Voice of Education
The education and culture services is the largest branch of the City of Oulu. The city needs decisionmakers, who understand the importance of these services, know about the everyday situation of schools and always stand for education and civility.
High-quality education
The number of children in Oulu is going down drastically, and it is estimated that in the year 2032, there will be roughly 4000 less pupils than now. This will inevitably affect the educational network, for which decisions need to already be made during the next council term. I want to ensure the quality of education amidst these changes. These large changes need to be conducted fairly and with effects to children evaluated, while also looking at the big picture and protecting the children’s and youths’ right to high-quality education.
Education brings equality
Education is our most important tool to ensure that children and youth in Oulu have equal opportunities. Oulu is not yet doing enough to combat segregation, even though many schools and areas have started to differentiate a long time ago. Educational equality is improved by, e.g., correctly timed learning support and language-conscious practices. We need a more diverse language reserve, for which we should promote language teaching. The native languages of pupils are also part of the language reserve, and native language teaching needs to be offered more widely. Oulu has to commit to the continuation of the Northern Sami – Finnish – joint class activity also after the pilot which is going on until 2027.
Blooming early childhood education
Taking care of the wellbeing and sufficient salaries of the early childhood education staff will pay itself back. The staff shortages in daycares will only worsen if we do not ensure the appeal of the career. Wellbeing of the staff ensures a well-balanced growth environment and quality of education. The yards of the daycares should be planned in a way that lets the children experience the touch of nature and also there are trees that offer shade. Nutrition education an food planning is important, since through this the children can get familiarized to a well-balanced diet and taste of different vegetables and vegetarian foods
Oulu of Children’s Culture
Oulu is great city for children’s culture: music, literature art, theater, movies, library services, art school, museums etc. – and the soon to be opened children’s culture center in the new central library! This is an important strength that we must focus on. In the eve and after Europe’s cultural capital year of 2026, culture needs to be accessible and part of every Oulu resident. For example the theatre of Oulu needs support for continuing the children’s theater festival.
International Oulu for all
Oulu has a large number of residents with an international background. After policy changes, the city is in charge of the integration services of unemployed residents and work and study-based immigrants. In addition to effective immigration training, we also need more language training, career seeking support, mentoring and improving the communal environment. Oulu benefits greatly when our international talent and students stay and build their lives here. Oulu has taken an important step towards antiracism through the action plan against racism. I want to make sure that the plan is not just on paper, but the antiracist work is concrete and done throughout all branches of the city. I want a shared Oulu, which is safe and welcoming to everybody.
Sustainable future and present
It is not enough that sustainability is a goal in the city strategy and other programs, if the actions towards it are not enough. We need better public transport and much better biking infrastructure, such as city bikes and baana bike paths. A sustainable city also prefers supplementary construction, offers climate-friendly food and supports a circular economy. The city also needs to bear responsibility for biodiversity and local nature needs to be accessible everywhere in Oulu.
Selection of actions taken towards a better Oulu, City Council Term 2021-2025
• Council Initiative: More nature to daycares, a better immunoresistance to children
• Council initiative together with Susa Vikeväkorva: Quality and staff-wellbeing of early childhood education has to be ensured
• Budget plan amendment proposal: Early childhood education salary program needs to be improved
• Budget plan proposal for work clothes money for early childhood education staff
• Speech on city tax rate decision 2025. With a slight tax increase we were able to prevent the worst cuts to education services.
• Advocacy for the bilingual Northern Sami – Finnish – joint class: The Oulu Sámit and parents contacted decision makers in the summer of 2022 and suggested actions to get the class established. I started collaborating with them and working towards the goal. The location of the class was moved to Lintulampi school (which is closer to Sami language early childhood education in Mäntylä-Snellman daycare) and the requirements for number of pupils was lowered to four. The class started in August 2023 and is now in operation. Unfortunately due to proposed budget cuts, I have had to keep defending the continuation of the class also during Autumn 2024, but according to my proposal in the City’s education committee the class was confirmed to continue operating for the full pilot period.
• Throughout the term, I have promoted pupils’ native language teaching as a way to improve our language reserve and internationality. Through my initiative, the education committee added native language teaching as an indicator in the 2022 usage plan, after which it has been reported to the committee. I defended the native language teaching during the economic pressures in 2024, which lead to an addition to the 2025 usage plan: “Special attention will be given to preventing learning differences and segregation, for example by ensuring high-quality native language teaching possibilities.
• I have advocated for more language learning opportunities. I collected proposals from the Green council members to the updated education programme 2022, and through the proposal these goals were added to the programme: “We (The city of Oulu) will improve the residents’ language reserve” and “We will improve the accessability of sport centres and nature sports spots”.
• In the Education committee, I’ve regularly talked about preventing segregation and its importance to schools and educational equality. Little by little, the topic has gained traction, and now it has been visible in the education committees usage plan and the anti-racist action plan.
• Special classes (such as music classes) and international school’s transportation policy was updated during this term. Together with a education committee colleague Aleksanteri Kekonen (kok.) we stated the importance of public transportation tickets for low-income famiies, so that these special classes are accessible for children and youth from all backgrounds. The policy was changed, so that those under the income limit will receive public transportation tickets.
• In the city council speeches I have also defended for example the public transport accessability of nature locations and improving the conditions of biking and pedestrians.
Election compass
Read more about my thoughts for example from election compasses by Yle.
I was a guest in a Random Finnish lesson podcast (by Hanna Männikkölahti). We talked about the municipal politics and upcoming elections. Finnish language spoken in Hanna’s podcast is a bit easier, so it’s a good one to listen for Finnish language learners. You can also find a Finnish-English vocabulary of the podcast episode from Hanna’s blog.
Vote in Oulu City Council elections for number 330
Election Day on Sunday 13.4.2025 or in advance in Finland 2.–8.4.2025 or abroads 2.–5.4.2025.
Voting in municipal elections (from suomi.fi)
Who’s allowed to vote?
• You may vote in municipal elections if you are a resident of the municipality and reach the age of 18 by the election day.
• Your home municipality is the municipality where you were registered 51 days before the election day.
• Citizens of other EU countries, Norway and Iceland that have a home municipality in Finland also have the right to vote in Finnish municipal elections.
• Citizens of countries outside the EU that have had a home municipality in Finland for a continuous period of at least two years on the 51st day before the election day also have the right to vote.
How can I vote?
- You may vote in advance at any of the advance polling stations in Finland or abroad. On the election day, you may only vote at your own polling station. The polling station is indicated on the card that will be mailed before the elections to every person entitled to vote. If you have activated the Suomi.fi Messages service, you’ll receive the card electronically to Suomi.fi Messages. Find out more about Suomi.fi Messages. (Opens in a new window.)
- Elderly persons, persons with disabilities, and chronically ill that are unable to reach the polling station may request support so that they can vote at home. The necessary voting arrangements must be made with the municipal central election board.
- You need to prove your identity at the polling station. You do not need the notification stating that you are entitled to vote. Even though you do not need the notification at the polling station it may be useful when you are voting in advance outside Finland. In those situations, the notification card will speed up the voting process.
- If you are staying abroad or live permanently abroad during the election, you can vote by post. An eligible voter wishing to vote by post has to order the postal voting documents from Finland to an address abroad.
Read more about elections on Vaalit.fi site (Opens in a new window.)
Source: Suomi.fi
