The headmasters and headmistresses of the Helsinki schools were dumbfounded at the news they received on Monday afternoon about the closure of up to 20 Finnish-language comprehensive schools in the capital in the course of the next five years.
"The consultants' proposal is against the City of Helsinki's strategy", said headmistress Leila Lindqvist of Soininen School in the suburb of Malmi, arguing that the proposal is based on money alone.
She held up a letter sent to all schools by the City of Helsinki's Education Department in June, including an action plan for the current school year.
The letter stressed customer-oriented education services, saying that attention should be paid to both "individual learning qualifications and internationalization".
The Education Department wrote further that individual as well as regional differences should be taken into account when considering educational services in the city. Even the increasing needs for special support and multicultural teaching were mentioned in the letter.
While planning actions against the closures, some schools also invited the parents of the schoolchildren to join the battle.
On the other hand, some heads of schools had already heard that stringent measures could be proposed.
Also some politicians regard the consultants' proposal as exceptionally harsh and not well argued, while admitting that some tough decisions have to be made, as the fact is that the number of children enrolled in comprehensive schools in the capital will fall by around 4,500 by 2010.
