The City of Helsinki Education Division’s digital services continue to evolve. In spring 2022, Helsinki assigned guardians places in pre-primary education for their children through the new Asti online service. Guardians of children starting comprehensive school in Helsinki also had the opportunity to enrol their child in their local school online. We received excellent feedback from guardians on both services.
This year, for the first time, places in pre-primary education for children were assigned to guardians via the Asti online
service.
“In the previous years, we have tested a text messaging service that gave us the experience of offering guardians a place in pre-primary education for their children without a separate application. After receiving positive feedback, we made this a regular feature of the Asti service,” says Head of Education Division Satu Järvenkallas.
A total of 4,396 places in pre-primary education were assigned to the guardians of children who are in municipal early childhood education. Out of these, 89% of the guardians accepted the offered place.
In the first months of this year, the Asti online service and Suomi.fi messages were successful methods of enrolling children in the 1st grade of their local comprehensive schools. This was the second time that the guardians had the opportunity to enrol their children via the Asti online service. This year, 4,250 out of 6,400 guardians took advantage of this opportunity.
“Can this really be this easy?”
Guardians were given the opportunity to give feedback on the Asti online service when enrolling. 87% of the guardians who accepted a place in pre-primary education were either satisfied or very satisfied with the Asti service. One respondent
commented, “Can this really be this easy?”
Feedback was also provided by guardians who enrolled their child at their local school, with 70% of them either satisfied or very satisfied with the Asti service.
“We see these results as excellent. We wanted to make enrolling in pre-primary education and school easier and we succeeded. These experiences give us courage to continue the development of digital services,” says Järvenkallas.
The Asti online service is the City of Helsinki Education Division’s new digital service. The division is currently building an information system and other new digital services like Asti.
The development of services is based on the City of Helsinki’s strategy and digitalisation programme. The aim is to achieve functional digital services and a clearer and more consistent communication and interaction with the City. Digital services
are offered throughout the lifecycle of learning, from early childhood education to upper secondary education.