Civic education, and its essential component democracy education, have a key role in influencing societal capacities, thinking and activity among young people in particular.

Internationally, civic education is one of the most important objectives set for education systems.  Finnish core curricula oblige educational institutions to hold democracy as a key value in their activities.

Finland as part of the European tradition

Maintaining and defending democracy are still regarded as important civic virtues. Civic education in one form or the other is part of the curricula of all European countries. It includes information about citizens’ rights and duties, democracy, human rights and participation in society.

According to a study by the information network on education in Europe, Eurydice, in primary education citizenship education is usually integrated into other school subjects or a cross-curricular approach is adopted.
In secondary education, citizenship education is more commonly offered as a self-contained subject, but this often coexists with the other two approaches. In most cases citizenship education is integrated into history, social sciences, geography or philosophy and sometimes combined with teaching in native language or foreign languages.

The objectives of citizenship education are very similar across Europe. Aims include increasing pupils’ knowledge about society, teaching them the attitudes and values needed to take an active part in civil society and promoting participation in the activities of their school and society. Initiation into the European and international dimension is also evident in such objectives. Finland and some other northern countries also emphasise respect for the natural environment as part of responsible citizenship.

In addition to knowledge about society, Finnish core curricula for basic education and general upper secondary education focus on promoting active participation of pupils and students. Further information about curricula can be found under Schools and educational institutions and on the website of the Finnish National Board of Education.

Pupils and parents involved in school decision-making

Every European country emphasises an inclusive school culture and pupils’ participation in school decision-making. This takes many forms from one country to another – from official class representatives to pupils’ and students’ parliaments, councils and associations.

At secondary level in particular students have the opportunity to participate in school decisions through student associations or councils. In Finland the General Upper Secondary Schools Act and the Vocational Education and Training Act lay down the provision that these institutions must have a student association.

More than 90 per cent of student associations feel they have an impact

In October 2005, the Finnish National Board of Education conducted a study commissioned by the Ministry of Education on student association activities in all of Finland’s schools providing basic education.

A total of 56.5 per cent of the schools teaching 13-to-16-year-olds responded, of which 91.7 per cent had an active student association.

It was noteworthy that 91.3 per cent of student associations that responded said they were able to have particular influence on school theme days and weeks as well as parties and celebrations and the school environment generally, but their opportunities to influence school rules and regulations and plans of action or curricula were not as extensive. Some 80 per cent of the associations had regular meetings at least once a month and 65 per cent of respondents found the student association was highly or fairly highly involved in the everyday life of the school.

A corresponding study on student association activity in secondary education will be completed during autumn 2006. In total 67 per cent of Finnish general upper secondary schools and vocational institutions have responded, with 94 per cent of the general upper secondary schools and 66.7 per cent of the vocational institutions reporting that they have an active student association.

Cooperation between home and school is also emphasised in Finnish legislation and the new national core curricula. In only half of European countries, including Finland, civic education is included in teacher training proper, but it is offered in continuing education for teachers in all countries.

New core curricula and objectives support democracy education

New core curricula and distribution of lesson hours have been gradually introduced in all Finnish basic education and general upper secondary schools in the period 2004 to 2006. Teaching supports development into an active member of society and provides the capacity to act in a democratic and equal society. An extra weekly lesson per year was also provided for social studies in basic education.

National objectives for general upper secondary education include that the school must be an open and positive environment enabling learning and participation. The school has to support students’ growth towards adults responsible for the functioning of civic society.

The aim is that students learn how to promote issues such as human rights, democracy, equality and sustainable development in cooperation with others. General upper secondary schools were also allocated an extra compulsory course and one (optional) specialisation course in social studies.

The National Board of Education has adopted new national core curricula for pre-primary education (2000), general upper secondary education (2003), basic education (2004) and adult basic and general upper secondary education (2004). All of these feature cross-curricular themes, one of which is active/participatory citizenship combined with entrepreneurship. Cross-curricular themes must be integrated into all subjects and can also be addressed in theme days, weeks or school-specific courses.

National core curricula also contain the provision that the school’s operational culture must be outlined in local/school curricula. The objective is to create an active and open operational culture that encourages participation, where every member of the school community (teachers, pupils/students, other staff) can participate in decision-making related to the school.

The new curricula are already applied by all institutions providing basic and general upper secondary education in Finland.

Updated on October 12, 2006