Turning around learning outcomes for children and young people

All children must be ensured high-quality basic education, learning support and the necessary learning materials at their local school, with sufficient resources for teaching and guidance. Daycare centres and schools must have sufficient numbers of safe and skilled adults. Levels of contact teaching must be ensured in vocational education.

Two-year pre-primary education strengthens children’s readiness for school and helps ensure all children have the same opportunities when it comes to learning. All children must have sufficient language skills when they start school.

A peaceful learning environment must be ensured at schools by restricting disruptive use of phones during lessons, strengthening teachers’ pedagogic freedom to decide on suitable learning methods, and keeping group sizes small. It must be possible to intervene in harassment directed at staff.

Small group sizes, particularly in basic education, support learning and pupils’ individual needs. The aim must be for group sizes to be no more than 20 pupils, particularly in lower grades.

Guardians must ensure children and young people attend compulsory education, and therefore parents’ responsibility for engaging in cooperation between home and school must be reinforced. The cooperation between home and school must also support guardians in ensuring they are able to support pupils’ schooling.

The increasing lack of wellbeing among children and young people, as well as challenges with coping, must be taken seriously in municipalities and wellbeing services counties.

Schools must adopt best practices to support the wellbeing of children and young people in areas such as maintaining a daily rhythm. This can be done, for example, by not starting the school day until 9am in the upper grades, which can help support young people’s coping and reduce tiredness. Before- and after-school activities must be overhauled and incorporated into the school day. For children in the lower grades and their parents, before- and after-school clubs are key to supporting everyday life that works well.

There must be a concentrated effort at schools to recruit permanent substitute staff, so substitute staff are professionals who are familiar to the children and young people in so far as is possible. Efforts must be made to use operating models specific to the school or educational institution to reduce instances of bullying, and improving children’s and young people’s emotional and interaction skills in early childhood education and throughout their school career can also help with this.

Children and young people must be able to access help rapidly if needed. Young people must not be bounced from service to service. Youth work that takes place in schools and educational institutions must be developed and the availability of the services improved.

Children and young people must be supported from early childhood education all the way through to working life. Early childhood education and pre-primary education that support growth and learning must be available to all and they must form a seamless continuum through to basic education. Everyone has the right to high-quality education at their local school, and a variety of other services and hobby opportunities for children and young people must also be concentrated at schools. By supporting hobbies, we can prevent exclusion and reduce loneliness.

Municipalities must ensure that upper secondary education remains genuinely free of charge, so that all young people have the opportunity to complete upper secondary studies, receive a qualification, and ensure they have sufficient knowledge to access the world of work and further studies.

The common theme in family policy must be preventive and free-of-charge services that are accessible no matter how minor the problem. Families must have sufficient and timely access to services that work as intended. Children’s needs for help must also be addressed when a family’s adults encounter crisis situations, and vice versa. Organisations play an important role as providers of and experts in services available to families no matter how small the problem.

Child welfare services must transition to preventive and family-centric operations that support the child’s wellbeing, reduce the need for foster care, and strengthen families’ resources. Furthermore, investments must be made in early support, increasing resources for assistance in all manner of situations major and minor, and ensuring high-quality support for children in care. Rehabilitation of children in care through community care measures must be promoted and their best interests must always be prioritised.

Violence can also be a symptom of a lack of wellbeing among children and young people. This is to be intervened in as effectively as possible through multi-professional collaboration, with parties such as the school, social welfare and healthcare services, organisations, the police, youth services, and the child or young person’s guardian also involved.

• Pre-primary education to be extended to last two years.
• Aim of no more than 20 pupils per group in basic education, particularly in the lower grades.
• Disruptive use of phones during lessons must be limited.
• Teachers to be given more pedagogic freedom to decide which learning methods best suit different groups and pupils.
• School and educational institution staff to be provided with sufficient means to prevent disruptions and increased power to intervene.
• Teaching of Finnish or Swedish as a second language (S2) must be reformed and increased.
• Legislation to be amended to better clarify the responsibilities of guardians for managing the child’s affairs at the school or educational institution.
• Schools’ daily rhythm adapted to support children’s and young people’s wellbeing through means such as the school day not starting until 9am for the upper grades.
• Before- and after-school activities to support children’s and families’ needs.
• Emotional and interaction skills must be taught in early childhood education and at all levels of education.
• Operating models to combat bullying to be introduced in every school and educational institution.
• Youth work and services for children and young people must be implemented for schools and educational institutions.
• Upper secondary education that is genuinely free of charge must be retained.
• Better substance abuse and mental health services, discussion support, crisis assistance, and direction to further treatment without an appointment or diagnosis for young people.
• Every municipality must draw up a strategy for providing support from early childhood education to upper secondary education, outlining the kind of support and resources offered.
• Family services and child welfare services must focus on preventive measures and services accessible to as many as possible, no matter how minor the issue.