Up to 20 schools facing the axe in Helsinki

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The City of Helsinki Education Department has received a report from the international consulting company Net Effect on the reorganisation of the city's school network.
      The consultants propose that a total of 17 to 20 medium-sized Finnish-language schools with 300 to 400 pupils each should be closed down entirely in Helsinki in the period from 2008 to 2010. The number corresponds to some 6,200 pupil places.
      The report also indicates that Helsinki should abandon most of its temporary schools. In addition, a number of existing school construction projects should be shelved or dropped.
     
Net Effect was commissioned last spring to conduct a survey that would be used as background information when the city is outlining the reorganisation of its school system in the course of the winter.
      "Because the population forecasts show that the number of pupils is falling, it is necessary to consider the development of the school system from that angle, too", stressed Tuomas Nurmela (National Coalition), the Chairman of the City Education Committee, speaking on Monday.
     
The reorganisation of the city's school network has been seen as an urgent project, as the number of pupils in Helsinki's comprehensive schools in 2010 is predicted to be almost 4,500 fewer than currently.
      Furthermore, the number of pupils is expected to decrease by almost 8,400 from current levels by 2015. This figure represents about 17 per cent of the current number of pupils.
      According to the consultants' assessment, the total amount of cost savings that could be achieved through the proposed closures would be approximately EUR 10 million in annual costs of premises as of 2011. The annual costs for premises in the Finnish-language comprehensive schools are currently in excess of EUR 72 million.
     
Currently, the City of Helsinki has 157 comprehensive schools, 38 upper secondary schools, and 27 vocational institutions. According to the consultants, the numbers of upper secondary schools, vocational institutions and Swedish-language comprehensive or upper secondary schools could remain more or less the same.
      The Education Department presented the report to the headmasters of Helsinki's schools on Monday. Next it will be circulated for comments among the school boards, the student organisations, and the parents' associations, as well as to the neighbourhood associations.
      The Education Department will offer its own proposal on the reorganisation of the Helsinki school network at the beginning of 2007. The aim is that the City Council could make its decision on the issue by next summer.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Tikkurila school pupils form a human chain between two schools (19.4.2005)

Links:
  Helsinki Education Department website
  Net Effect Ltd

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