FAST-FIN-1 Finnish Institutions Research Papers

The Role of Religion in the Finnish
Comprehensive School Curriculum
Veera Halonen, Fall 2010 (US)
A FAST-FIN-1 (TRENAK1) Finnish Institutions Research Paper
FAST Area Studies Program
Department of Translation Studies, University of Tampere

During the first decade of the 21st century there has been a lot of discussion in Finland about religion and the relationship between church and state.

There are two historically significant churches in Finland: the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and The Finnish Orthodox Church. These two churches are sometimes referred to as 'state churches' because they hold a separate position in Finnish legislation. The majority of Finns belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and as a result the church has been very influential in society. Religion has traditionally been an important part of the school curricula; the Lutheran faith used to be the only religion taught in Finnish public schools, although the increased immigration of non-Lutheran people in the late 20th century has led to other religions being included in the curriculum as well.

At the moment, there is a rapidly growing number of immigrants and refugees in Finland who represent different religions. As a result, the government has once again been forced to rethink some of its policies relating to religion and education, and especially the role of religion in the Finnish school system.

People rarely like changes in the society around them, and the new policies have met with some resistance. Some political parties have also been highly critical of immigration and multiculturalism. This has presented an additional challenge to the restructuring of the school system.

This paper examines religious education in the Finnish comprehensive school curriculum. How and why is religion taught in Finnish comprehensive schools? What are some general principles behind the legislation and the national curriculum? How have things changed over the years? What are the modern attitudes towards religion in Finland? Should religion be a part of the modern school curriculum? What does the future look like for religious education in Finnish comprehensive schools?

History and Development of Religious Education in Finland

Historically, the term 'religious education' in Finland has been understood as the teaching of Christianity, particularly Evangelical Lutheran Christianity. In the early 20th century the teaching was very confessional-oriented, which meant that it focused on 'guiding' the children to the 'right path.' From the 1950s onward this began to change. The individual-oriented, confessional education began to give way to a more general approach, which was informative rather than instructive (Peltonen in Luodeslampi 423-424).

In the past, religious education was compulsory for most students. However, non-Christians were able to opt out of the religious education on the basis of the Freedom of Religion Act (267/1922). In place of religion they were required to study history of religion and moral philosophy (Elo and Linnankivi). During the decades following the Second World War, the religious education was suddenly hit by waves of strong criticism from people who demanded changes in the teaching of religion in the schools. Some even demanded religion to be removed from the schools entirely. Religion was never removed from schools but some cuts in lesson hours were made. In 1957 the word 'religion' in its curricular sense was broadened to include history of religion and moral philosophy in addition to the confessional education (Luodeslampi 424).

When the modern Finnish comprehensive school was being established in the 1960s, a committee was set up to prepare the school reform (Luodeslampi 424). At the time, the idea of neutral or non-religious education was gaining popularity (426). Consequently, the committee took a stance on religion and moral philosophy that was deliberately quite vague, and thus could be interpreted in different ways (Kähkönen in Luodeslampi 425).

In the 1980s it was decided that if a school had at least three students who weren't part of any religion, the school would have to teach them ethics instead (Elo and Linnankivi). This is actually very close to the way the current system still works.

Religion in Modern Finland

The Finnish population is still quite homogenous: predominately Finnish-speaking, Caucasian, and Lutheran. About 80% of all Finns are members of the Evangelical Lutheran church. The second largest religious group is Orthodox at 1.1% (Statistics).

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and The Finnish Orthodox Church are sometimes referred to as the two 'state churches,' even though there has not been an official state church since 1870. They do, however, have an official status in Finnish legislation (Sihvola 149). For example, the churches collect a church tax from their members, and the Finnish Tax Administration takes care of collecting the tax for both churches (152).

Despite the majority of Finns being members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, religion is quite invisible in modern Finland. While many Finns do celebrate Christian holidays, such as Christmas and Easter, very few attend church regularly. This is also reflected by the increasing number of people leaving the church. The percentage of people with no religious affiliation is increasing: in 2009 it was 17.7% – up from 12.7% in 2000 (Statistics).

Compared to many other churches, such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church is quite liberal in its official policies and fairly tolerant of its members' diverse opinions. But even though there are different views inside the church, the conservative voices often tend to be the loudest.

For example, there was a TV debate in October 2010 hosted by the Finnish Broadcasting Company which sparked much controversy. The topic had to do with gay rights, gender-neutral marriage, adoption rights and church weddings for same-sex couples. The Lutheran church does not have an official stance on the topic, but some of the speakers had very conservative views. The anti-gay comments made by some of the panelists resulted in over 30,000 people resigning from the Evangelical Lutheran Church within the next several weeks (Yli).

As society changes, attitudes toward religion also change, and especially conservative views start evoking strong reactions. Religion seems to be losing influence in people's lives, which may be a sign that at some point Finland – as an increasingly secular society – might also have to revisit the role of religion in its education system.

