Equity in education: dimensions, causes and policy responses

EQUITY IN EDUCATION: DIMENSIONS, CAUSES AND POLICY RESPONSES

The National Union of Students in Finland is honoured to be invited to the OECD hearing on equity in education. Below you’ll find the main principles that the National Union of Students in Finland would like you to consider.

Comprehensive education

Equity in social benefits is mainly associated with the social status of one’s family background. Families are entitled to child allowance depending on the amount of children. Allowance is provided by the state. 

Every child has a right to go through comprehensive education for free regardless of their social background. However, the social background of the family may show when it comes to choosing the institution providing comprehensive education. It is good to note that the majority of institutions providing comprehensive education in Finland have similar conditions; differences appear mostly in bigger cities. 

Regionally the level of comprehensive education doesn’t vary that much if we look at the whole country. However, the financial situation of an individual municipality may differ significantly, resulting for example in very different class sizes in neighbouring municipalities. The state should pay more attention to ensuring that children get good education without having to suffer from their place of living.

Systematic and comprehensive health care

The state provides systematically ordered health and tooth care for children. At lower level of the comprehensive school children go to dental care once a year and at upper level they go once or twice (in three years) for check up. Vaccinations are mostly given to children before they enter comprehensive school, but some vaccinations need to be renewed in comprehensive school. One can say that the whole health care system in comprehensive school is very equal. The basic idea of the well ordered and systematic health care during comprehensive school is to take care of youth’s health so systematically that it reduces extensive care at an older age.

Minorities in comprehensive school

The comprehensive education system provides help for those who need it. Disabled children can and quite often go to so called normal institutions of comprehensive school. However, extremely lively children and children with difficult disabilities or trauma may have a class of their own. The municipality provides assistant teachers or instructors for those who need it.

Problems with equity in the comprehensive educational system usually arise from the child’s social background or the municipality where the primary school is. Lack of recourses in municipalities is the main reason for variation in the comprehensive educational system. Variation appears in the amount of social services such as the school curator, social worker or welfare officer.  Other difference can be the schools atmosphere. Municipalities have made a study about the economical differences between them. The study shows that after the big depression in early 1990´s, economical differences between municipalities have increased. This is strongly visible in some institutions.

Municipalities also finance school catering. This includes a free lunch and in some places a voluntary afternoon snack for a small charge. Lunches are prepared with care so that they correspond to the nutritive recommendations for children. Nutritional values in Finnish school catering are generally very good and the system is well appreciated. 

Immigrants should be considered a special group in comprehensive education. Adequate teaching of Finnish or Swedish, cultural teaching in one’s own language, and necessary school assistance should be provided. Very good aims of promoting linguistic and cultural rights of children belonging to different ethnic groups and continuing the support for bilingual immigrant children have been written to the Government Programme for years 2004 – 2007. 

Drawing up the immigration plan and providing language tuition for the whole family is central in order to promote integration. Problems have been encountered especially with mothers taking care of their children at home. They have many times been left without language tuition. It is important to remember that integrating mothers has a great significance when it comes to integrating children.

Secondary education: general upper secondary education (matriculation examination), vocational education (VET)

Financial support

Social aspects of upper secondary education after comprehensive education have changed during the last ten years. The network of institutions has been thinned down. Because of this, distances to school have become longer and therefore the school journey support has become more and more important to students. Problems of equity in providing the school journey support are more about the way the authorities calculate the aid for students than the actual aid itself.

Students in secondary education are entitled to student financial aid. The amount of the study grant depends on parental income until the student turns 18. This is the most influential factor increasing inequality at secondary level. Parental income limits defining the level of the study grant are very low and have not been changed for years.  At the same time, the income level of families has increased.

Another factor increasing inequality is the level of housing aid. The general level of rents has risen more than 75 % during the last 12 years among people who are eligible to housing aid. Because of the thin network if institutions, the housing aid has become more important especially for students who have to move somewhere else to study.

Institutions of secondary education also provide free and nutritious school catering for students, just like the comprehensive level institutions. It is also financed by the municipality. Voluntary afternoon snacks are available for a small charge. The idea is to make young people take care of themselves, eat a healthy lunch and understand the negative affects of e.g. eating candies in the afternoon (many student bodies earn a little money by introducing and maintaining vending machines with unhealthy snacks).

Challenges of accessibility

An important issue too rarely taken into consideration is the possibility of disabled people to study after comprehensive education. Differences are very significant if we compare different institutions providing secondary education, such as upper secondary schools, vocational and commercial schools. Naturally, this varies from institution to another and it depends on the financial situation of the municipality and the institution. Vocational schools’ laboratories etc. do not necessarily have easy access. Hallways, lifts, lecture rooms and auditoriums are rarely reachable for people with various disabilities.

The hereditary nature of education

According to statistics the socio-economical background affects children’s choice of education especially at secondary level. Children of parents with a higher education degree tend to choose upper secondary education leading to the matriculation examination. According to a research done in 2004, 55 % of 19-year olds had passed the matriculation examination. When looking at their socio-economic background, around 80 % of them had a family background of one or two higher education degrees. This clearly indicates that study guidance is not as effective as it should be when it comes to young people choosing their secondary education institutions. One might note that 10,1 % of students in vocational education drop out completely while the %age in upper secondary schools is 1,1 %. The problems of early study and career guidance are evident.  

