Agency as a central educational goal

• Democracy and social cohesion

• Ecological sustainability

• Ethical engagement with technology

The Finnish system is not retreating to fundamentals in the face of AI, climate change, or social fragmentation.

It is expanding its conception of education to meet them.

That is what leadership looks like in uncertain times.

Wales: Curriculum as Civic and Cultural Renewal

Wales’ Curriculum for Wales is not simply a technical curriculum update. It is framed as a national re-articulation of purpose.

At its heart are the Four Purposes — that children and young people become:

• Ambitious, capable learners

• Enterprising, creative contributors

• Ethical, informed citizens

• Healthy, confident individuals

These are not attainment descriptors. They are civic descriptors.

The Welsh reform deliberately moves beyond subject coverage toward broader human development. It positions curriculum as a vehicle for:

• Democratic participation

• Ethical reasoning

• Cultural identity

• Wellbeing

• Creative capacity

Crucially, the reform transfers significant curriculum design responsibility to schools. Teachers are not merely implementing prescribed content; they are designing locally responsive curricula within a national framework.

This is why Wales sits between the outer and middle layers of the model. It combines pedagogical redesign with an explicitly civic and cultural ambition. The reform is not framed primarily around targets and monitoring; it is framed around national renewal through education.

British Columbia (Canada): Competency-Based System Transformation

British Columbia’s curriculum transformation similarly signals more than incremental adjustment.

The BC Curriculum is organised around “core competencies”:

• Communication

• Creative and critical thinking

• Personal and social responsibility

These competencies cut across subject areas and explicitly position education as preparation for complex, interconnected futures. They embed:

• Identity development

• Ethical engagement

• Social responsibility

• Indigenous knowledge and reconciliation

The curriculum is flexible and locally adaptable. It foregrounds inquiry, reflection and student agency. Literacy and numeracy remain central, but they are situated within a broader conception of learner development rather than isolated as stand-alone strategic drivers.

BC’s reform sits predominantly within the pedagogical reform layer of the model, with strong outward movement toward civilisational themes — particularly through its commitment to reconciliation and cultural inclusion.

It represents structural redesign of curriculum philosophy rather than refinement of performance management systems.

Taken together, Finland, Wales and British Columbia demonstrate that it is possible to pursue foundational skill development while simultaneously articulating a broader horizon for education. In each case, literacy and numeracy sit within a wider narrative about democracy, identity, agency and long-term societal resilience. The reforms differ in structure and emphasis, but they share a common feature: they frame education as more than system performance.

It is against that backdrop that New Zealand’s current strategy invites closer scrutiny.

And What New Zealand Is Signalling

New Zealand’s current strategy foregrounds:

• Attendance percentages

• Literacy and numeracy benchmarks

• Structured instructional approaches

• Standardised assessment tools

• Monitoring and reporting frameworks

These are important elements of any functioning system.

But they are managerial instruments.

They are not a generational narrative.

They focus on small measurable moments — whether students are present, whether they are “at level,” whether data is being tracked consistently.

What is less visible is the larger horizon.

Where is the language of democracy?
Where is the language of agency?
Where is the framing of education as a response to planetary crisis?
Where is the invitation to imagine 2045?

At a time when Finland is articulating hope as a capability and Bildung as a guiding force, New Zealand’s strategy feels cautious.

Incremental.
Operational.
Short-sighted.

It does not feel especially brave.
And in a period of profound global uncertainty, the courage to articulate a larger educational horizon may be precisely what leadership requires.

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Curious about the work I do in education around the world?

In 2025, the P-BLOT™, a tool I co-authored as a component of my doctoral studies, was named as one of the 100 most impactful global innovations in HundrED’s 2026 Global Collection. As a result of this, I’m currently working alongside educators and systems in Australia, Canada, Finland, the UK, Nigeria, India and Singapore, sharing learning, supporting innovation, and advocating for what truly matters in education: people, purpose, and professional trust.

If you’re interested in where I’m travelling, who I’m working with, or how this work might support your own context, here’s where you can learn more:

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