Just west of the city centre, Lauttasaari Primary School is the biggest elementary school in the capital. At the moment there are some 750 students filling its classrooms and next autumn over 800 schoolchildren will walk the corridors. The number of pupils is expected to exceed a thousand over the next couple of years.
The primary school's principal Johanna Honkanen-Rihu, says it makes for long days for teachers who have to deal with students in several shifts. Many have to start the day at 8am with younger students and continue until 3 or 4pm in order to cater to the 6th graders.
In Helsinki, the number of primary-school aged children grows by about a thousand every year. The steady flow of migration to the capital is expected to see this growth continuing consistently throughout the 2020s.
Older Helsinki districts like the city centre and the island of Lauttasaari are joined by new the communities of Kalasatama and Jätkäsaari as epicentres of urbanisation. New apartment buildings are springing up and the number of children is rising in parallel.
Cramped living in the city
“The city centre and Lauttasaari has mostly smaller flats for offer, so it seems as if many families are willing to dwell in a confined space in order to keep living in the city. Their children attend school, however, and this has led to a rather surprising increase in the last five years,” says Helsinki’s Basic Education Director Outi Salo.
Back in Lauttasaari, a temporary classroom building has been set up on the school property and two more will be erected over the summer. City planners are scouting neighbouring office blocks to see if expansion is possible. The City is also looking for new ways to be flexible with the spaces already is use.
According to Taru Marjamaa, chairperson of Lauttasaari School's Board, the worst case scenario is that good taxpayers will leave Helsinki if solutions can't be found. She thinks that children's education is the last item that should be haggled over.