At an economic seminar held on Monday, 22 January, Joensuu City Council was presented with a proposal for adapting the city’s school and day care network.

According to the proposal, Joensuu would close down nine primary schools by 2031, two comprehensive schools would become secondary schools and one secondary school and the construction of one school would be abandoned. In addition, seven new day care centres would be built in the city, combining the operations of 18 units. In addition to its own units, the city is conducting discussions about closing down the School of Eastern Finland.

According to current estimations, if implemented, the proposal would result in annual savings of around €6 million euros for schools, €160, 000 for secondary schools and €1.5 million for day care centres.   
 

Why is the adaptation of the service network being proposed?

The number of school-aged children in Joensuu is falling radically. According to the current estimation, there will be more than 900 fewer primary school pupils in 2030 than in 2024. The most pronounced change in the 2020s will be in primary schools, extending to secondary schools and upper secondary schools in the early 2030s. Immigration contributes to partially maintaining the number of pupils. As far as immigrants are concerned, pupils are heavily concentrated in the schools located in the city centre.

Read more:
Strategy Director Sami Laakkonen’s column: Demographics, services and economic adaptation

In terms of money and personnel, education is the largest sector of operations of the City of Joensuu. This is why the service network must be considered in light of the need for economic adaptation. The service network is the most costly and in many ways the most difficult to manage element of the city's economy. In order to ensure the necessary hearings and opportunities for influence, the proposal for the adaptation of the service network for schools and day care centres is being published at an early stage.

The shrinking age groups also reduce the central government transfers to local government received by the City of Joensuu. As the number of children decreases, education has to be managed with less money. In Joensuu, the guiding principle of education is "In our schools, pupils are taught by the teachers. Not by the walls."

If the walls are maintained and the service network is not reduced, the budget cuts will translate into reductions in personnel and quality. Adapting the service network allows us to find other targets for the budget cuts besides the hourly resource, i.e. teaching. The main idea behind the proposal is to ensure that the City of Joensuu can continue to offer teaching at the same level as it does today in relation to the number of pupils.

Read more about changes in the school system: The impact of economic adaptation on the school network
 

Change in birth rates

Born 2012–2023

• 2012 814
• 2013 748
• 2014 761
• 2015 739
• 2016 689
• 2017 664
• 2018 634
• 2019 556
• 2020 598
• 2021 613
• 2022 576
• 2023 504
   

Overview of primary schools

Schools proposed for closure and preliminary schedule:

• Louhioja School 2025
• Rekivaara School 2025
• Kanervala School 2025 (Ceasing the operations of the School of Eastern Finland has been proposed to the Foundation)
• Kiihtelysvaara School 2026
• Tuupovaara School 2026
• Iiksenvaara School 2026
• Mutala School 2026–2029 (to be closed down in stages)
• Pataluoto Primary School 2026–2031 (to be changed to a secondary school, to be closed down in stages)  
• Niittylahti School 2027
• Suhmura School 2027
• Uimaharju Primary School 2029 (to be converted to secondary school)

In addition, according to the proposal, no new primary school will be constructed in Niittylahdenranta.

According to the report, the cost impact of the proposal will be approximately €6 million per year. The cost impact will be specified as the review progresses. The cost impacts will arise from lower meal costs, lower property maintenance costs and personnel savings. Cost impacts will include increased school transport costs.

The impact of the proposal on personnel will not be significant. The proposal extends to 2031, when the number of retirements will be significantly higher than the reduction in number of man-years due to the closure of schools.

The proposal looks at the primary school network. With regard to the secondary school network, adaptation measures have been taken over the last decade.
 

Overview of upper secondary schools

As regards the upper secondary school network, teaching at Pyhäselkä Upper Secondary School would be merged with the operations of the Lyseo and Yhteiskoulu upper secondary schools. According to the review the cost impact of the merger is approximately €160, 000 per year. The timeline for the merger is still open.
 

Overview of day care centres

New and moving day care centres and preliminary schedule:

• Penttilä Day Care Centre expansion 2025–2026 (Petäikkölä and Pääsky day care centres will move here)
• The new Utra Day Care Centre 2025–2027 (Utra, Väisälänkatu and Ollila day care centres and Miilu’s pre-primary education will move here)
• Noljakka’s new day care centre 2025–2027 (Tarpoja, Äkkiväärä and Kaisla day care centres will move here)
• Multimäki’s new day care centre 2025–2027 (Kissamäki and Tuulikantele day care centres and family day care in the area will move here)
• Heinävaara's new day care centre 2026 (Heinävaara, Kiihtymisvaara and Tuupovaara day care centres will move here)
• Eno’s new day care centre 2026–2027 (Uimaharju day care centre Touhutupa, Eno’s day care centre Metsätähti, Eno’s Ahotie group family day care centre, Eno’s Harjutie group family day care centre and Eno’s family day care will move here)
• Reijola’s new day care centre 2026–2027 (Reijola, Niittylahti and Niittylahtiranta day care centres and Satakielentie group day care centre will move here)

As far as day care centres are concerned, the service network of the City of Joensuu is fragmented and consists of several small units. The proposal is based on the placement of groups from smaller units into larger units, resulting in savings from lower meal costs, lower property maintenance costs as well as personnel savings from more efficient groups, substitute personnel and holiday arrangements, among other things.  

The adaptation of the units in accordance with the proposal requires new investments, i.e. the construction of new day care centres. In the proposal, seven new day care centres will replace 18 units. Taking the investment costs into account, the adaptation measures for the early childhood education network will provide cost savings as operations become more efficient.

The new, larger day care centres will enable higher-quality services such as special teachers in early childhood education, assistants and sufficient resource personnel. In larger units, the groups will be more adaptable than in smaller ones, and they can accommodate large and small groups and sibling groups more easily. In the proposal. the savings in early childhood education will be generated by merging various sets of walls, not by reducing operations.

According to the review, the cost impact of the proposal is approximately €1.5 million per year. The cost impact will be specified as the review progresses.
 

Other service network proposals to be completed later

The Joensuu economy must be re-balanced by €20 million annually. Adapting the education and early childhood service network is not alone enough to balance the city's economy.

As part of the economic adaptation, other service networks such as upper secondary schools, libraries and youth, cultural and exercise facilities are also being reviewed. Proposals regarding other parts of the service network and other means of adaptation will be completed later.
 

Preliminary and Child Impact Assessment

The proposal regarding the primary school and day care centre network was made public at an early stage so that proper impact assessment can be carried out before a decision is made. Decisions related to the service network will have a broad impact on the entire city and different perspectives must be taken into account when decisions are made.

Preliminary and child impact assessments are being carried out and published as part of the review process in connection with the proposals.  
 

What happens if changes are not implemented

Changes are being proposed to the service network in order to maintain the quality of the services. If the fixed costs resulting from the number of units cannot be adjusted to the level of the decreasing number of children, adaptation pressures will be exerted on the quality level, such as teaching.

If the current service network is maintained as the number of children decreases, the financing of education and early childhood education should be organised, for example, by increasing income tax or by covering financing from other municipal services. Given the scale of required economic balancing, maintaining the existing service network would require substantial tax increases and service cuts.  
 

When will the decision be made?

The proposal for the entire economic adaptation plan is scheduled to be submitted to the Board of Directors for resolution on 17 June 2024.