Peje Emilsson sees no problem with running a school in the dictatorship of Saudi Arabia – despite the gender division of children and compulsory Koran studies.
The knowledge school’s owner hopes to build a campus for thousands of students in the Middle East.
– I would say that the education given there is probably better than that given in the vast majority of Swedish schools.
Peje Emilsson, 77, opens the doors to the former bakery on Djurgården. The downstairs of his residence in Stockholm is today a room for meetings and receptions. He is dressed in a suit and seems alert, despite the fact that it is early morning and that yesterday he sat in the airplane seat for 38 hours on the way home from a business trip in Tokyo, Singapore and Indonesia. Another part of the world that his school group Kunskapsskolan wants to conquer.
– My principle is to always try to be available to the media. It is especially important when you receive tax funds, says Peje Emilsson.
Last year alone, Kunskapsskolan had 1.5 billion in income from school fees, state and municipal grants. The Emilsson family is the sole owner, Peje shares the throne with his three children Calle, Johan and Cecilia. For decades, he has been a power player in the borderland between politics and business, as a PR guru and school magnate.
On the wall is a painting of a bare-breasted lady who looks down at us when we talk about Saudi Arabia.
There, in the dictatorship, the Kunskapsskolan is a success, says Peje Emilsson.
He visited his school Nün Academy last June.
– To come to the school and meet these young, driven students. Lots of girls. Especially girls actually. It is not only in Sweden that the women take over, but they do it there too. With great force, he says.
Our review of Peje Emilsson’s school project in Saudi Arabia shows that, on the contrary, the school obeys the strict rules of the religious dictatorship regime. Koranic study is compulsory, and boys and girls are separated from first grade. But according to Peje Emilsson, gender division does not have to be wrong. He himself went to an all-boys school in Sweden in the 50s.
– I’m just stating that it doesn’t have to be so obvious to say that in Sweden we have decided that girls and boys should always be together, and everyone else is wrong. I have survived quite well, both me and my wife. One went to a boys’ school and one went to a girls’ school and we’ve managed pretty well.
– One of the things I discovered when I started working abroad was – Sweden is not always the best at everything. Can you imagine that! There are actually many countries that are finding smarter solutions.
Have we made a mistake in the Swedish school, you mean, by mixing boys and girls?
– No, I’m not saying that we have done it. I’m saying that I have no problem with there being options to choose from.
According to a new law in Saudi Arabia, schools where students have criticized the regime or Islam can be fined millions. The teachers can be deported.
Peje Emilsson compares it to the debate in Sweden about Koran burnings, and describes it as a “philosophical balance” between freedom of expression and respect for what others hold sacred.
– In all countries you have traditions. In Sweden, it is forbidden to wear a school uniform, because it is an insult to the students. Many people from other countries also think it is strange. These are norms, principles that have been developed and that must be adhered to and respected in those countries.
– I cannot come and say that now you will become exactly like in Sweden. But I provide a platform of educational opportunities that I am convinced will give more people a better start in life.
But if you can’t even teach democracy in school in Saudi Arabia, what kind of education is that?
– Yes, but you can. I see the reality, what discussion they have and how they criticize. I don’t think it’s a big issue.
The subsidiary Kedtech is responsible for the educational concept at Nün Academy, according to Peje Emilsson. But the school library does not have any books on religions other than Islam in its online catalog.
Do you have any responsibility for it?
– No, I don’t think so. I really don’t think so.
Peje Emilsson believes, on the contrary, that the teaching in Saudi Arabia is in many ways better than what children receive in Sweden. There are Swedish schools, both municipal and independent schools, which do not work at all, according to him.
– We have a number of municipalities where 30-40 percent of students do not qualify for upper secondary school. I read a lot of reports about crime today, about schools with riots instead of education. There are obviously things that do not work well in our country.
– Saudi Arabia has undergone a monumental development, it becomes simplistic to say that they do not have a satisfactory section on LGBTQ, he says.
He returns to his image of Saudi Arabia as a country bursting with youthful change and faith in the future, where the women have thrown off the black clothing shocks. The opposite of how the situation is described by, for example, Human Rights Watch, which reports on mass executions and a growing repression of human rights.
Peje Emilsson also does not see doing business with dictatorships as particularly problematic. Although he has closed the office of his PR agency Kreab in Russia and abandoned the idea of running schools in China – “too messy” in his words.
– I have said at some point that I would like to come to North Korea and train, it may be necessary. It’s more for fun, but I don’t fundamentally believe in boycotts.
According to Aftonbladet’s review, Saab’s involvement in school investments in the Middle East is about counter-buying, a way to enable arms deals. Peje Emilsson believes that schools and education will become increasingly important in such contexts in the future.
– Every country has the right to have security systems. We don’t have arms deals with Saudi now, but quite a lot with the Emirates. Schools can enter there as well. They have a great interest in it.
He has meetings with Saab’s management several times a year due to the school initiative. The arms company has entered the project with both expertise and money.
– There was an opening and an exchange. Then a great deal of personal involvement in training from Saab’s management and owners.
– When a company does large industrial deals, there are usually conditions for the other country to do something as well. Think how much better if you sell this equipment and at the same time it leads to better education, says Peje Emilsson.
Soon it will be time for his next trip to Saudi Arabia. This time in a delegation with Trade Minister Johan Forssell (M).
In the past, Peje Emilsson has also been there with social democrats such as Ann Linde, then foreign minister, and Oskar Stenström, security policy expert in Magdalena Andersson’s government.
The day after our interview, Peje Emilsson comes up with an idea – wouldn’t it be interesting for us as journalists to go down to Saudi Arabia in the fall and see the positive development there with our own eyes? When we point out that it is difficult to get a journalist’s visa to the country – there is no freedom of the press – he promises to put in “a good word” for us to his Saudi contacts.
– I am going there next week and then I will meet people from ministries, representatives from the government.
Of course, he always brings up the problems with human rights when he meets them, claims Peje Emilsson.
– Absolutely, I take everything up. It is total transparency. No problem. That things happen that you don’t plan for, that does not lead to the conclusion that then you should refrain from helping. And it’s not Swedish politics either. We have made a name for ourselves by working with contacts everywhere.
Is there anything problematic about schools and children’s education being used in gun deals?
– If you put it that way, of course you might think it’s strange. I think the more you can get better education, the better.