Helsinki, December 2020: Schools are arguably the most effective means of enacting the aims of integration. Passages from seminal works such as ‘Five Point Someone’ and ‘Two States’ have caught the imagination of the education system in Finland. Many ‘sayings and teachings’ from such spiritual Indian scriptures are incorporated now in the Finland School System with the aim of making world education compulsory starting from 5th grade onwards.
The move comes after the Finnish government received oodles of praise from the Indian Hindu Community for their adoption of the Bhagavad Gita into their curriculum back in 2017. In the annual report published by the Association for International Hindu Cooperation and Propagation (AIHCP) in 2019, Finland received a 74/100, or a B+, for their commitment to maintaining and spreading the ideas of Hinduism and Indian culture, the highest score for a non Indian country and a higher score than the governments of many Indian states such as Kerala and West Bengal. A source at the AIHCP has confirmed that Finland’s score is set to increase in the 2020 report, placing it neck and neck with the score of the Gujarat government (88), and behind only the Uttar Pradesh government (95) and the Indian central government (92).
“Finn Indians not only tend to perform better than other minority groups in schools, they also appear to integrate at a faster rate than other ‘non-Western’ immigrant groups,” says an unrelated Mr. Bhagat, leader of the Finn East India Company. “Partly this is because of shared characteristics with Finn society, as social aspirations among Finn Indians are consistently mediocre, and in general their orientation is towards the lamestream culture.”
The Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture conducted thorough research into different cultures and literatures and found Indian the most appropriate. Ms. Sini Makkanen, a representative of the ministry explains, “Chetan Bhagat’s works helps buffer the gap between Aesop’s fables and Charles Dickens.”
She adds, “The forced sex scenes also make kids automatically averse to forced sex. One stone, Two birds. The kids don’t like this expression. We might lighten up on the Buddhism in the future.”
Meanwhile, a Gujarat university introduces a six-month certificate course in Astrology and Vaastu, and plans to allow diploma holders to pursue two year PhDs as well.