Fifty-five percent of day care centre directors say that their most serious problem is overlarge class sizes. YLE polled day care centre directors across the country.
Although the government has strict rules for how many children a single teacher can be responsible for, there are few limits for how many children can be in one class, as long as the ratio of children to teachers follows government rules. The result is that class sizes have grown significantly.
Finland’s Ombudsman for Children, Maria Kaisa Aula, says that rules for class sizes are too vague, and that her office receives numerous complaints about the problem.
Another major problem is the shortage of qualified substitute teachers. Often, day care centres must simply run understaffed or hire someone without all the proper qualifications. Very little money is on the table, either, to pay them.
One-third of day-care centre managers admitted that situations arise where there are simply not enough adults to go round for the number of infants present. This leads to cases where kids aren't always safe.
Mishaps have occurred when there haven’t been enough pairs of eyes to go around. Most day care centre managers claimed child safety was never compromised but that it demanded diligence and flexibility by staff.