One step forward, two steps back – education

The government’s upper secondary education reforms are necessary — but the simultaneous cuts of around €120 million to vocational training effectively cancel them out.

What reforms are planned for upper secondary education?

Parliament currently has two legislative proposals before it whose purpose, if enacted, is to reform upper secondary education. On one hand, the aim is to reform vocational education and training (VET) so that it better meets the need for continuous learning and further training. On the other hand, VET will also be affected by the reform of learning support, which aims to shift the emphasis from individual support to preventive group-level support.

In Kirkkonummen Sanomat ( 23.10.2024 ), Minister of Education Anders Adlercreutz was interviewed about the ongoing reforms and expressed satisfaction with how upper secondary education could better respond to current working-life needs and support pupils in graduating. We agree that the legislative reforms are good and necessary. What is cause for concern, however, are the simultaneous cuts to VET funding. Cuts of approximately €120 million have been planned for education. The additional €10 million in funding for implementing the above-mentioned legislative proposals does not make up for these cuts — and vocational education, which was already underfunded before, will be left in an even weaker position after this government.

The cuts will therefore unavoidably also affect pupils of compulsory school age.

Why do the cuts undermine the reforms?

The government has defended its cuts to VET by arguing that they would not affect the education of young people of compulsory school age. However, education providers do not organise teaching separately for compulsory-age pupils and, for example, adults changing careers — teaching takes place in the same groups, the same premises and with the same equipment, for both initial qualification students and adult students. The cuts will therefore unavoidably also affect pupils of compulsory school age.

Vocational education in particular has an increasingly high proportion of young people in difficult life situations. A significant share of special and intensive support education is delivered in vocational institutions, and the number of pupils needing support is growing all the time. The cuts endanger the ability to keep all young people on the educational pathway. Moreover, it is extremely short-sighted to make it harder to change careers or gain necessary additional qualifications through vocational studies at a time when many sectors are suffering from a shortage of skilled labour.

It is therefore clear that if there were ever any easy savings to be found, those savings have already been made before the forthcoming new cuts.

How are the cuts affecting Omnia?

Omnia, the joint municipal authority providing vocational education in Kirkkonummi, Espoo and Kauniainen, is planning its future from a very challenging financial starting point. In addition to the actual cuts, temporary additional funding — for example for practical nurse training and apprenticeship training — is coming to an end. Furthermore, Omnia’s state subsidy funding for 2024 was unexpectedly almost six million euros lower than the completed student-years and the regional training need would have suggested. This reduction in funding led to severe financial and operational adjustments at Omnia, which also resulted in redundancies. It is therefore clear that if there were ever any easy savings to be found, those savings have already been made before the forthcoming new cuts.

As a whole, these steps forward do not compensate for the steps backwards the government is taking at the same time. Vocational education needs and deserves financial stability and adequate additional resources to carry out its important and increasingly challenging task — not cuts.

The Minister of Education responded to our article — and we responded back: Is education under special protection? For a broader picture of why education is the municipality’s most important task, from early childhood education to lifelong learning, see Education is the municipality’s most important task . All my education posts are in the education category .

Authors: Johanna Fleming, Lauri Lavanti, and Paula Oittinen.

Published in Kirkkonummen Sanomat on 27 November 2024.