Helsinki City ensures safe basic education

The Helsinki City Board on Monday decided on arrangements to ensure safe use of basic education facilities, allowing schoolwork to be organised with exceptional teaching solutions such as by combining remote teaching and teaching in physical classrooms.

According to the hybrid model, some grades can alternate in short-term remote teaching and learning, said the City of Helsinki in a press release on Tuesday.

The right of students for teaching is fulfilled even during possible exceptional teaching arrangements.

According to the Basic Education Act, in the event that teaching cannot be provided safely at schools or at other places of teaching due to a decision made on the basis of Article 58 of the Communicable Diseases Act, teaching can be organised with special arrangements by a decision made by the provider of teaching for no longer than one month at a time, if this is unavoidable to provide teaching.

An amendment to the Basic Education Act is in force on a temporary basis until the end of 2020, and it is meant specifically to enable local decision-making in order that early childhood education and basic education can be organised safely even during the coronavirus epidemic.

The Helsinki City Board’s decision is the precondition for the organiser of teaching to decide on a shift to exceptional teaching arrangements as necessary, when required by a situation caused by the epidemic.

As a result, if exceptional teaching arrangements should be adopted, teaching for grades 4–6 and 7–10 could be organised in three-week periods, with some grades taught remotely for one week and in physical classrooms for two weeks at a time. If permitted by the school facilities, teaching would be organised in physical classrooms for grades 4–5.

However, teaching will always be provided in physical classrooms for grades 1–3, in special needs and preparatory education, and in extended compulsory education.

The school year starts on Thursday, 13 August in the Finnish-language preschool education, at the comprehensive schools, and at the general upper secondary schools of the City of Helsinki. The school year starts on Tuesday, 18 August in Swedish-language schools.