Helsingin Sanomat reports that although Finland still ranks high in the OECD's Pisa assessment of schoolchildren's academic performance, there has been a clear decline in literacy over the past decade or more.
According to the paper, 14 percent of Finnish ninth-graders read so poorly that it makes it difficult for them to function in society.
It is not clear why the reading skills of schoolchildren have deteriorated. According to the researchers, there is no one single reason for the learning crisis.
First of all, writes Helsingin Sanomat, we have to rule out one explanation that easily comes to mind: immigration. It is natural to think that for children from an immigrant background, the Finnish language creates difficulties and this is reflected in studies. However, according to researchers, this does not explain the general decline in reading skills.
"The impact of immigration is very small, because immigrants account for only five to six percent of the students," said University of Jyväskylä researcher Arto Ahonen.
Around the same time as reading skills started to go into decline, the use of the internet and social media exploded, and they really began to compete with school as a source of information for young people, Mari-Pauliina Vainikainen, Professor of Education at the University of Tampere pointed out to the paper.
In the past, the role of school as the primary place to learn and get information was undisputed.
"Children and young people can now question why the information they get at school is necessary, when they can get it in other ways," Vainikainen said.
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Slippery roads and new tyres
In what will certainly become a more frequent occurrence as we move towards the winter months, Iltalehti carries an article warning readers that November has kicked off with poor driving conditions in many parts of the country, particularly in Lapland and eastern areas.
Rains overnight and temperatures around freezing in the north made for slippery road surfaces and the Finnish Meteorological Institute called upon drivers to exercise caution in traffic this morning.
"And those winter tyres wouldn't hurt either," the Meteorological Institute wrote on Twitter.
Helsingin Sanomat notes that there is a change upcoming in what type of winter tyres will be legal in Finland in a couple of years' time.
Up until now, winter tyres have carried the marking "M+S", which refers to the words "mud and snow".
That is about to change. As of November 30, 2024, only 3PMSF winter tyres will be allowed in road traffic during the winter months in Finland. The designation comes from the words "three-peak mountain snowflake" and these tyres are embossed with a symbol showing a snowflake on a mountain.
The new standard will be required for both friction and studded winter tyres.
More charging stations
Small municipalities are waking up to the rapid growth in the use of electric vehicles, writes Jyväskylä's Keskisuomalainen.
However, some have been slow off the mark and in the paper's main coverage area, Central Finland, there are still seven municipalities that do not have any public charging stations. In addition, there are six municipalities that have only one public charging point.
More are now coming, because local authorities have realised that they can miss out on tourist traffic if public charging points are concentrated only along highways.
Päivi Antikainen of the Ministry of Transport and Communications says that the coverage of the charging infrastructure in Finland is already quite good, although there are regional differences. In almost the entire country, the nearest public charging station can be found within a radius of 50 kilometres. The densest charging network is in southern and western Finland, where a charging station can almost always be found within a radius of 25 kilometres.
Bird feeder dangers
It is the time of year that many people start filling bird feeders to help their feathered friends though the winter months.
Maaseudun Tulevaisuus cautions readers not to place bird feeders anywhere close to where domestic animals are housed.
The organization Animal Health ETT warns that birds can carry bird flu and salmonella, so their feeders should be kept well away from any place poultry or livestock are housed.
Even cats are at risk, if they hunt small birds drawn to feeders.
The paper also advises keeping the area around bird feeders clean, since seeds that spill out onto the ground are seen as tasty treats by rats.