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Spending cut may lead to closure of high schools in Finland: media

Xinhua, February 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

Spending cut planned by Finnish education ministry may result in closure of some high schools in the next few years, reported Finnish national broadcaster Yle on Thursday.

The ministry is planning to slash a total of 260 million euros (297 million U.S. dollars) in the country's school budget. It urged municipalities and schools to start planning for possible changes, in order to "ensure efficient use of education resources," said Yle.

Smaller high schools may have to shut down, as the ministry believed that upper secondary education is oversupplied particularly in urban areas of Finland.

According to the ministry, high schools with around 400 pupils are the most cost-efficient. However, over half of the upper secondary schools have less than 200 pupils currently.

In Finland, when the central government cuts spending on education, municipalities are allowed to collect funding to keep schools, if they want. In an economic recession, it is difficult for municipalities to maintain high schools, said Terhi Paivarinta from the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities.

The plan of spending cut on education has triggered off controversial reactions from Finnish high school students recently. There have already been protests among high school students in some places of Finland, according to Yle.

The high school students association of Finland strongly criticized the plan.

"Education is an investment in the future," said Tatu Koivisto, chair of the association, adding that "it is really stupid to cut school spending, as education is the only way to get the economy to start growing again."

Finland has suffered continuous economic recession for three consecutive years, and the Finnish government has to take austerity measures including cuts on education budget.

If the reduction in education spending is 260 million euros in 2015, the total school budget will be 3.6 percent lower than in 2014.

In the last economic recession in early 1990s, Finland slashed around 20 percent of education spending in three years. Endit