What has the government proposed?
The government has moved to promote a law that would introduce tuition fees for upper secondary education — i.e. upper secondary schools and vocational colleges. Municipalities could collect tuition fees from students coming from outside EU/EEA countries. These countries include, among others, Switzerland, Canada, the United States and Ukraine. Whether a student came to Finland specifically to study, as a refugee, or as the child of a highly skilled worker who immigrated for employment does not affect the tuition fee.
At the same time as the educational attainment of Finns is falling and the skills shortage is worsening, the government — led by the Minister of Education — is thus seeking additional barriers to education. What makes this particularly egregious is that even if a young person has lived in Finland for almost their entire life and attended comprehensive school here, they would be required to pay tuition fees upon moving to upper secondary school or a vocational college. Finnish citizenship cannot be obtained before the age of 18.
Minister of Education Adlercreutz also said that if this proposal goes through, the state would no longer grant municipalities state subsidies for those students. The state thus wants to transfer its costs to municipalities, which would most likely result in the introduction of the aforementioned tuition fees to secure funding. This must not happen in Kirkkonummi.
Who would tuition fees actually affect?
The governing parties therefore want 600 children currently in early childhood education and basic education in Kirkkonummi to pay for upper secondary education. Do we really want them to be placed in a different position from their friends, neighbours and classmates, simply because they cannot yet obtain Finnish citizenship before the age of 18? I do not want that. Upper secondary school and vocational education must remain free of charge.
Why must free education not be compromised?
Education must be restored to the respect it deserves in Finland. It has been and must continue to be the foundation of our success story, so it must not be irreversibly eroded.
I have written more about education: about why education is the municipality’s most important task , about the government’s education cuts and about whether education is under special protection . Read more in my posts on education .
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