Every child special in Finland's schools By Keiichi Honma
Keiichi Honma Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
While eight students in a special-needs class were learning math at Juvanpuiston School, an 11-year-old boy suddenly threw the pencil he was using before hiding under his desk and screaming. The boy apparently lost control of himself after losing a dice game he was playing with his classmates.
Juha Kiilunen, 32, the teacher in charge of the class, comforted the boy, but the rest of the class did not stop as assistant teacher Heli Salminen, 32, took care of the other seven students.
This was one of the scenes The Yomiuri Shimbun observed during a recent visit to Espoo in southern Finland.
Juvanpuiston School is a comprehensive school covering six years of primary and three years of middle school education. The municipal government-run institution has three special-needs classes for slow learners and students with behavior!al problems. There are a total of six teachers in charge of these three classes. Thanks to careful instruction, more than 10 percent of the students in the special-needs classes can go back to regular classes.
Juvanpuiston School has fewer than 32 students per class, including regular ones, with an average teacher-student ratio of 1:12.
"We don't neglect the education of any single child," Principal Ossi Airaskorpi, 52, said as he observed the special-needs class that was restored to order when Kiilunen calmed the boy down. "Every child receives the attention they require." (234 words)
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