Furthermore, Finnish adults participate in adult learning courses and programmes more than most of their peers in other countries. Strong educational performance, as it is understood in Finland, also includes the level of participation in and access to education, even distribution of learning outcomes throughout different schools and learners, and affordability and overall cost of education. Equal educational opportunity has been the leading value and the guiding principle of Finnish education policies since the 1960s. The virtue of Finnish education is that everyone has easy access to high-quality and publicly funded educational opportunities.