Modern School System and the National Curriculum

Currently, the compulsory Finnish comprehensive school consists of nine grades, with children usually entering first grade at the age of six or seven. It is very unusual for a Finnish child not to attend school. In fact, 99.7% of all Finnish children attend and graduate from comprehensive school (Oppivelvollisuus).

The Freedom of Religion Act (453/2003) brought some changes to religious education. What was previously referred to as 'confessional education' was now called 'education in one's own religion.' Furthermore, it was no longer required that the person teaching Lutheran or Orthodox religion should be a member of the church (Sihvola 151-152).

There is a national core curriculum determined by the Finnish National Board of Education, which establishes general guidelines for the teaching of different subjects. There are also municipal curricula, which expand and specify the general principles in the core curriculum. Additionally, the schools often have their own specific curricula based on the national core curriculum and the local municipal curriculum (Opetussuunnitelma). The individual teacher then applies these curricula in his or her own lesson plans and teaching (Innanen 190).

Religious Education in Finnish Comprehensive Schools

The national core curriculum of 2004 states that basic education should not be religiously or politically aligned. In other words, religious education should never interfere with other subjects. However, in practice the Christian tradition can often be seen in many ways in school life. For example, it has been a common tradition in Finnish schools to re-enact the Nativity of Jesus in a school play right before Christmas. Singing Christian-themed songs and hymns at school events is also very common (Sihvola 160). These are old traditions in Finnish schools, so most of the parents and teachers feel strongly about keeping them. In fact, this is probably the main reason why these traditions still exist.

Current Distribution of Lesson Hours in Basic Education.
Source: National Core Curriculum 2004

As to the actual religious education, everyone is entitled to education in his or her own religion. However, there is some variation. The municipality is obliged to arrange teaching in the religion of the majority. Those students are also obliged to participate in the teaching of said religion. Anyone else can freely participate in the teaching of the majority religion. In practice, the majority religion is usually Evangelical Lutheran. Evangelical Lutheran or Orthodox teaching needs to be arranged if there are at least three members of that church studying in the school. Ethics must be taught if there are at least three religiously unaffiliated students in the school.

For any other religion, the same rules apply, except that the students' guardians must request the teaching to be organized. If teaching in the student's religion cannot be arranged, and the student does not wish to participate in the education of the majority religion, he or she can participate in the ethics classes instead (Sihvola 154-155).

Despite the flexibility of the system, the teaching of minority religions needs to be monitored. There is a separate, government-approved core curriculum for each minority religion – as well as for ethics – that the teachers have to follow. The general philosophical principle in the national core curriculum is that the goal of any religious or ethical education should be to support the student in building his or her own, individual world view (Ubani 173-174).

The national curriculum also states the minimum lesson hours for different subjects. The following table illustrates the minimum weekly lessons per year (which means 38 lesson hours in total per year). As can be seen in the table, the total portion of religion or ethics is 11 weekly lesson hours, which is considerably fewer than many other subjects. For example, mother tongue and literature totals 42 weekly lesson hours, and mathematics totals 32. In fact, those subjects totaling fewer hours than religion and ethics do not become part of the studies until later on. History and social studies, which totals 10 weekly lesson hours, usually starts in fifth grade, while B-language (this generally means Swedish) with 6 lesson hours, home economics (3 hours), and educational and vocational guidance (2 hours) usually start in seventh grade.

Religion and ethics, however, are spread throughout the entire comprehensive school; the minimum weekly lesson hours for the first five grades being 6 hours, and 5 hours for the last four. Thus, as things stand, religion does not currently seem to have a very significant role in the curriculum.

Criticism of Religious Education in Comprehensive School

Compared to many other countries around the world, Finland treats its religious minorities fairly well. However, the Evangelical Lutheran and Orthodox churches still have a distinct status in Finnish legislation, and the Christian faith is still the norm in the society. One could argue that separating the children according to their religious affiliation and beliefs does not help improve the equality and cultural acceptance among students. In Finland, young students are essentially always together: all in the same classroom, studying the same subjects. If some of them are suddenly separated from the rest because of their religious affiliation, it could further encourage separation and the forming of cliques based on ethnicity and religion.

On the other hand, many parents do consider religious education to be a very important part of their children's upbringing. If there was no religious education at school, they might worry about their children being at a disadvantage if they had to seek the education elsewhere. The churches might also be concerned that the number of young followers might drop considerably if religious education became non-mandatory, simply because religion would suddenly require additional work from the students. Religious education would have to be sought outside of school, and it would require an extra time investment from the students in addition to their mandatory school work.

