Division of classes in Helsinki school discriminated against children of immigrant families
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According to the National Discrimination Tribunal, which was set up in 2004, the Aurinkolahti comprehensive school in the Helsinki suburb of Vuosaari was guilty of discrimination in the way it divided pupils into groups and classes based on their mother-tongue.
In a decision handed down on Wednesday, the body ordered the City of Helsinki to desist from forming school classes on the basis of the language of immigrant pupils. The school is contesting the matter.
Things came to a head when the father of a pupil at the school suspected that the class structure within the school was violating norms of equal treatment of pupils. The father argued that all children of immigrant backgrounds had been placed in the same class, and that in the parallel class of the same age, there were only children of Finnish backgrounds.
The parent first complained to the City of Helsinki's Education Committee. The committee's view was that the school's principal had given the father adequate reasons for the procedure, and the matter was dropped.
The father then contacted the Office of the Ombudsman for Minorities, who passed the case forward to the tribunal.
The school's principal Tuula Matikainen already denied the discrimination charges earlier, during discussions with the Office of the Ombudsman for Minorities, and said that the divison of children into different classes was not based on their immigrant background. She did, however, acknowledge that the division had taken note of the requirements for the teaching of Finnish as a second language.
The Ombudsman interpreted this as an admission that the division was on linguistic grounds, and that the procedure placed immigrant pupils in an unfavourable position.
The City of Helsinki upheld the views of its Education Committee and the school principal, arguing that the children of immigrant families were not placed in a worse position, but that their need to learn a good command of Finnish as quickly as possible was actively being encouraged.
The school's principal pointed out to Helsingin Sanomat that the original complaint was made several years ago, the pupil in question was no longer at the school, and that the class in question no longer existed. She also noted that children of immigrant backgrounds had in fact been placed in the other class in cases where their Finnish skills were sufficient to cope without remedial teaching.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 2.3.2006 - TODAY |
 Division of classes in Helsinki school discriminated against children of immigrant families
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