Teachers of Espoo International School represent seven nationalities
Shortage of suitable English-language teaching material
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By Marjukka Liiten
Blue, green, orange, and brown markers fly across paper as the students of the Espoo International School colour in Finnish maps according to differences in elevation. The students and their backgrounds are at least as colourful.
Teacher David Allen, who came to Finland from New Zealand 23 years ago, is teaching a geography class in English, with Finland as the topic of the lesson – a familiar country, but many of the pupils were not born here, and some have not even spent their entire childhood here.
The International School operates for the fourth year out of modest facilities in the Espoo district of North Tapiola. The teaching staff represents seven nationalities, with an even larger variety among the students. Out of the total of 148 students, 20 take Finnish as a foreign language, and there are a few who do not speak a word of the language.
The majority of the students speak several languages, however. A part of the pupils are Finns who have lived abroad for years, and some are originally from another country.
Many of the students come from multicultural families.
For example, Meri Ålhberg has lived in Thailand and South America for five years due to her father’s job, and Patrick Pasha has spent time in the United States.
Joona Karhapää was six when he moved to a town close to London. He does not miss the school uniform and slightly stricter rules of the British school.
Xiaowei Xu, who is originally from China, has lived in Finland for nine years, and Sandra Eneh, who has Nigerian roots, was born in Finland.
The school receives students from all over Espoo, but with the exception of Kauniainen, the school cannot take any students from other municipalities at present.
The curriculum is completely Finnish, but it is embellished with American and British teaching material. The teachers prepare a part of the material themselves, as it is hard to come by enough suitable material in English, Allen remarks.
"We have not had any big problems in finding them", Anne-Marie Rapo, who has held the position of school principal since last autumn, describes the situation with teachers. A part of the teachers are shared with the high school in South Tapiola, which offers its pupils the possibility to graduate with the AICE (Advanced International Certificate of Education) degree, which is administered by the University of Cambridge.
The students in the International School, which offers grades seven through nine, mainly come from Espoo elementary schools that offer classes in foreign languages. In the preliminary plans of the City of Espoo, the school is set to receive new facilities.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 13.2.2005
More on this subject:
 Growing number of international schools emerging in Finnish cities
BACKGROUND: Language immersion from the 1980s
MARJUKKA LIITEN / Helsingin Sanomat
marjukka.liiten@hs.fi
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