There are clear signs that the low socio-economic background hinders people from choosing upper secondary education. Students have to pay all the books themselves and taking the matriculation examination costs also. In lower socio-economic background families the appreciation for general education may not be so high, whereas appreciation of work/practical skills –oriented education may be higher.

Moving between different levels of education

The Finnish education system is built so that there are no so called dead ends on education. Therefore, in theory it is possible to move from VET to higher education. This is not so widely used a path whereas choosing higher education after general upper secondary education is very common. The statistics show that upper secondary education is gender balanced for youth between 20-24 years (76 % for male and 77 % for female in 2003). However, when we look at 25-29 year olds and tertiary education, the balance has turned to bias so that 30 % of female have gained a higher education degree compared to 19 % of male.

If we want to find some answers to tertiary education being gender biased we must look at earlier stages of education. The statistics show that chances of moving from VET to higher education tend to be weak. Boys tend to choose VET more often instead of general upper secondary education, whereas girls tend to choose upper secondary education more often. It is also noticeable that in 1990 there was no difference between men and women in higher education (both 9 %). One may infer that after the introduction of polytechnics and the high increase of study places in universities, the student population in higher education has changed a lot gender-wise.

Study counselling

The level of study counselling in comprehensive and secondary education varies greatly. Among acknowledged problems are the gender biased features of counselling. This results in some fields of study getting clearly gender biased student population. Mathematics is a good example of a gender biased field of study. Problems of biased counselling have been approached with national programmes but the results have not yet been satisfactory.

Ranking of upper secondary institutions

In principle, all upper secondary schools in Finland are equally good. However, an unofficial series of so called elite institutions has been formed, and it is highlighted by the informal comparisons made by different actors in the media. It is noticeable that these so called elite institutions don’t necessarily provide anything better than the average upper secondary school does. In stead, the students who consciously seek their way to these institutions usually have better basic skills and knowledge, and this gives the institutions a disproportionately big advantage in comparisons. In the worst case these comparisons may influence in the eruption of the network of upper secondary institutions.

Higher education (polytechnic and university studies)

Student benefits

As said before, after turning 18 students are eligible to student financial aid which consists of a student grant, student loan and housing subsidy. This all-inclusive student financial aid system is at its best at higher education level. Students in higher education do have the same opportunities when talking about student financial aid. Every one over 18 is eligible and the level of the grant does not depend on parental income. All-inclusive student financial aid is a matter of discretion based on need and equally accessible for every student in higher education.

Student financial aid system was changed in the early 1990´s in a way that it will consist more of student grant than student loan. After that, the student grant has stayed more or less the same despite some deductions, but there has been no improvement. The student loan amount has been increased a few times and the housing subsidy will presumably be raised in November 2005. Living expenses have raised and the inflation has reduced the purchasing power of the student grant. Had the development of the student grant followed the consumer price index, it would now be 113, 59 euros higher

The amount of the student grant depends on personal income such as earnings and scholarships. In some fields of study this may cause problems because compensation from work or trainings is higher than it was when the income limits were prescribed. There are different aspects to the increasing of the income limits. On one hand, higher income limits help those who study in so called hard fields i.e. computing, economics, law, techniques and mechanics. On the other hand, higher income limits create inequality between study fields because the limits don’t have an effect on every student. For example people who are studying to be teachers cannot work in their own field during studies and therefore they usually can manage and adjust to the present earning limits.

Health care of university students is provided by a private foundation called the Student health care foundation. It is funded by Kansaneläkelaitos (60 %), students themselves (20 %) municipalities (12 %) and the ministry of education (5 %). All students pay an annual compulsory health care fee (35 €) and small fees per visit. The share of funding by students is larger than in municipal health care or in polytechnics (which provide student health care for free), but students and student unions have been pleased with the system and the services.  

Universities offer facilities for cafeterias that can be owned by the private sector or student unions. These cafeterias offer specially priced food for students and university staff. State provides a meal subsidy for the cafeterias so that they can keep their prices reasonable. The special meal subsidy is only available for student meals, so the university staff pays normal price.  Systematically organised food services at different educational levels ensure healthy and all-round eating habits for students.

Accessibility in universities

Polytechnics and universities have a rather good vision of the needs of disabled people when it comes to studying. The problem is that changes are happening very slowly and only very little resources are indicated. Pathways to lection halls, hallways, lifts and wider seat rows are beginning to become reality in some newer buildings, but in older buildings e.g. computer classes, cafeterias and libraries are still more or less inaccessible.  In 2004 a study was made about the accessibility of universities. The study showed that universities have still a lot of work to do in order to provide equal access to education for all. The government has taken an initiative on this issue and is going to encourage universities to make improvements. The ministry of education is going to take accessibility under consideration on performance negotiations between the government and universities.

