Eastern Finland's Russian- and Finnish-language school is under threat of closure. “It has to be a miracle that the school's operation is preserved,” says head principal Katri Anttila.
Eastern Finland the school is again under threat of closure, and it came as a complete surprise to the school's headmaster Katri Anttila.
“This is a complete shock,” says Anttila.
The Russian- and Finnish-speaking international unified school operates in Lappeenranta, Joensuu and Imatra. Basic schools have their own principals in each city. In addition to financial and strategic tasks, Anttila is the principal of all the units' high schools.
Anttila feels that the abolition is a preparation in secret.
The school was under threat of closure the previous time in 2014. Now the atmosphere is different.
“For the first time, I'm really worried. It must be a miracle that the school's operation is preserved.”
The three cities have planned the closure in cooperation, as the school was founded by a joint decision.
Each city handles the decisions independently. However, the performances are very similar.
In Lappeenranta, the matter has been prepared for the city government by the director of welfare and cultural services Juhani Junlainen.
According to him, the preparation of the matter has been done correctly.
“It is not possible to inform about the unfinished preparation.”
According to Junnilainen, the background of the show is a very sharp drop in the birth rate and economic reasons.
“Next autumn, the younger age groups will start school. Since the decision has been postponed until now, we are in a situation where the decision must be made now. The city's average need for adaptation is around two million euros each year.”
The cities have paid a total of 3.9 million euros annually to the school in Eastern Finland for the organization of teaching. For example, Lappeenranta has paid the school an estimated 1.7 million euros annually.
Those who studied in closed schools would be transferred to city schools. The transfer of students to the city of Lappeenranta's own schools would save the city around one million euros.
He emphasizes that the school in Eastern Finland is only one of the schools threatened with closure. There are also seven other schools on the list.
In addition, several kindergartens and libraries are under threat of closure, and there are also plans to merge high schools.
Anttila's according to the presentation, there are gaps in the calculations. First of all, the school receives funding from the Finnish National Board of Education.
“We pay the city of Lappeenranta rental income as well as instrumental cleaning and school food services. In our high school, we produce our own studies, but everything else is bought from the city. We pay more than one million euros per year to Lappeenranta,” he says.
According to Anttila, the presentation does not even take into account the fact that people move to the area from other parts of the country and even from other countries because of the school. But actually, in Anttila's opinion, more than money should be evaluated when making decisions.
“Our school is small and safe. We have received many students who were bullied at the old school because of their dual citizenship. Now would they be thrown back to be bullied? A few parents have already announced that they will move away if the Eastern Finland school closes.”
He points out that the school has also made it possible for many to settle in and get into further studies.
Russian the popularity of studying the language has been on the decline since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Does Anttila believe that the abolition is related to a war of aggression?
Anttila emphasizes that the Russian language is different from Russia and that decisions about studying the language should not be related to the war started by Russia in Ukraine. We don't talk about politics at school.
“Our school produces Russian language experts. Although exports are not taking off now, the situation will hopefully be different when the children are adults. It is a fact that Russia will not disappear anywhere from our neighbor.”
He points out that Russian is spoken in many countries other than Russia. He estimates that in the future Finland will transfer exports to the former Soviet republics.
“The fact that this is not taken into account is very narrow-minded.”
Junnilainen according to which the possible abolition is not related to the Russian war of aggression.
According to him, with the closing of the school, Russian language teaching would be developed in Lappeenranta schools, and he does not see a risk that special skills would disappear.
According to Junnilainen, it was predictable that people would be surprised and shocked. After all, it is “the biggest service network change that has ever been processed”, he says.
Read more: “Finnish news sounds really scary,” says 15-year-old Ksenia Zeitlin from Lappeenranta – Russia's aggressive foreign policy deeply divides the Finnish-Russian community
Read more: “That border won't disappear anywhere,” says the principal of a school in Joensuu and believes that teaching Russian will continue to be an asset
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