Finland’s shrinking high schools are importing pupils from abroad
And educating them at taxpayers’ expense
IDEALLY, MARIANNE KORKALAINEN’S high school in Rautavaara, a tiny town in eastern Finland, would enrol at least 20 new pupils each year. This autumn, her shrinking municipality will send her only about 12. But Ms Korkalainen, the head teacher, has a plan: she intends to invite half a dozen youngsters from poorer countries to help fill her empty seats. Eager adolescents from places such as Myanmar, Vietnam and Tanzania will swap their tropical cities for her snowy bolthole. They will receive a Finnish education, at Finnish taxpayers’ expense.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Getting them while they’re young”
Europe June 29th 2024
- Emmanuel Macron’s centrists are facing a disastrous first-round vote
- European gangs are getting better at making their own illegal drugs
- Death and destruction in a Russian city
- Finland’s shrinking high schools are importing pupils from abroad
- Can António Costa make a success of the world’s hardest political gig?
From the June 29th 2024 edition
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