Universities have a responsibility of taking care of foreign students’ living arrangements when students arrive for a mobility period via an EU educational programme for example. The system does not ensure that the facilities are always available when needed or in good shape.

System of entrance exams

Access to higher education has been a major issue in the past years. One of the problems in Finland has been that in certain fields of study it takes too long to get in to higher education from secondary level. One of the main reasons for this is the entrance exam system used.

Some of the entrance exams that are used require a lot of time to study, so people trying to get in for the second or third time have a big advantage in exams. To counter this effect many institutions have introduced e.g. extra points to get people in without delay from secondary education. In some cases these extra points have been really high. In one case the parliamentary ombudsman ruled that the system works against the principles of equality.

Other issue rising from the hard entrance exam system is the use of preparatory courses that may cost a lot of money. The courses are popular especially in fields of study where future income might be very high (i.e. doctors, lawyers, etc). There is also an increasing trend to use open universities as a training place for entrance exams. All these methods cost a lot, so people coming from lower socio-economic background have disadvantages in entrance exams.

SYL believes that numerus clausus is a better choice compared to all interested getting access to higher education and then being ranked out during the education. A significant strength of the present model is that it ensures a possibility of finishing the degree to every student that has began studies in higher education. In order to solve the problems of the present system, it needs to be generally developed and special attention needs to be given to the results of the matriculation exams.

Higher education drop outs

According to statistics in 2002-2003 6,2% of polytechnic students dropped out of higher education and 2,0% changed the field of education. With university students the numbers are respectively 4,5% and 0,5%.

The reasons behind the number of dropouts and changing the institutions can be understood better if we look at the “forced appliance” after secondary education, insufficient study counselling at secondary education and level and quality of information of higher level institutions when applying to them.

Study counselling

In recent years universities have developed structures to help students to complete their studies. These include career guidance done by Career Services and counselling regarding the organising of studies (steering and support in drafting personal study plans). This means that students with problems in succeeding in their studies get help. One of the reasons behind the need to build study guidance system is the large amount of students. The amount has grown so much that the teachers don’t have enough time to give personal guidance to students. In 2004, at university sector, there was one teacher to twenty-one students on average compared to year 1995 when there was one teacher to eighteen students on average. Of course the rate varies between different fields of study and individual universities. Many times in university sector the motivation of students is negatively affected by large study groups where students are not in close contact with each other and teachers don’t have the time to consider individual needs of students.

Applying to post-graduate studies

If you compare the number of men and women graduating from universities with the number of men and women applying to post-graduate studies, you notice that men more often apply for post-graduate education even though they are a minority gender in among graduates. The so called glass roof for females entering the academic world is still there even though it’s hard to see in practise. The higher the degree and position in academic world is, the smaller the amount of women. Of course, this is something that will eventually change as the number of women in higher education increases, but the change seems to happen very slowly.

Many groups in society don’t have traditions in educating themselves, which greatly affects to the choices young people do regarding studies and work. There are several underrepresented groups in higher education, such as immigrants without educational background.

SYL is very much in favour of lowering the cultural, legal and attitudinal boundaries when it comes to moving and staying in Finland. It is central to ensure all immigrants equal starting points with all other nationals.

Students’ rights to get organised and take part in decision-making

In a Finnish university, a student studying for a degree described in the decree, is automatically a member of the student union of his university. The system of student unions is based on automatic membership. Every student is entitled to student union membership. This is prescribed in the University act. Every student who has registered as present and paid the student union membership fee, is entitled to e.g. discounts in national public transportation (trains and long-distance buses), health care in the Student health care foundation, specially prised meals in student cafeterias and all other services offered by the student union. With these all other services we mean general interest work, different clubs and organisations, free-time activities, discounts in different sports activities and many others.

According to the University act, the tripartite of professors, staff and students are represented in the university governance. In official organs none of these groups may have 50% or more of the share of votes, thus ensuring that decisions are taken together. Additionally, in the university board there has to be at least one person outside the university community.
 
The system of student unions ensures comprehensive student participation in university governance. The student union represents all students in the university, and decisions taken in the student union are taken democratically and autonomously. In practise, there are many differences between the implementation of the tripartite system of decision-making. In some universities, practises have been realised within the spirit of the University act (all groups have equal representation) whereas in some universities the professors have almost 50% of the votes. The latter case is within the letter of the law but not within the spirit.
 
SYL finds the equal rights of all members of the university community to take part in the decision-making very important, because it’s the only way of committing all members to the development of the university according to chosen policy lines. In the future this will only be emphasised, if universities will start profiling themselves more clearly. Unity of the whole community is important.

On national level university students are represented by SYL, who works with the Parliament and ministries when it comes to student-related issues. SYL is often officially heard when legislation is being prepared and we also take part in preparatory working groups in different ministries. However, possibilities for participation vary depending on the issue. Sometimes students can only have a very marginal role in the preparatory work. SYL strongly feels that student participation in student-related decision-making should be strengthened in Finnish public administration.

NATIONAL UNION OF STUDENTS IN FINLAND

Arttu Laasonen, President

Risto Lähteenmäki, Secretary General