The Education Division has been preparing for the abolishment of entrance exams for bilingual education at Finnish-language comprehensive schools when applying for first grade. This change will enter into force in 2025. The Finnish language division of the Education Committee will decide on the change. The decision-makers will take all comments submitted at the guardian event on 16 May and via the Kerrokantasi survey from 3 to 31 May 2024 into consideration.
The purpose of the overhaul is to unify the principles for applying for bilingual education and guarantee an equal opportunity to apply for the education in question for all. At the moment, the admission practices for bilingual education vary in Helsinki, as some languages require entrance exams while others do not. With the overhaul, Helsinki will also increase the number of places for new bilingual education pupils.
The City of Helsinki provides bilingual basic education in Finnish and English, Finnish and Spanish, Finnish and Chinese, Finnish and Northern Sámi, Finnish and Swedish, Finnish and Russian, and Finnish and Estonian. Bilingual education is currently provided at 11 of the City’s schools. Pupils can start bilingual education in first grade in primary school or seventh grade in lower secondary school. The change being planned will pertain to bilingual education starting in first grade.
Bilingual education develops pupils’ skills in listening and reading comprehension, writing and oral expression. It also promotes general interest and readiness for language studies. As in basic education in general, bilingual basic education develops pupils’ skills in all subjects based on their age level. Read more about bilingual education on the City’s website, which also features a list of schools providing bilingual education.
You are invited to a remote event for guardians on 16 May 2024 at 17.00–18.00
We will hold a Teams event regarding the City’s overhaul process related to entrance exams for bilingual education beginning in first grade at comprehensive schools, and the grounds for this overhaul. You can offer comments and ask questions via the chat. We will try to answer as many questions as possible during the event. The presentations at the event will be in Finnish.