Some News on the Situation of Inclusive Education in Finland
Wed, 30/09/2015
> The new Finnish Government has launch in 29th May 2015 a reform programme to achieve the strategic objectives of the government term. This Strategic Programme of Prime Minister Sipilä’s Government has the objective to get from education, science and culture next year savings of EUR 178 million, by the year 2020 EUR 556 million (in the newspaper Keskisuomalainen 23.9.2015, was written, that the government the saving requirements on education are more than EUR 220 million). Savings are being sought, inter alia, by reducing administration, increasing cooperation between universities and polytechnics, supporting specialization of higher education and by rationalizing the network of higher education institutions.
> The differences between schools and the effects of the socio-economic family background seem to be growing in Finland. Reduced investments on education can increase inequality. They mean increasing class sizes in pre-primary and primary education, reducing the number of teachers, cutting research budgets, etc. In September in Finland was published a book ”Lohkoutuva peruskoulu ("in English “The Cleaving Comprehensive School”), which states that both schools and districts are already diverging students by their social background and learning outcomes. Highly educated, upper-middle-class children seek for better schools. Children's selection for specialized schools (weighted-curriculum teaching) is characterized. Children and young people can learn certain subjects more than in normal education, mainly in large schools. There is a possibility that the differences between schools are growing and some schools accumulate a lot of students with special needs.
> Literacy has weakened most in groups of immigrant and disadvantaged young people. Finnish students’ literacy has declined the third highest in the OECD countries 11 per cent of Finnish young people (15 year old students) can’t read properly. The proportion has risen in recent years, since in the turn of the 2000s it was seven per cent. Every 20. of higher level students is suffering from learning difficulties, but it varies a lot how they get help.
> At the same time education is one of the Government’s priority areas, which has key projects. Over the next three years, the government plans to invest EUR 300 million development of education (newspaper Keskisuomalainen 23.9.2015). For the government term this means, for example, new learning environments and digital materials to comprehensive schools. Development programmes for teacher training and continuing professional education will be launched. Classroom discipline will be improved by ensuring that teachers can focus on their core task, teaching. The ‘Schools on the Move’ project will be expanded across the country to ensure one hour of physical activity each day.
> The status of vocational education in society will be improved. The funding system and structure of upper secondary education will be revamped by keeping the various educational paths open. A regionally comprehensive education network will be preserved and interaction will be enhanced between educational institutions and working life.
> The barriers between vocational education for young people and adults will be removed and the provision of education. Measures will be sought that support earlier start of working life. Movement within and between different levels of education will be made as flexible as possible. Accelerated graduation and faster transition to working life will be encouraged. The entrance examination process to higher education institutions will be reformed. A third term will be introduced in higher education institutions. Cooperation between the upper secondary level and higher education will be increased.
> Young people’s life management skills and employment will be supported by means of strengthening social welfare and health care services as a part of the youth guarantee. The best practices of municipalities will be gathered together and the most effective ones will be adopted across the country. The youth guarantee will be developed into a model in which responsibility for a young person in need of support is allocated to a single place.
> All comprehensive school graduates will be guaranteed a place in education, working life or rehabilitation. Outreach youth work and job seeker coaching activities as well as mental health services for young people will be strengthened. Pay subsidies for young people and the Sanssi card will be developed in order to make work more attractive.
> The social security system will be clarified to encourage and promote career opportunities for people with partial work ability. The employment opportunities of people with disabilities and people with partial work ability on the open labor market will be promoted. Various kinds of inclusion methods will be taken into account in efforts to activate people with reduced work ability who have difficulties in accessing employment.
> The entrepreneurial prospects of people with disabilities will be improved. For example, the programme for people with partial work ability (OSKU) will be extended to support employment and working-life continuity. Job coaching will be increased. Customer-oriented service chains, referral for services and employer support will be ensured. Incentive traps relating to disability pension and earned income will be abolished.
> The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has not ratified yet. Finnish disability organizations and Finnish new Parliamentary Alliance of Disability Affairs (unofficial translation), which cooperates with disability organizations, try to get it ratified, but it’s a challenge for the future. Finnish Parliament approved the agreement this spring, but ratification was delayed due to legislation concerning self-determination of people with disabilities. Act for self-determination would be great to get ready for this year.
