The saving demand of more than one million euros means the reduction of dozens of teachers. The school network is also under constant scrutiny.
Lahti city schools are threatened with heavy savings if the city government’s budget proposal passes in the council meeting next Monday. The city government requires that basic education, upper secondary education and early childhood education collect a total of 1.55 million euros from their operations.
In practice, the savings mean reducing the number of teachers – it’s about several dozen employees. This, in turn, means that the student groups would grow larger in the future.
Special support includes teaching by the class teacher and the subject teacher. If teaching is not adequately resourced, teachers will be overburdened and sickness absences will increase. In the end, the students also suffer from it.
– Now we are talking about really big things. The risk of exclusion increases and by then it is already too late, says Kalliolehto.
Parents of schoolchildren are surprised by the rush and lack of preparation
Cities are now competing for competent and qualified labor in every way. Saving on basic education is seen as a risk.
– The reputational risk is real and exists. On the other hand, the city of Lahti has a lot to offer teachers that smaller municipalities don’t have, says director of education and training Jämsén.
One of the savings targets is also the merger of Harju elementary school with Tiirismaa middle school. The combined school would be located on the Paavola campus. Parents have already risen up to oppose the proposal.
A discussion session was organized for the parents on Wednesday about the matter, and Kinberg got the impression that the matter is completely unfinished. The merger of Harju and Tiirisma will not be decided at next Monday’s council meeting, but the board of education will decide on the matter later this year.
Teaching and education director Virve Jämsén admits that the schedule is fast. It is for this reason that the city moves to review the service network constantly, so that there are no similar surprises. If the number of students decreases somewhere, the city can make new decisions about the school network. Until now, the service network has only been looked at from time to time.
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