Home > Statistics > Providers of education and educational institutions > 2006 > Number of comprehensive schools down by 186, highest number of closures in the Region of North Ostrobothnia

Published: 23 February 2007

Number of comprehensive schools down by 186, highest number of closures in the Region of North Ostrobothnia

According to Statistics Finland's Register of Educational Institutions, there were 899 active providers of education and 4,610 educational institutions in which 1.9 million students pursued studies at the end of 2006. The number of providers of education was four and that of educational institutions 228 lower than in 2005. Of the providers of education 55 per cent were municipalities and joint municipal boards, seven per cent were central government units and 36 were private. The remaining two per cent of the providers of education operated in the Region of Åland.

In 2006, there were 3,180 active comprehensive schools which had 555,400 pupils. Schools providing special education at the comprehensive school level numbered 176 and they had 8,800 pupils. Comprehensive and upper secondary general level schools numbered 37 and they had 24,200 pupils. A total of 186 comprehensive schools or schools providing special education at the comprehensive school level were closed down or merged with another educational institution. Of these, 45 were educational institutions with under 20 pupils, 87 had between 20 and 49 pupils while 54 had at least 50 pupils. The number of closures was the highest in the Region of North Ostrobothnia.

The majority, or 78 per cent, of the comprehensive schools proper provided education at the primary level (pupils attending grades 1 to 6). The proportion of comprehensive schools providing education at the lower secondary level (pupils attending grades 7 to 9) was 14 per cent. Eight per cent were schools providing education in all comprehensive school grades.

Schools with under 50 pupils made up 28 per cent of comprehensive schools. Five per cent of the schools had more than 500 pupils.

Educational institutions of the school system and numbers of students by type of educational institution in 2006

Type of educational institution	Number	Change from previous year	Students
11 Comprehensive schools	3 180	-167	555 400
12 Comprehensive school level special education schools	176	-19	8 800
15 Upper secondary general schools	418	-10	124 100
19 Comprehensive and upper secondary general level schools	37	0	24 200
21 Vocational institutes	173	-9	160 000
22 Special needs vocational institutes	13	0	4 300
23 Specialised vocational institutes	38	-2	31 000
24 Vocational adult education centres	34	-4	39 500
28 Fire, police and security service institutes	2	0	1 400
29 Military vocational institutes	15	-3	..
41 Polytechnics	31	0	143 500
42 Universities	20	0	176 600
43 Military academies	1	0	..
61 Music schools and colleges	91	0	61 900
62 Sports institutes	14	0	1 600
63 Folk high schools	88	2	14 100
64 Adult education centres	240	-7	506 500
65 Study circle centres	11	0	50 200
66 Summer universities	20	0	28 800
99 Other educational institutions	8	-9	600
Total	4 610	-228	1 932 500

Source: Education Statistics. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Ms Aila Repo +358 9 1734 3271, koulutus.tilastot@tilastokeskus.fi

Director in charge: Ms Riitta Harala

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Last updated 22.2.2007