Välkkylä daycare
Why the Finnish Childcare System is so Great
By Kayti Murphy
 Put
your kids in the Oulu Day Care system and witness the
benefits, says Kayti Murphy.
My family and I have lived in Oulu for one year in which
time our daughter Róisín has been in the Finnish childcare
system. When you live overseas you hear how Scandinavia is
miles ahead in child development. You get here and realise
that Finns put their money where their mouth is. They place
great emphasis on the education of their children at all
levels. They see children as the future of the country.
So why is the childcare system so good in Finland compared
to a country like Australia, where we had been living prior
to here? In Australia, most childcare centres are privately
owned and often employ young workers on poor pay. Our
previous childcare centre in Adelaide had a big turnover of
staff and they had undergone limited training. In most cases
working in a childcare centre is seen as an easy option for
school leavers. In saying that, the girls who worked at our
local centre were fantastic.
A government subsidy is paid to parents but the cost to
us was still $60 AUD (31€) a day. This worked out at $1,200
AUD (625€). Though in Australia compulsory, free education
begins two years earlier than in Finland there are many
other upfront expenses which in Finland are covered by tax
such as food and school uniform.
The kids never went on excursions to the beach when it
was only 1km away. Visits to museums or galleries were never
encouraged. Childcare centres were usually run for profit
meaning that activities such as excursions were viewed as
unnecessary expense.
In Finland pre-school consists of education, teaching and
care (educare). Activities are integrated and play is
emphasised as a learning method. For example, in the
‘alphabet game’ a kid is thrown a on object, say a fluffy
toy, and asked to say a word starting with the letter chosen
by the teacher. When they get it right they throw the toy to
another kid and pick the letter which that kid has to find a
word for.
We arrived in Oulu, visited our local päiväkoti and we
were amazed at the facilities. They are top class. At my
daughter’s centre in Välkkylä, they have sections for babies,
middle kids and older children. They have a great art area,
a grand old piano and a huge outside play-area with swings,
wooden boat and sandpit. The food is delivered from outside
the centre, even though they have a cook on hand and each
day they serve up really wholesome healthy food. The kids
eat fish soup, pasta, meat soup or makkara on any given day.
The cost of sending your child to a council run päiväkoti
depends on what you earn. If you are a student and not
working you will probably pay nothing but workers pay based
on their income. For example, if you have two kids in
päiväkoti and you earn over 1344 euros then you pay 7.9% of
your income up to a maximum of 200 euros per child monthly.
There are steep fee discounts for families with more than
two children in care. The net result of the fee structuring
system is that costs do not eat up too much of the household
budget.
These fees apply to centres run by the City of Oulu which
make up the majority of those in town. A number of privately
run centres are in also operation. Some employ particular
education philosophies such as Montessori or use English as
the language of instruction. The municipal authorities
subsidise places in these centres but the fees are usually
higher. Subsidies are also available for home-care of
children.
City of Oulu centres obviously employ Finnish. The
language barrier left our girl a little isolated at first
but she has picked up enough to get by and the staff are
very accommodating, helping her when she needs explaining in
English. She has benefited greatly from this. Roisin has
learned Finnish songs through singing them daily.
In one year Róisín has been on excursions to the
zoological museum at the University of Oulu, visited the
Cathedral for a church service, been picked up by the
miniature train and taken around town, visited an elderly
peoples home to sing, gone ice skating and, when the weather
was warmer, taken over to the hill in Raksilla at least once
a week to do gymnastics.
Recently I interviewed Ritta Sipilä, teacher at Välkkylä
päiväkoti, who has worked in childcare for 8 years. I began
by asking what attracted her to early childhood education.
"I had my own children and noticed that I loved being with
children and wanted to learn more about the education of
children," she said.
One of the distinguishing features of the Finnish system
is the relatively late school starting age of seven. Ritta
is a strong supporter of the policy, her first-hand
experience telling her that children benefit from the extra
years of non-formal learning. "I believe they grow up to be
stronger adults when they have a long childhood. They should
not be hurried up, I really believe in it", she told me.
At age six children begin a transition year to prepare
them for school, as Ritta explains, "The kids still play but
they also learn mathematics, alphabet and some learn to read
and write". I spoke to numerous parents in Oulu about this
and all agreed that the later age for starting school was
excellent and the kids really benefit from it. While happy
where she is, the only criticism Ritta has is the class
sizes - there are 23 children to 3 teachers at her centre.
She would prefer smaller class sizes for more one-to-one
attention.
While there is always room for improvement my husband and
I, and our daughter, are very happy with the child care
provided in Oulu.
I highly recommend you put your kids into the Oulu
päiväkoti system and witness the benefits.
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