Finland lacks data on qualified special education teachers as demand grows

No one knows exactly how many qualified special education teachers Finland has, even as schools report rising demand for their expertise, Yle reports. The country’s largest teachers’ union, OAJ, warns the lack of a national teacher registry makes it impossible to plan training effectively.

“Across Finland, there are challenges in recruiting qualified special education teachers,” said OAJ chair Katarina Murto. “But without accurate data, it’s difficult to determine how many more we need to train.”

The shortage has worsened since last autumn, when reforms to learning support in early and basic education expanded the need for specialised teaching. Previously, nearly half of Finland’s special education teachers had transitioned from general classroom or subject teaching, often using adult education grants to upskill. But those grants were abolished in 2024, removing a key pathway for teachers like Piia Virtanen, a primary school educator with two decades of experience.

“I’d love to work with special education expertise,” Virtanen told Yle. “But I can’t afford to take unpaid leave for studies.”

Marko Brusila, a special education teacher in Turku, completed his qualification through the now-defunct grant system. He warns that without trained specialists, schools increasingly rely on short-term hires—teachers without full qualifications, employed for a maximum of one school year at a time. “There are always vacancies, especially in big cities,” Brusila noted.

OAJ highlights that while Finland tracks registries for everything from dogs to compost bins, it has no system for monitoring teacher qualifications. A 2019 survey of 3,500 special education teachers found 90.6% were formally qualified, leaving roughly 330 working without proper credentials. Murto calls this “alarming” and points to countries like Scotland, where unqualified teachers aren’t permitted even as substitutes.

The Ministry of Education has allocated extra funding to universities for special education training, increasing intake in 2023, 2025, and 2026. But OAJ insists a national teacher registry is the only way to ensure long-term planning. “Every learner deserves a qualified teacher,” Murto said.