The Ministry of Education and Culture, in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, has prepared a comprehensive action plan to prevent bullying, teasing, violence and harassment in schools and educational institutions.
The means of the program range from actions to prevent bullying to teacher training aiming to promote well-being of pupils and students by various means. The goal is to ensure that every child and young person can attend school safely and to ensure zero tolerance for school bullying.
Activities to fight against bullying need to begin already in early childhood education and care. According to the action plan a separate programme is needed to support emotional intelligence and social skills in early childhood education and care as a means of preventing bullying and teasing.
Provisions on bullying and harassment in the Act on General Upper Secondary Education and in the Act on Vocational Education and Training should be made more specific. Therefore, there is a need for some amendments to current legislation.
The action plan includes 14 measures, for example
• Equipping children with necessary tools to develop emotional intelligence and social skills already at the early childhood education.
• Providing adequate training for teachers so they can detect and prevent bullying and loneliness among pupils, granting teachers and principals the authority to intervene in disagreements and act against bullies if needed
• Hiring more psychologists for schools.
Institutions are also encouraged to cooperate with police, social workers and youth workers to ensure a safe and peaceful environment.
Bullying and teasing takes also place outside school time, at pupil’s leisure time. Youth workers meet students and young people outside of school and therefore the government considers it important to introduce the methods and practices used by youth workers in schools and educational institutions
More information Action plan to prevent bullying – resources, education and legislative amendments at the centre
Program measures in Finnish Ohjelman toimenpiteet
The Right to learn - equal start to learning paths programme for 2020-2022 spans from ECEC to basic education. It comprises projects improving quality and equality. 180 million euros is allocated to basic education and 125 million to ECEC. The programme aims to reduce differences in learning outcomes connected to childrens’ socio-economic background, gender or immigrant background.
The proposal to amend relevant acts has been submitted to the Parliament. The amendment aims to reinforce the equality of children irrespective of family situation. Currently (since 2016) the subjective right of children to ECEC is limited to 20 hours per week and depends on the child's parent or other guardian’s employment situation or the status of family or parental leave.
In Finland, the participation rate of five-year-olds in ECEC is lower than in other OECD countries on average. To increase participation the Ministry of education and culture grants funding for municipalities participating in the pilot to cover some of the loss of revenue due to providing free ECEC for five-year-olds. This is a continuation of a pilot started in August of 2018 (see below). The Finnish Education Evaluation Centre evaluates the outcomes of the measures. The first report will come out in October of 2019.
The action aims to minimise the effect of children’s socio-economic background in learning outcomes and to explore the possibility of providing pre-primary education for two years instead of one year. A report by the Finnish National Agency for Education examining the changes needed if the proposed two-year pre-primary education were to be carried out is due by the end of 2018.
For more information in Finnish: https://minedu.fi/artikkeli/-/asset_publisher/viisivuotiaiden-maksuttoman-varhaiskasvatuksen-kokeilu-laajenee-ministerio-avasi-uuden-haun-kunnille
The Early Childhood Education and Care Act came into force in the beginning of September 2018. The reformed legislation includes the following key changes.
• The number of ECEC staff with a higher education qualification will be increased. By 2030, two thirds of the ECEC centres' staff must have a Bachelor level qualification.
• Job titles will be reformed and clarified.
• Regulations on the transfer of information between ECEC centres, authorites and home will be changed to ease the exchange of information.
• A data base collecting information on ECEC providers, staff, families and children will be set up to support authorities in carrying out their statutory responsibilities; and to provide up-to-date, reliable, comprehensive and comparable data.
• The prevention of bullying is explicitly stated: each child must be protected from violence, bullying and harrassment.
Changes in the working time of kindergarten teachers, and special needs kindergarten teachers and directors of ECEC centres will be implemented. From the beginning on May 2018, 13 per cent of weekly working hours must be spent on planning, assessment and development. This excludes teamwork, staff meetings and meetings with parents.
The Government will launch a broad experimentation on free early childhood education for five-year-olds in co-operation with municipalities which are interested in the experiment. The Government will grant 5 million euros for the experiment between 2018 and 2019.
Customer fees for early childhood education and care will be reduced by about 71 million euros. The change brings about 6700 families to free early childhood education. The payment for average income family with two children would fall by more than 1,200 euros a year.
One of the aims is to improve the family's financial situation and to enable more children to participate in early childhood education. Increasing participation is aimed at improving the quality and accessibility of early childhood education. In addition, the change aims at increasing the incentives for work. Approximately 4,200 more people are estimated to be employed by 2021.
Payments are determined on the basis of family income and family size as well as the time reserved for early childhood education. The income limits of all families are increased. This will, in particular, reduce customer payments for early childhood education for small and middle income families. Larger payment discounts are targeted at multiple families.
The maximum payment for early childhood education will still be 290 euros. Municipalities may also decide on lower fees.
Early childhood education payments will now be reduced again during this government term, they were reduced earlier from 1 March 2017.
The amendment is intended to enter into force on 1 January 2018
Finnish children attend early childhood education and care clearly less than children in other EU member states and the Nordic countries. The reviewers have submitted to the Ministry of Education and Culture a proposal for a roadmap for early childhood education and care until 2030. The reviewers propose a reduction in ECEC fees to increase the participation rate. The Government decided in its mid-term policy review session to further reduce the fees for low-income families as of 1 January 2018. The reviewers would reduce the progressiveness of fees and raise the highest fees to improve the incentives for work.
The period of eligibility for home care allowance and childcare leave should be reduced to two years, according to the reviewers, to give parents incentives for work and for placing their children in early childhood education and care. Currently a parent can receive home care allowance and childcare leave until the youngest child turns three years of age. Home care allowance is particularly popular in those population groups where the children would benefit from earlier participation in early childhood education and care, according to the reviewers’ estimate.
The shorter period of home care allowance would bring 5,500 children into early childhood education and care, more than 4,000 mothers would enter working life, more taxes and fees would be paid, and the expenditure on home care allowance would be cut down by some EUR 130 million.
The reviewers would give 5-year-olds access to pre-primary education free of charge. Currently pre-primary education is free of charge for 20 hours a week, and it has been compulsory for all 6-year-olds since 2015. The first year of pre-primary education could be voluntary, while the second year before the age of compulsory education could be compulsory.
The reviewers propose that universities increase gradually the number of bachelor’s degrees that qualify for teaching in early childhood education and care. They further propose as a long-term objective that only master’s degrees would qualify for teaching in early childhood education and care and that a permanent continuing education system would be created for early childhood education and care.
The Ministry of Education and Culture and the universities have already agreed to raise the number of students admitted to kindergarten teacher training by one third. In the government discussion on spending limits in April 2017, the Government decided to grant a total of EUR 28 million for a period of four years for the purpose of developing the personnel structure in early childhood education and care.
The Government has cancelled planned increases of the early childhood education and care fees. Instead, targeted cuts in payments for low-income families of 2-3 persons are carried out. This will improve particularly lone parent’s circumstances to take up work. Early childhood education fees will decrease approximately by EUR 10 million.