Helsinki school district changes driven by space, official says

Changes to Helsinki school catchment areas are being made to balance pupil numbers and ensure suitable school facilities, not to address segregation, Katriina Aaltio, the city’s eastern major district manager for basic education, told Yle.

Some children from Puu-Myllypuro will attend Itäkeskus Comprehensive School instead of Myllypuro Comprehensive School from next autumn. The changes will be introduced in stages, with some taking effect in 2030.

Aaltio said some schools are overcrowded while others have available space. She said decisions were based on school capacity and keeping pupils’ journeys within a reasonable distance. For primary school pupils, the aim is for the journey to be less than two kilometres.

“These factors are more important than keeping neighbourhoods intact,” Aaltio said.

The neighbourhoods differ significantly. Itäkeskus has considerably more residents whose first language is neither Finnish nor Swedish, while average incomes are lower there than in Myllypuro.

According to Helsingin Sanomat, the changes are intended to prevent segregation by reducing differences between neighbourhoods. Aaltio said, however, that information about pupils’ first languages or where they live was not used in making the decisions.

The city’s housing unit was consulted on how changing the boundaries would affect the housing structure, such as the proportion of residents living in owner occupied homes. The unit concluded that the changes would not bring significant improvements or deterioration, Aaltio said.

Aaltio said measures to prevent segregation, such as ensuring that neighbourhoods have different forms of housing, were welcome, but added that the school boundary changes had not been made from that perspective.

Officials differ on the reasons

Kaisa Eskola, chair of the Helsinki Education and Training Committee’s Finnish language section, said the decisions were also motivated by a desire to reduce segregation, in addition to balancing the use of school facilities.

All parties in Helsinki have committed to reducing segregation, and changing school catchment areas is one way of doing this, Eskola said. She added that moving the boundaries could help children from different neighbourhoods get to know one another better.

Eskola said the immediate issue was space. Myllypuro school is so full that organising breaks and school meals is difficult, while Itäkeskus has room available and is nearby. For some children from Puu-Myllypuro, the journey to Itäkeskus may even be shorter than the journey to Myllypuro school.

Laura Rissanen, deputy chair of the Finnish language section, said the changes were also intended to reduce class sizes by balancing pupil numbers. She said the National Coalition Party had proposed giving families and officials an additional year to discuss the decision, but the proposal was rejected in a vote.

The boundaries and pupil numbers are monitored continuously. Aaltio said last year’s cuts to housing benefits led to increased moves across Helsinki, with some areas affected more strongly than others. Myllypuro gained about 70 new pupils last autumn, she said, partly because several large apartment building renovations were completed.

Residents have had mixed reactions. Sanna Clement, whose oldest child will start school in two years, said she viewed the change neutrally and had a positive impression of Itäkeskus Comprehensive School.