Helsingin Sanomat reports on a study suggesting that immigrant-background boys are struggling to get their Finnish or Swedish skills up to scratch, even after two years of basic schooling.
The study by Finland's Education Evaluation Centre followed children who entered first grade in 2018, and reassessed their skills in 2020.
The idea is to follow 8,046 pupils from 274 schools all the way through their basic education to see how their skills in different subjects develop, and the first report is out on Tuesday.
There were big differences, according to Annette Ukkola, who co-authored the report.
"In some schools skills had developed noticeably better than average, while in other schools there had only been a little progress," said Ukkola.
Many of the findings are not that surprising. There is a correlation between parents' education levels and socioeconomic situation and children's skill development.
Ukkola said that boys who spoke Finnish or Swedish as a second language were much slower to develop their skills in that language (whether their school primarily teaches in Finnish or Swedish) than others.
Some entered third grade with language skills not yet matching those some children had at the start of first grade.
Ukkola says these so-called S2 children need more support, because their writing skills are a key way for them to demonstrate their ability in other subjects — and is therefore key to educational success overall.
These children are usually split from their native-speaking peers and taught Finnish or Swedish in a separate class. This approach has been criticised by some teachers.
Last week a report by the Ministry of Education suggested that learning outcomes are 'in rapid decline' in Finland.
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Centre party campaign
Centre Party leader Annika Saarikko's suggestion that something be done to help mortgage holders as interest rates rise has brought a fair amount of criticism in the press.
Saarikko has said that she is ready to look at restoring the mortgage interest tax deduction, which has been finally phased out this year, if interest rates continue to rise.
Iltalehti suggests in a comment piece that her sudden urge to look at this issue has more to do with parliamentary elections in April than in addressing a concrete problem facing the housing market itself.
This is described by IL as 'pure political theatre'. Saarikko has said that she is ready to evaluate restoring the deduction, not that she will try to restore it.
The paper says that her intention is merely to create the impression that the Centre Party is the best possible friend to anyone paying off a mortgage.
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Homeless Jokerit
Helsinki's Jokerit hockey club are sitting out the 2022-23 season after leaving the Russian KHL league their oligarchic owners signed them up for back in 2014.
After this season failing to join Liiga, the top flight of Finnish hockey, Jokerit now say they want to play in Mestis from autumn 2023. But there's a catch, which many media outlets covered on Monday.
The oligarchs (Gennady Timchenko and Boris Rotenberg) are now no longer owners of the club, but they still own Jokerit's home arena in Pasila. Nobody can use the arena formerly known as Hartwall Arena, as it is owned by sanctioned individuals, so Jokerit are effectively homeless.
Helsinki's municipally-owned ice hall, where city rivals HIFK play their home games, does not have enough free slots to host Jokerit.
HS reported that Espoo and Vantaa's best halls are also fully booked, leaving some small, cramped and pretty unsatisfactory venues for Jokerit to choose from — if the Mestis licensing system would even allow them to play in those rinks.
Ilta-Sanomat asked Jokerit fans and found them happy for the team to play in multiple different rinks over the course of the season, but that is unlikely to fly with the Finnish Ice Hockey Federation.
The club told HS that it still believes it can get the arena — their previous home — sold to new owners not inextricably linked with the Russian war machine and happy to rent to their team. Whether that happens in time for them to gain a Mestis licence remains to be seen.