Six Finnish cities push for tighter homeschooling rules

Helsinki and five other major Finnish cities want stricter national rules for homeschooling, Yle reports. Helsinki Mayor Daniel Sazonov says home education should be allowed only in exceptional cases, such as for health reasons, a proposal that would in practice require children to attend school.

The cities say common rules are needed to support children’s learning, social development and integration, and to ensure consistent oversight. Finland has compulsory education, but not compulsory school attendance. At present, parents can notify authorities that a child will be educated at home, and monitoring varies between municipalities.

Sazonov says schooling involves more than learning set subjects: it is also a social process. He also points to its role in integration, noting that many pupils in Helsinki speak a first language other than Finnish or Swedish.

Just over 200 children, around 0.4 per cent of Helsinki’s pupils, are currently homeschooled. The number has risen slightly in recent years. The city council decided last week to tighten its monitoring, but Sazonov says municipalities have limited powers and specialist teachers can currently only assess pupils’ progress.

Tampere Deputy Mayor for Education and Culture Anne-Mari Jussila says the proposal is not driven by concerns about radicalisation. Fewer than 50 children are homeschooled in Tampere, she says, and radicalisation is not currently a problem there. She would prefer children to learn alongside their peers at school.

Jussila says the six cities want the next government to set clear, consistent rules on who can be homeschooled and how learning should be monitored. In Tampere, 20 examining teachers assess homeschooled pupils, with assessments often organised by subject at lower secondary level. In some municipalities, she says, just one person may be responsible for assessing pupils’ progress.

Sazonov hopes the government formed after next spring’s parliamentary election will begin preparing a school attendance requirement. He estimates that legislation could take effect at the start of the school year in autumn 2028.