> The new Basic Education Act came into force at the beginning of 2011. Amendments in the Basic Education Act and National core curriculum include a new systematic way of organizing support. The syllabus of basic education is nine years. If the nine-year compulsory education is not possible due to disability or illness, compulsory education will start one year earlier than for other pupils and it will last 11 years. Support for growth, learning and school attendance is shaped into three categories: general support, intensified support and special support. Everyone is entitled to general support. Intensified and special supports are based on careful assessment and long-term planning in multi-professional teams and on individual learning plans for pupils.
> According to the National Core Curriculum each pupil is provided with support at his or her own school through various flexible arrangements, unless its provision inevitably requires the pupil to be transferred to another teaching group or school. The Act includes local school principle, so it was expected to promote inclusion. However, it leaves schools opportunities to separate students with special needs within the school or send them to another school.
> Many teachers have negative attitudes and fear inclusion, older teachers are usually more negative than younger teachers. It’s not easy to change them. Many have fear for the future and for insufficient resources. Those who have positive experiences of inclusion, in practice or through their studies, were usually more positive. Many teachers and other staff feel their need in-service training to update their knowledge and experience. Teacher education needs to be updated to get inclusion realized. All the teachers have not received sufficient continuing training and guidance to the new support model for the practical implementation. One obstacle for promoting inclusion is also school facilities, which are often not barrier-free.
> Finnish school as an institution is changing slowly, and inclusive education makes no exception. Instead of teacher-directed classroom teaching, inclusion refers to a multi-professional co-operation, where class teachers, special needs teachers, principals, assistants and other school staff, such as nurse and school psychologist, will work closely together. It means small groups shared teaching and co-teaching. Some studies show the new support model has brought more effective cooperation between teachers. Multiprofessionality has increased, like planning of support given to students, but simultaneous teaching is still in start-up phase. Half of the respondents considered the support model as a step towards an inclusive school and felt that it’s good. However, they wouldn’t abandon completely special schools and – classes.
> In autumn 2014, altogether 40,500 comprehensive school pupils received intensified support, which made up 7.5 per cent of all comprehensive school pupils. This is 4.2 percentage points more than in autumn 2011. After the legislation amendment in 2011, the share of pupils having received intensified support has grown yearly. The share of pupils having received special support remained in autumn 2014 on level with the previous year, at 7.3 per cent.
> Seventy-five per cent of the pupils who received intensified support in autumn 2014 received part-time special education, 57 per cent remedial teaching, and 42 per cent special needs assistance and/or interpretation services. Thirty-eight per cent of the pupils who received special support received part-time special education, 34 per cent received remedial teaching, and 59 per cent special needs assistance and/or interpretation services. Twenty-seven per cent of the pupils receiving special support had extended duration of compulsory education. These data derive from Statistics Finland’s education statistics. (http://www.stat.fi/til/erop/2014/erop_2014_2015-06-11_tie_001_en.html)
> Part-time special needs education is provided through flexible arrangements as team teaching, in a small group or individually. The objectives and contents of part time special needs education are to be articulated with other instruction provided for the pupils concerned. It is planned and pupils’ learning is assessed in cooperation between teachers. Part-time special needs education may be provided at all levels of support.
> The number of students in vocational education leading to a qualification having received special education has grown at least from 2004 onwards, when the production of these statistics was started: 12,500 pupils received special education in 2004, 16,500 in 2008, and 21,800 in 2013. The share of all students having received special education in all students in vocational education leading to a qualification was in the same years five, six and eight per cent. In 2013, there were 131,820 students in vocational education for young people (curriculum-based basic vocational education provided by educational institutions), of whom 16 per cent were special education students.
> Most special education students (86%) in vocational education for young people were studying in vocational education institutions. Thirteen per cent of special education students attended special vocational education institutions and around one per cent other educational institutions providing vocational education. Eighty per cent of special education students in vocational education for young people were studying in the same groups (integrated) with other students. (http://www.stat.fi/til/erop/2014/erop_2014_2015-06-11_en.pdf)
