School sizes expected to grow in coming years

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Large schools of more than 1,000 pupils are becoming increasingly common in Finland. The trend is caused by the increasing number of schools combining the lower and upper levels of comprehensive school, and the merging of upper secondary schools (or high schools) (lukio), both with each other, and with comprehensive schools. There is also a trend to build multi-purpose buildings especially in new residential areas and growth centres.
     
Currently there are about ten upper secondary schools with more than 1,000 pupils. The largest comprehensive schools have about 900 pupils.
     Finland has had a very dense school network by international standards, but now the number of separate schools is rapidly declining.
     Hundreds of comprehensive schools have been shut down, and the trend is only now spreading to the upper secondary school level.
     There is considerable regional variation in the proportions of different age groups in the Finnish population, which affects decisions on education. One option is to set up common campuses for upper secondary and vocational schools. Some of Finland’s vocational schools already comprise thousands of pupils.
     
There are about 400 combined schools, says Kimmo Tanttu, chairman of the Finnish combined school network Syve.
     About one in five comprehensive school pupils in Finland attend a combined school, in which the same administrative and functional unit can have pupils from the preschool level through class 10. according to forecasts, more than half of Finnish schoolchildren will attend such schools ten years from now.
     Tanttu adds that there are dozens of combined schools which will also extend to the upper secondary level.
     Tanttu himself is the head teacher of a school in Mikkeli with 200 pupils, and he is not opposed to units that are even larger.
     
“The problems faced by schools are not linked with their size. If there are not enough resources, such as personnel and facilities, it will not work in a small unit either”, Tanttu says.
     “I have visited the Mikkola school in Vantaa, for instance, where there are more than 900 pupils. It is very peaceful there, and surveys indicate that there is little school bullying”, Tanttu says.
     He feels that it is good to learn to tolerate different people - those of different ages, the disabled, and immigrants. “When small children buzz around among the older ones, the older pupils take on an educational role.”
     
So far there are no Finnish studies that indicate how a school’s size is reflected in pupils’ skills and sense of well-being.
      Jouni Välijärvi, head of the Finnish Institute for Educational Research, large schools need to be organised into smaller units, in which “some adult is genuinely responsible for each child”.
     In large schools it can be easier to arrange support services, such as health care, or facilities such as libraries or swimming pools. Combined schools also promote continuity, as pupils do not transfer to a separate upper level comprehensive.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finland breaks point record in PISA study (5.12.2007)
  Finnish youth stay in school longest in the OECD (10.9.2008)

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