Schools | Should we get rid of school shopping? This is how MPs respond

of HS the MPs interviewed would not prevent school shopping, at least by giving up weighted classes.

A change to focused teaching is planned for Helsinki’s schools. It would end, for example, music, language and art classes in their current form. The purpose would be to prevent so-called school shopping, which means that parents try to choose a school for their child other than the nearby school.

Even though it is only a plan, the idea has already sparked a lot of discussion.

HS asked the MPs elected from the capital region, whether school shopping, which has been talked about recently, should be prevented and what should be done about the segregation of schools.

Read more: The researchers explain why weighted categories must be abandoned

Read more: Parents tell how school shopping affects schools: “Hidden fact”

Sdp’s Hussein al-Taeen according to, the segregation of schools must be tackled primarily by increasing school resources.

“Only after that can school districts, for example, be considered new. The idea that children would walk past their nearby school to another school would be rare in Finnish history.”

In order to prevent school shopping, in addition to abandoning weighted classes, a model has been proposed in which the student enrollment areas would be changed so that there would be several schools within the same area.

Al-Taeen according to him, in his hometown of Vantaa, the segregation of schools has been tackled, among other things, by paying bonuses to teachers whose schools have a particularly high number of learning difficulties.

“With the help of compensation paid to teachers, we wanted to encourage teachers to stay longer at the same school. This is also essential from the point of view of learning outcomes,” says al-Taee.

For him, it is also essential how different neighborhoods are developed in general. Cities can use zoning to mix up the housing structure, for example by placing rental houses all over the city.

“This was exactly where Sweden failed. Disadvantaged areas were created, from which the services started,” says al-Taee.

Basic Finns a member of parliament from Helsinki Mari Rantanen is not in favor of protecting school shopping by changing the emphasis on teaching or the areas where pupils take lessons.

“I guess it’s quite natural that parents want to find the best possible school for their child. If the state has made mistakes in its immigration policy, Finnish children should not have to pay for it,” says Rantanen.

The discussion about the separation of schools has partly revolved around S2 students, i.e. students studying Finnish as a second language.

According to the National Education Evaluation Center (Karvi), S2 pupils are worryingly often behind others in their learning results. This is evident from the center’s research, which was published in January. The development of competence was lower than the average in those schools where there were more than 5.3 percent of students studying Finnish or Swedish as a second language.

However, speaking a foreign language is not the only factor explaining lower learning results. Differences in learning outcomes increasingly reflect the social background, and gender differences in learning outcomes are internationally at an exceptionally high level, according to a report published by the Ministry of Education and Culture in January. Social background refers to, for example, parents’ income and education level.

Read more: “S2 boys” cause great concern – This is how writing divides children into different castes

Regionally when examined, the research results are also related to each other. Most S2 students live in areas where the socio-economic status of the entire population is lower than average.

In Finland, the largest number of foreign-speaking people live in the capital region. However, the Pisa results, which measure competence, have weakened throughout the country.

Rantanen according to which the problem must be solved specifically by reducing immigration. Why, when it is known that speaking a foreign language is not the only factor that weakens learning results?

“If there are, say, 25 students in a class, 10 of whom don’t know the language properly, it’s obvious that it will be a complete mess. After all, we have had students from socioeconomically weaker backgrounds before, but now there is no time left for them in class. These things are intertwined.”

In the current situation, Perussuomalaiset proposes as one solution that immigrant children should first study in their own group so that their knowledge of the Finnish language accumulates to a sufficient level.

The coalition representative from Vantaa Sari Multala according to the separation of schools is a matter of a broader regional development of differentiation, and it cannot be solved only by immigration policy.

“Of course, shelters must be concentrated specifically for those in need. But on the other hand, we also need work-based immigration.”

According to Multala, an important tool is the equality money, which is distributed to schools and kindergartens.

“With it, small group teaching and teaching resources have been able to be targeted more at schools where several signs of differentiation are fulfilled.”

According to Multala, it is important to ensure that the amount of equality money remains at a high enough level in the future.

According to Multala, the discussion regarding weighted teaching should be “turned the other way around”, i.e. weighted classes should be used as a solution to the differentiation of education.

“If you want to strengthen the attractiveness of a school, you could consider whether there could be more emphasis on teaching?”

Read more: “I’ll stay here all alone”, the child cried – This is school shopping through the eyes of a parent

in Espoo resident Green MP Saara Hyrkko says that in the discussion about school shopping, children should not be stigmatized, nor should parents be blamed.

“The most important thing is that there would be no need to choose a school because you can’t trust that every school has good learning.”

There is no single panacea to prevent school segregation, says Hyrkkö. He also speaks in favor of increasing funding.

“We need more adults in children’s everyday life.”

Hyrkkö emphasizes that the differentiation of schools is a regionally focused matter. According to him, there is not always enough interest in the national politics for the special needs of the capital region.

“The majority of the decision-makers in this country are quite stubborn about the problems of the capital region. If we don’t recognize that cities need state support to solve this problem, we won’t be able to move forward,” says Hyrkkö.