European School Helsinki to open its doors to the general public

Tuition and fees for pupils other than children of EU officials will be between EUR 2,000-4,000 per year

print this

By Marjukka Liiten
     
      Helsinki’s European School, which was initially established to serve the educational needs of the children of workers at ECHA (the European Chemicals Agency), is set to open its doors to the general public in the autumn of 2010.
      The school’s application period is now open and will end on January 29th.
      Entrance examinations will be held in February, for there is only a limited number of studentships available.
     
”We will admit perhaps a hundred or so pupils, who are not children of the European Chemicals Agency personnel or the school personnel. The exact number of studentships offered to outsiders will be decided by the school board”, explains headmaster Teijo Koljonen.
      So far enquiries have primarily come from other foreigners living in Finland and from Finnish nationals who have previously lived abroad, Koljonen adds.
      The so-called accredited partnership school in the European Schools system is maintained by the Finnish government. The Ministry of Education has also determined the fees that are to be collected from pupils other than those whose parents work for ECHA.
     
The schooling comprises a two-year pre-primary school, a five-year primary school and a seven-year secondary school. Pupils start the primary school at the age of six.
      The aim for the schooling is to follow the European School curriculum, which enables the pupils to take the European Baccalaureate (EB), which in turn entitles students to seek admission to any university in any EU member state on the same terms as nationals of that member state with equivalent qualifications.
      A semester in the pre-primary school comes with a price tag of around a thousand euros.
      The price of education per semester in the primary and secondary schools is close to EUR 1,500 and EUR 2,000 respectively.
      In addition, all pupils have to pay for food, transportation to school, plus books and other study materials.
     
The school has Finnish, English, and French language sections. Pupils must apply for a study place in the section of their mother tongue or their dominant language.
      The European School Helsinki commenced its operation in Ratakatu in the autumn of 2008 and was relocated to Bulevardi at the start of this year.
      There are 14 actual European Schools in seven different countries - Belgium, Holland, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Spain, and Luxemburg - with approximately 20,000 pupils enrolled.
      These schools enjoy considerable financial support from the EU Commission.
      Accredited partnership schools similar to the one in Helsinki can also be found in Italy, Ireland, and Greece - usually in locations where there is an EU agency of one type or another.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 20.1.2010


Links:
  Ministry of Education press release: European Schooling Helsinki
  Ministry of Education press release, 13-09-2007
  Schola Europaea
  The European Baccalaureate
  European School (Wikipedia)

MARJUKKA LIITEN / Helsingin Sanomat
marjukka.liiten@hs.fi