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INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS IN HELSINKI
By Eduardo Alonso
The opening of the European Chemicals Agency and its growing international personnel reminded City officials of an increased need of education in different languages. What alternatives do you have when moving to Finland with a child that does not speak Finnish or Swedish?
In order to make Finland more attractive for professionals, the Ministry of Education is planning the opening of a European School which will start its operations in the autumn. In the beginning, this school will provide teaching in preschools, primary schools and the secondary cycle of the European Schools system (pupils from 4 to 15 years of age). Once there are enough students the school it will be fully-operational, providing education from preschool to upper secondary school. This is expected to happen in 2010 and the number of pupils then will be around 300.
The European School will provide the opportunity of earning European Baccalaureate (EB), which gives a general eligibility for higher education in all of the member countries. It is expected that it will possible to also take a French-language baccalaureate in Finland.
The school is planned to serve only the European Union employees. The tuition fees will be paid by the EU. After 2010, the school might allow children other than that of EU officials, who are currently admitted in the school. However the fees will be high. At the moment there are 13 European schools throughout Europe, educating around 20,000 children.
But being an EU employee is not the only way of getting international education in Finland. Currently in the Helsinki Metropolitan area there are 24 schools (public and private) offering primary studies in a language different than Finnish or Swedish, exclusively or partly in English, German, French, Estonian and Russian. With the exception of Estonian, secondary education is also offered in those languages. The city has announced Finnish-Chinese (Mandarin) teaching for 2008–2009 in one primary school.
According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Education, 5,307 students attend these schools. The majority of them (4,105) are Finns, another 350 have double nationality and 852 are foreigners.
Eeva Penttilä is the Head of International Relations in the Helsinki City Education Department. She is in charge of the international schools, informs parents and answers their questions, “Some families worry about how the relationship between teacher and student is going to be and the responsible role of the student in his/her studies. Coming from different cultures, parents need to have a deep understanding of our educational system. That includes knowledge of the Finnish parenthood and also the role of the school. I need to reassure them that the school treats their children very individually -even to the point that a totally individual curriculum may be a solution.”
“There are a lot of after-school activities too,” continues Penttilä, “but the children/parents have to choose what to attend and children have to go by themselves to the activities. Some foreign parents are anxious about their children’s safety, as they can not believe there is still a safe country where children can use public transportation by themselves or go to school or see their friends.”
Public school in Finland is free. But, in many countries, the lack of a tuition fee equals bad education. “Some foreign parents doubt the school’s efficiency when no fee is required. But the PISA results I have in my hand testify to our results,” says Penttilä. PISA is the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment, in which Finland achieves good results.
Up to now we spoke about public schools, which follow the Finnish curriculum, however, there is also the possibility of private schools. These schools are highly regulated by the Ministry of Education. The children have to pass a test in a language school, “Some parents want to enrol their children so much that I understand between the lines they would not mind offering a bribe. Well, enrolment in the schools is very transparent and regulated; it is free of corruption,” declares Penttilä.
The fees range from the affordable 542 euros a year at the English School in Meilahti to 13,500 euros a year (plus a one-off registration fee of 3,000 euros) at the International School of Helsinki in Ruoholahti.
Other languages
The city tries to arrange, whenever possible, teaching in the students’ mother tongue for two hours every week, as the law requires. Therefore, in the Helsinki area, teaching occurs in about 35 different languages. Nevertheless, as one important goal is to learn Finnish or Swedish, foreign children go first to a one-year long preparatory class where they study Finnish / Swedish together with curriculum in their own mother tongue.
For a list of schools with teaching in foreign language, visit:
www.helsinki.fi/en/index/koulutusjaopiskelu.html
Or contact Eeva Penttilä, Head of International Affairs: tel. (09) 3108 2610
List of international schools in Helsinki
English Schools:
The English School
www.eschool.edu.hel.fi
Espoo International Lower Secondary School
www.espoo.fi/espoointernationalschool
International School of Helsinki
www.ish.edu.hel.fi
International School of Vantaa
www.edu.vantaa.fi/isv
Helsingin Suomalainen Yhteiskoulu, SYK
www.syk.edu.hel.fi
Kaivoksela School
juhani.jarvinen@vantaa.fi
Komeetta School
www.espoo.fi /peruskoulut/komeetta
Kulosaari Secondary School
www.kuloyk.edu.hel.fi
Maunula Primary School
www.mauna.edu.hel.fi
Postipuu School
www.espoo.fi/peruskoulut/postipuu
Ressu Comprehensive School
www.ressuy.edu.hel.fi
Teaching partly in English:
Jalavapuisto School
www.espoo.fi/peruskoulut/jalavapuisto
Kilonpuisto School
www.espoo.fi/peruskoulut/kilonpuisto
Kulosaari Comprehensive School, primary school level
www.kuloa.edu.hel.fi
Kuitinmäki School
www.espoo.fi/peruskoulut/kuitinmaki
Maunula Secondary School
www.mayk.edu.hel.fi
Tähtiniitty School
www.espoo.fi/peruskoulut/tahtiniitty
Töölö Comprehensive School, primary school level
www.toola.edu.hel.fi
Töölö Secondary School
www.tyk.fi
Teaching partly in Estonian:
Roihuvuori Primary School
www.roiha.edu.hel.fi
German schools:
Deutsche Schule Helsinki
www.dsh.edu.hel.fi
Laajavuori School
www.edu.vantaa.fi/laajavu
Martinlaakso School
www.martsari.com
French schools:
Lycée franco-finlandais de Helsinki
www.hrsk.fi
École francaise Jules Verne
www.france.fi
Eläintarha Primary School
www.elaa.edu.hel.fi
Russian Schools:
Suomalais-venäläinen koulu
www.svk.edu.hel.fi
Myllypuro Primary School
www.mylpa.edu.hel.fi
Comments for this article: 1
Education in English
Eiran aikuislukio offers High School - learn Finnish while studying in English. Finnish is intensive, upper secondary curriculum subjects are first taught in English and students switch to studies in Finnish when ready.
Leslie Hyde. Vice Principal +258505771152
Posted by Leslie Hyde
on 2008-11-21
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