However, one question is whether religious education is good for a child. After all, a child's cognitive skills are still significantly underdeveloped until around 14 or 15 years of age (Holm 146). Logically, this would mean that a child is not capable of making any significant ideological decisions before that age. It is understandable that parents would like to guide their children towards their own values and ideologies. However, this perspective puts government-funded religious education in a questionable light: shouldn't individuals be able to make up their own minds about which religion – if any – to adopt? In fact, some would argue that it is the government's responsibility to support this kind of freedom of choice.

The idea in the national curriculum is that regardless of the religion being taught, other world views, or at least the major world religions, should be covered. And this needs to be done in a neutral and non-judgmental manner. Some worry that this may not be happening, especially in the teaching of certain minority religions (Sihvola 156). There are so many different subjects lumped under the same name, religion and ethics, that it is almost impossible to monitor everything. Maybe it would be easier to simply merge the various religious curricula into other subjects.

Alternatives to the Current Model of Religious Education in Finland

With increasing immigration into Finland of non-Lutheran people in the early 21st century, it is getting harder to balance all the different religions in legislation and education. More and more religions and religious subgroups are emerging, and as a consequence an increasing number of curricula need to be developed and approved. It is possible that at some point it will be deemed easier to simply drop religion from the school curriculum entirely. The curricula are getting more and more bloated each year, exhausting both the students and the teachers. Dropping religion from the curriculum might give more breathing room. The portion of religious education may not be overwhelming, but 11 out of 222 weekly lesson hours is still something. However, if religion were to be dropped from the curriculum, it is not unlikely that instead of being merged into other subjects, such as history and social studies, and freeing space for other subjects, it would simply be replaced by some new, collective subject, such as ethics.

Pekka Elo and Jaakko Linnankivi describe on the website of the Finnish philosophy and ethics teachers' association (FETO) three ways how religious or ethical studies could be organized. The first is the one currently in use in Finland, where every student gets education in his or her own religion. There is nothing wrong with the idea of all students being entitled to free education in their own religion. However, as more non-Lutheran immigrants arrive in Finland, and new curricula need to be planned and implemented for every new minority religion, the process keeps getting more and more expensive.

The second model is that of a single, universal curriculum, which includes for example ethics or general religion studies. In theory, the school would stay neutral and nobody should feel discriminated against based on his or her religion. However, it is hard for the teachers to always stay objective when it comes to their personal world views. Thus, with this model there is always the risk of majority bias. In Sweden, for example, this has raised some significant concerns.

In the third model there is no specific religious or ethical education in schools. Religion and ethics are merged into other subjects, such as history, geography, and philosophy. This model, according to Elo and Linnankivi, is clear and unifying. However, some problems might still emerge. It could be that the merging causes the original contents to become fragmented; some essential material may even disappear in the process. Furthermore, depending on the people involved, some of the ethically charged material might accidentally find its way into other subjects' curricula (Elo and Linnankivi).

These models represent only a few of the many possible ways to organize religious education in schools. Nonetheless, finding a good solution seems to be hard – as it is realistically impossible to build a completely unbiased system. For example, the teacher always has his or her personal views and values, which are often a defining part of a person's identity. It would be impossible to teach outside of oneself and one's values. This is not a problem exclusive to a neutral education model, but one that exists within every religion or ideology: there are always different interpretations. Thus, not even the first model is entirely immune to this problem.

Most of the criticism of the education system is currently aimed at increasing the proportion of practical and arts subjects. However, there is some concern about the state of religious education in comprehensive schools as well. For example, the political party Green League is pushing for a neutral model, a universal curriculum such as the one proposed in the second model. The party believes that separating young children according to the religion of their families would not be rational in an increasingly multicultural society (Rutonen).

The Future of Religious Education in Finland?

As Finnish society changes, changes also need to be made in policies. The first big change in the teaching of religion in Finnish comprehensive schools was introducing minority religions into the curriculum in the late 20th century. With the rapidly increasing non-Lutheran immigration and the secularization of people's attitudes, it seems that the time for the next big change may be approaching.

There may not be a 'right' solution to the issue, but the policy makers will have to decide which goals to pursue. The current system represents positive freedom where all students are entitled to free education in the religion of their – or their guardian's – choice. But it is costly and harder to monitor. It also underlines the differences between students, which may encourage discrimination.

The two alternate models described by Elo and Linnankivi seem to aim at fading religion out of the curriculum. They promote equality among students but might be harder to implement in practice. Furthermore, they may not allow as much freedom for religious expression in schools, and the religious education may need to be sought elsewhere.

However, any change is often met with resistance, which would also be the case with any changes to the teaching of religion in the public school curricula. While it is understandable that people are skeptical about changes, this makes it harder to change the curriculum – even if another model was determined potentially better. However, the Finnish population structure has changed radically in the past few decades; in 2010 there are more different religious minorities than ever before. Thus, just as changes have had to be made in other areas of society, the role of religion in the Finnish comprehensive school system will soon also need to be re-evaluated.

Works Cited

Followup Report [PDF]

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Last Updated 04 December 2010