So far, the situation in Helsinki’s schools is still relatively good. That’s why the matter should be addressed now, when something can still be done about it, says docent Venla Bernelius.
Now it is the last moment to intervene in the segregation of schools, warns the assistant professor of the University of Helsinki who studies differences in education and well-being Venla Bernelius.
According to him, Finland may be “dancing the first steps” towards strong school segregation, when the situation is compared to European examples.
So far, the situation is still relatively good, and therefore, according to Bernelius, the matter should be addressed now, while something can still be done about it.
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He mentions the Netherlands, for example, where, according to him, the schools are very segregated. Many schools have become dependent on the activity of parents and there is a lot of competition between them.
In weaker schools, families and teachers are tough, school life is difficult, and their quality has truly deteriorated.
“Education has partly become a zero-sum game, where the student has become, as it were, a product for which schools compete. We can still avoid this in Finland”, says Bernelius.
In practice, this means that schools are competing for the best students who will raise their average. In this case, well-performing schools may not even do anything special pedagogically, and weaker schools suffer from even greater segregation.
Simple ones solutions to reduce segregation are hardly found, because according to Bernelius, school segregation is a complex system.
For example, in Sweden, school choice was liberalized in the hope that the differences between schools would start to decrease.
However, the opposite happened: school segregation increased as well-to-do parents went to an even greater selection of schools. The segregation of residential areas also accelerated, as families moved elsewhere in search of good schools.
“This is a good example of a measure that tried to influence segregation by raising one corner of the table, but the goods started to spill onto the floor from the other side,” describes Bernelius.
He hopes that in Helsinki and in Finland more widely, they would start to think about the whole of school and city policy at the level of large structures.
Bernelius mentions zoning, resourcing schools and supporting S2 pupils and early childhood education paths as examples.
According to him, even partially giving up weighted classes, for example, can be a step in the right direction, such as There has been a glimpse in Helsinki. Of course, the effects should be evaluated carefully.
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In addition, it would be important to recognize parents’ concerns and react to them.
“Of course, parents should not have to choose between the interests of their own child or the interests of other children. But now we should really listen to families: why do some of them feel the need to avoid certain schools?” Bernelius says.
According to him, schools should be provided with sufficient resources for, for example, rooting out bullying and maintaining work peace and sufficiently small class sizes.
In practice, this means that schools need enough money to hire qualified teachers and keep class sizes small.
“A large number of parents want their children to go to a nearby school that is safe and has the right conditions for learning. I believe that parents will react positively if it is shown that these things can be taken care of.”
Bernelius does not want to belittle parents’ concerns, but reminds that sometimes, for example, online discussions about the reputations of different schools or residential areas may start to take on a life of their own and are no longer completely based on reality.
In addition, he highlights the one that has attracted widespread attention I board the school bus, part of which he interpreted as a list of schools’ ranking. According to him, very similar lists have been made in the past in countries where schools are now drastically differentiated.
“Even if the differences between the schools are small, someone is always last on the list. Corresponding listings accelerate differentiation and can directly affect students’ belief in themselves as learners,” says Bernelius.
“Of course, there needs to be a discussion about separation, but now there is a risk that partly false awareness of the crisis may start to increase. It would be positive if, instead, the discussion would wake us up to defend all schools.”
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