City of Espoo considering major cost-cutting measures in education services next autumn

The Education Unit plans a 10% cut on lessons

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Next autumn, nobody will be having much fun in Espoo’s schools.
      Until now, the City of Espoo has invested a lot in its schools, but for the next year, the civil servants are planning record-breaking belt-tightening measures.
     
”In the autumn of 2010, the schoolchildren will return to a practically entirely different school”, says Martti Hellström, the principal of Espoo’s Aurora School, describing what the future situation will be if the proposed savings do materialise.
      The plan puts at risk all nice afternoon events, including the school’s band and homework clubs, while also day-to-day learning will be endangered.
      ”Less money and bigger classes”, said Terhi Mäkitalo, describing the potential effects of the planned savings, while picking up her first-grader daughter Iiris Kurki from one of the afternoon clubs.
      According to the proposal made by the civil servants, the number of lessons would be reduced by 10% in comprehensive schools and by 7% in upper secondary schools. The cuts would be larger than those made during the recession of the 1990s.
     
The goal of the reductions is to achieve savings of EUR 3.8 million.
      ”It is a heavy reduction, but we do not have any options. We know that all residents are against this, but we are forced to save money”, says Kaisu Toivonen, the director of Education Services.
      The planned savings are also bound to cut a number of jobs.
      ”At our school, a 10% cut on lessons would mean a work input of 2.5 teachers”, principal Hellström of the Aurora School calculates. In other words, some teachers would be in the firing line.
      According to the plan, a total of EUR 9.7 million will have to be sliced off Espoo’s education services.
      In many other schools the number of dismissals would be higher than that at the Aurora School.
      ”In large schools, the number of teachers would decline by four or five”, says Aulis Pitkälä, the director of the Section of Education and Culture, who has drafted the budget proposal.
     
The Education Committee dealt with the matter on Thursday. Chair Marika Niemi (National Coalition Party) was shocked at the budget proposal.
      ”On no account can we sacrifice the quality of teaching”, Niemi noted.
      According to Niemi, all savings should be controlled. The city’s administration could be streamlined, and in certain schools ”the use of space could be stepped up”.
     
On Niemi’s initiative, the committee proposed that Pitkälä’s proposal should be amended, suggesting a compromise that would reduce the total costs by only EUR 4.2 million.
      However, Aulis Pitkälä was not impressed by the proposal. He said that the decision made by the committee is just an opinion to which the City Manager Marketta Kokkonen will not necessarily pay any attention when she is drafting the city’s budget.
      ”The committee does what it does. The fact is that the appropriation for teachers’ salaries will have to be reduced. The question is only by how much”, Pitkälä concluded.
     
Pitkälä also points out that Espoo has funds that have not been allocated yet.
      For example, the future increase in the rate of local taxation will bring additional tax revenues of EUR 12.5 million.
      At least part of this sum should end up in the hands of the Section of Education and Culture, Pitkälä hopes.
      ”Come what may, some cost-cutting measures will be inevitable”, the head of Education and Culture added.
     
The Espoo City Council is to make a final decision on the city’s budget for next year. The matter is to be handled at the City Council at the beginning of November.
      The schools and parents are planning to put up some resistance to the proposed cost-cutting measures. For example, the parents of the pupils at the Aurora School have signed a petition against the economy measures.
      ”Espoo residents are enlightened people. Most pupils’ parents want to exert influence, and also know how to go about it”, says headmaster Martti Hellström.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Sharp decline in tax revenue forces Espoo to slash spending (30.1.2009)

Links:
  City of Espoo: Education

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