Studying ethics subject in Vantaa high schools

Students in Vantaa’s high schools can study ethics subjects as follows:

• Students belonging to the Evangelical-Lutheran religion can only participate in instruction in the Evangelical-Lutheran religion. 
• Students belonging to the Finnish Orthodox Church can participate in instruction in either the Eastern Orthodox religion or the Evangelical-Lutheran religion.
• Students who do not belong to any religious community can either study the Evangelical-Lutheran religion or ethics.

Students belonging to some other registered religion can study their own religion, provided that instruction in it is arranged in the students’ high schools (for example, Islam). Students can also participate in instruction in the Evangelical-Lutheran religion or in instruction in ethics at their own request. Furthermore, students can request instruction in their own religion at the beginning of the school year, see instructions below.

Requesting instruction in one’s own religion

Students belonging to some other registered religion can request instruction in their own religion in Vantaa high schools. The students must be members of the religious community in which they ask for instruction. Moreover, students who do not belong to any religious community can also submit the application if their educational and cultural backgrounds obviously correspond to the religion applied for.

• Apply for instruction in your own religion through Wilma: on the form available on the Wilman hakemukset ja päätökset (“Wilma applications and decisions”) tap. Applications must be submitted by September 20.
• Vantaa high schools are obliged to arrange instruction if there are at least three applicants belonging to the religious community applied for. Students who do not belong to any religious community are not included in the obligation to arrange instruction. The arranger of instruction is entitled to ask for a reliable verification of the students’ belonging to the religious community applied for.
• When requesting instruction, please note that due to the small size of the teaching groups, instruction may have to be arranged in such a way that, in practice, instruction takes place in a high school other than the student's own high school.
• The students shall enter on the form the ethics subject in which they will participate, in case it is not possible to arrange instruction in their own religion.
• The ethics-instruction choice is fixed, but the students have the right to change their choice in case their religious community changes, or if they no longer belong to any religious community.

If it is not possible to arrange instruction in the students’ own religion and if the students do not participate in instruction in the Evangelical-Lutheran religion or ethics, the students may also participate in the instruction in religion given by their own religious community. This shall be separately agreed with the principal of the student's own school if the student’s request of instruction in their own religion has been denied. The general rules for recognition of educational qualifications are applied to instruction given by religious communities. The arranger of instruction recognizes educational qualifications acquired elsewhere to the extent they are consistent with the goals and contents of the curriculum. Instruction by one’s own religious community will not be graded in the report card.

Fill in the application for instruction in other ethics subjects in Wilma in September. 

• The last day to submit the application is September 20. The applications will be handled by the end of September. 
• If there are more than three applicants, instruction in the religion applied for will be arranged during the school year, and the student’s selection is binding. 
• Arranging instruction in ethics subjects is always decided based on the applications submitted in the fall in question, and applications submitted the previous year will not be included in the number of applicants. 
• When required, you can fill out the application again next fall. 
• If a student has already studied the Evangelical-Lutheran religion or ethics syllabus, these studies cannot be recognized: the student must perform studies in their own religion from the beginning.