A long ride to school

Kiia Näkkälä in Finnish Lapland

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By Laura Mäntynen
     
      The road in the village of Näkkälä is dark and quiet at half past seven on Monday morning. All that can be seen is the halogen light further away in the window of the home of Kiia Näkkälä, age 10. It is that light that serves as a homecoming beacon for her and the other children in the family at the end of the school day.
      It is not very cold, but nevertheless, it is nice to get into the warm bus after waiting for a few minutes. The Näkkälä children travel to school to Hetta, the main village of the municipality of Enontekiö. They have been making the trip for more than a year, ever since the school in the village of Leppäjärvi was shut down.
     
The school is now 45 kilometres away. The total daily travel time is about an hour and a half. This is still within the legal limit; only 40 pupils in different parts of Finnish Lapland exceed the maximum of two and a half hours of travel in a single day.
      "During the ride I usually just sit and tease the bigger kids, especially the boys", Kiia Näkkälä says.
      During the bus ride it is also possible to sleep off some of the morning fatigue, but the young passengers rarely do so. Sometimes they will catch up on homework they forgot to do the previous evening, or study for tests.
      After sitting on a bus for three quarters of an hour, the Hetta school traditional ten-minute morning walk does good.
     
The combined third and fourth grade class begins the day with environmental studies.
      "The children who travelled the longest distance, from Näkkälä, manage to be surprisingly alert at school, even during the dark part of the year." says teacher Anja Järvensivu.
      "However, the two-and-a-half-week long Christmas holiday certainly did not come too soon."
     
For schoolchildren travelling a longer distance the school day really is the length of a full working day. Kiia has school until three in the afternoon on four days a week, and on those days she gets back home at about four PM.
      "I started feeling tired during Finnish class, it was hard to keep my eyes open. I had to blink quite a bit." Kiia recalls on her way back on the bus.
      Her mother Titta Näkkälä says that the children are much more tired on weekdays than when their school was closer to home.
      "Especially shortly before Christmas it seemed that they would never manage to cope with the work. In the spring, the end of the school year is also quite torturous", she says.
      "There are some positive sides to the change of schools", she admits. "There are more friends now, and they can get full teams for games."
     
The key factor in fighting fatigue is getting to bed early. Otherwise the evening can stretch out too long. Titta Näkkälä also feels that daily exercise is important.
      "The kids do go out quite willingly after meals."
      "And eating well does help", adds Kiia as she peels potatoes to be served mashed with reindeer stew.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 24.1.2005

More on this subject:
 FACTFILE: Elementary schools reduced by half
 Iris Holmström takes the Suomenlinna ferry every day
 FACTFILE: In Helsinki, choice of schools affects length of commute

LAURA MÄNTYNEN / Helsingin Sanomat
laura.mantynen@hs.fi