It´s a great pleasure for me to be with you today on this conference on the Arctic, here in the University of Akureyri.

9. September 2010, Háskólinn á Akureyri

Ladies and gentlemen, dear guests.

It´s a great pleasure for me to be with you today on this conference on the Arctic, here in the University of Akureyri.

The Arctic region, encompassing an area of 40 million square kilometres or about 8 percent of the surface of the Earth, faces several major challenges: climatic changes, changes in economy and means of subsistence, demographic develop­ment and the upcoming of trades related to the exploitation of non-renewable resources being the most dominant ones. These challenges, common for the Arctic states, are believed to influence the lives of the region's approximately four million inhabitants in a relatively near future – and in fact they might have influence on a global scale.

Today, we are going to concentrate among other things on the need for cooperation across borders, as means and motive for bettering educational status of the Arctic region and its people.

Increasingly, scientists state a need to listen more carefully to indigenous peoples' traditional knowledge related to climatic changes and sustainability. Well, this is indicated by activities planned and carried out by the more than one hundred member institutions of the University of the Arctic! – according to UNESCO and other UN organs.

This topic is also on the negotiation agenda between many indigenous NGOs of the Arctic Region  and the nation states within the region. Consequently, a broad approach to education in the Arctic region should seek an appropriate balance between traditional knowledge and formal, non-formal and informal learning.

But how are we dealing with other aspects of human education in the Arctic region? How well aware are the people of the region of their human rights?

Human development in the Arctic region is closely related to the ability to control one's future and destiny, to the maintenance of cultural identity, to the relation between individual and nature, to sustainable development and in fact, something we often forget – human rights. This constitutes a need to make both social and human sciences a part of the basis for a discussion of education in the Arctic, alongside with traditionally focussed areas like natural sciences, economy, petroleum and fish. Actually, here in Iceland, we are now creating a new curriculum where education on democracy and human rights is one of five major factors, other factors are education on sustainability, equality, literacy and creativity.

Recent Norwegian educational data indicates that the level of school performance in primary and secondary education in the northern regions of Norway is significantly lower than in other parts of the country.  Also, the drop-out rate in upper secondary education in the northernmost Norwegian county municipality is high, especially for boys.

A study on secondary education and boys in an indigenous locality of Norway Nystad, I. M. K. (2003): Mannen mellom myte og modernitet. Nesbru: Vett & Viten highlights a certain degree of conflict between the traditional values of the indigenous parent population, and the values and demands of the Norwegian society at large. The study also indicates some rejection of formal schooling among indigenous boys. Simultaneously, climatic and cultural changes seem to threaten, or constrain, the traditional way of life in indigenous areas. This situation, though not often brought up for public discussion, may be relevant also for other states in the Arctic region.

These two facts that face us, the constraint traditional way of life, and the poor performance of indigenous people in the modern educational system, indicate that there are problems arising concerning human education and human rights in the Arctic. Our task is to ensure the human right of the people in this area but we are faced with:

•  the lack of comparative knowledge for a range of factors relating to education,
• that circumpolar, comparable studies are almost non-existent in the education sector,
• the need for conducting research related to the differences between state-developed and indigenous  educational systems,
• the research gap concerning differences between state-developed and indigenous educational systems,
  
• the need for data and analysis paying respect to regional and local realities in the Arctic.

These facts indicate that there is grieve and serious need to explore the channels of cooperation we have already established to ensure Human rights education in the Arctic Region.

The Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – and the autonomous areas in Greenland, Faroe Islands and Åland Islands have had a formal co-operation within The Nordic Council of Ministers for more than thirty five years. This co-operation, which is close and fruitful, encompasses most fields of society with the exception of foreign policy. For these countries it is therefore quite natural to look for joint solutions to common problems.

And we - the Nordic peoples and politicians - find strength in sharing and learning from each other's experiences. The long tradition of regional co-operation is unique in an international perspective - it is based on that which unites us: the common cultural background and values, our heritage and – to some degree - the languages. This is the kind of cooperation across borders we need to ensure the best for the countries of the North and the Arctic Region. And I would like to add, as a minister for Nordic cooperation as well as for education and culture, that in the field of Nordic cooperation Iceland has been an active voice when it comes to arctic issues which are in my opinion a global as well as a local issue.

Ladies and Gentleman

Today, we are gathered here in Akureyri to discuss some aspects of the Northern Region. The sheer fact that we are here all together highlights how valuable international cooperation is to solve the problems of modern society. I hope you have a fruitful conference ahead of you.

Thank you.