Helsinki Education Department upholds ban on initiation rituals

Suggestions for modernising of traditions fall on deaf ears

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The City of Helsinki’s Education Department sees no reason to remove the ban in place on initiation ceremonies at the city's upper secondary schools. These events, for freshmen entering the three-year course of study at such schools, are known locally as “nahkiaiset”, among other terms.
      In September the Education Department issued a ban on such activities based on the opinions put forward on discussion forums and on feedback from parents.
      In many schools, the ritual baptism of new pupils involves dressing up in distinctive and embarrassing clothing and being ordered to do the bidding of older students.
     
Pupils at the Kallio Upper Secondary School drafted a suggestion to the Education Department at the end of September, proposing that such festivities be permitted in future, provided that they complied with certain mutually agreed terms.
      The pupils' request suggested that the initiation ceremonies were not an exercise in hazing or teasing younger students but a voluntary and light-hearted traditional activity that was meant to welcome first-graders to the school community.
     
The plea fell on deaf ears, and Eila Kunnari of the Department’s Youth and Adult Education Division said that the decision will stand.
      The pupils as such were not a party to the banning decision, and their opinions were not sought on the matter. Kunnari approves of the idea of a ban on such activities in all Finnish upper secondary schools.
     
A questionnaire survey carried out on the popular IRC-Galleria web portal at the end of September saw nearly 48,000 youngsters, or 61% of the respondents, taking the view that such initiation rites should be preserved either as is or in a milder form. Only one in ten of the respondents felt that a ban was appropriate. One third of the respondents had no interest either way.
      The results of the survey were published on the Net by Nuorten Ääni ("The Voice of the Young"), a city project to promote participation by young people and encourage them to take part in decision-making.
      In addition, more than 700 people have signed an online petition urging that the tradition be overhauled and that such events not be banned outright.
     
The ban has been one of the hottest topics of discussion among upper secondary pupils this autumn, and the resolute position of the Education Department has not gone unnoticed among the pupils, who feel in many cases that they have been walked over.


Links:
  City of Helsinki Education Department
  Nuorten Ääni

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