The foundations for the well-being and success of our society are built in schools. Schools must offer equal opportunities for all children and adolescents throughout their educational journey, from early childhood education, through the primary and secondary level and up to tertiary and further studies. We must ensure a safe learning environment, in which children and adolescents are prepared for coming challenges. This requires enough competent staff and other adults in schools.
Finnish schools are built on the pillars of equality and highly educated, well-motivated teachers and staff. Our elementary education is a success story, but the work is not finished yet; development must continue. It requires national efforts, but the lion’s share of the work is done at the municipal level. There must be sufficient resources for schools’ everyday operations. Those needing support must receive it. Particular attention must be paid to inclusivity and equal treatment. Our goal is that no one is left behind.
We want Finland to be the world’s child-friendliest country, which is why we also want to invest in making everyday life easier for families with children. This means well-functioning schools, teacher well-being and success opportunities for every child.
SFP wants:
- more children to attend early childhood education, and to make it free in the long term
- teaching in the second official language to begin already in early childhood education
- education and teaching to be equal and gender-neutral
- to increase resources directed at reducing all forms of bullying
- to fight segregation in basic education
- to ensure the safety of the school environment and of school transport for all
- all of our school buildings to be not only healthy but also inspiring learning environments that allow staff and pupils to focus on education
- to provide teachers good tools for developing education and teaching methods, and to enhance remote cooperation between schools
- to have well-functioning morning and afternoon activities for children, with opportunities for diverse indoor and outdoor pastimes
- children to have opportunities to take part in leisure activities they enjoy in connection with the school day
- to ensure schools offer sufficient challenges for those who need them
- to provide homework assistance after the end of the school day, for instance in the form of volunteer co-educators at school
- to ensure every pupil and student has access to good learning materials, in both traditional and digital format
- to guarantee on-site support in schools in the form of psychologists, social workers and sufficient resources for student and study guidance
- to see increased cooperation between vocational education and business and commerce, and an emphasis on entrepreneurship in vocational education
- to increase the attractiveness of vocational education, guaranteeing its high quality
- to promote the use of apprenticeship agreements in vocational education
- to guarantee access to high-quality general upper secondary school education
- to emphasize the intrinsic value of basic art education, in that it increases well-being and supports other learning
- to have well-functioning support for pupils with special needs
- to secure the right of the Sami to receive education in the three Sami languages, and to develop this education
- to ensure pupils and students have access to sign-language services at school
- to ensure student bodies and associations have the ability to influence school operations
- to guarantee sufficient support and proper integration for immigrant children
- to ensure good dialogue with families takes place when determining the level of teaching in the national languages that children with immigrant backgrounds will receive
- to see more municipalities offering schooling in English
- to continue developing youth social work in schools, so that children and adolescents have safe adults in their everyday lives
- more pupils to have access to language immersion and language showers
- to work towards keeping class sizes reasonable at all levels of education
- to invest in awareness-raising and emotional learning at school, in order to counteract destructive norms and prevent violence by teaching pupils to identify and manage their emotions
- to see municipalities securing sufficient hourly resources for schools
to see well-functioning collaboration between homes and schools
