The Urban Policy Council’s First Report: Qualified Early Childhood Teachers Are More Common in Socioeconomically Advantaged Areas
The Urban Policy Council’s first report examines educational segregation in the Helsinki capital region and raises critical questions for municipalities: regional disparities in early childhood education, strategies to combat segregation, and how data and information are utilized in urban decision-making. According to the report, daycare centers in more advantaged areas employ, on average, a higher proportion of qualified teachers. However, variation within similar areas is significant.
Kaupunkipolitiikan arviointineuvoston jäsenet Mirjam Kalland, Raisa Carpelan, Matti Sarvimäki ja Mikko Silliman. Kuva: Salla Merikukka.
Qualified Early Childhood Staff Are Not Evenly Distributed
A recent study commissioned by the Urban Policy Council shows that in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas, the proportion of teachers meeting legal qualification requirements is, on average, lower than in more affluent areas.
This means that qualified early childhood staff—especially teachers—tend to concentrate in neighborhoods where residents are generally more educated and have higher incomes. This is particularly important because we know that staff quality is the most influential factor in educational outcomes,” says Mirjam Kalland, Chair of the Council and Professor of Education at the University of Helsinki.
The phenomenon, however, is not without important exceptions: in some areas, qualification levels are high, and some teachers deliberately choose to work in neighborhoods where they feel their work is especially meaningful in reducing inequality. “These units should be studied more closely. We need to understand what makes them attractive workplaces for qualified staff,” Kalland adds.
According to a study by Reija Ahola and Lauri Hietajärvi, the difference in the number of qualified staff between socioeconomically weaker and stronger areas was significant across the capital region. In the most disadvantaged areas, only about 45% of teachers were qualified, compared to over 60% in the most advantaged areas. There were also differences between cities. Based on 2024 data, the share of qualified teachers in Helsinki was 58% in Finnish-language early childhood education and 55% in Swedish-language education. The corresponding figures in Vantaa were 55% and 50%, and in Espoo, 48% and 48%.
Municipal early childhood education administrators recognize recruitment challenges and report implementing various measures to improve the situation, such as salary supplements and hiring additional staff. Despite these efforts, the gap between socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged areas remains clear.
Building the Foundation for Equal Early Childhood Education and Schools Through Data
The Council’s report also highlights problems related to municipal data collection and information systems. Municipalities use several information systems to manage education, but many data points are overwritten annually, preventing the creation of longitudinal datasets and tracking changes in schools and early childhood units. These issues could be resolved with relatively modest investments but addressing learning and educational challenges requires systematically collected data.
The law obligates education providers to evaluate the education they offer and participate in external evaluations. Meaningful evaluation is impossible without sufficient data,” says Matti Sarvimäki, Vice-Chair of the Council and Associate Professor of Economics at Aalto University.
“Systematic data collection also helps improve education. Even simple analyses can effectively create situational awareness for decision-making and guide us toward asking the right questions. Educational evaluation must be based on standardized data collection, and longitudinal data should be stored centrally in secure data repositories,” Sarvimäki continues.
The study reveals that segregation as a phenomenon is not strongly reflected in metropolitan school curricula. Schools in socioeconomically diverse areas offer largely similar elective subjects and languages. Structural measures to combat segregation appear only sparsely in curricula. While numerous interventions are underway in schools and daycare centers, there is rarely clear, research-based evidence or monitoring of their impact. “Investing in reliable data and research is not a cost burden but a way to strengthen the effectiveness of investments in children and youth,” Sarvimäki notes.
The Council Supports Improving the evidence-based decision making
Schools and daycare centers make significant decisions daily that affect children. Core activities generate important information about student learning and well-being and knowledge of the impact of development measures. Currently, according to the Council, this information is not fully utilized.
To improve the situation, during its first year, the Council has initiated a process to consolidate existing data. Some of the Council’s reports to be published next year will be based on these new datasets, laying out the foundation for more long-term research and development.
The Council emphasizes the systematic collection of unit-level data on work in schools and daycare centers. We need to understand how schools, daycare centers, and the teachers and leaders working in them can best be supported in their crucial mission. According to the Council, this would help address the root causes of declining learning outcomes and increasing segregation.
Collecting and utilizing data would also strengthen municipal autonomy and evidence-based decision-making, reducing reliance solely on international assessments. It is important that goals, challenges, and measures are presented more precisely in publicly available documents guiding school operations.
“Documenting actions taken and evaluating their impact more systematically and reliably is essential. It is also a legal obligation for municipalities. More systematic data collection and utilization would increase our understanding of what is really happening in schools and early childhood education. This way, we could better support daycare centers and schools in their work,” emphasizes Chair Mirjam Kalland.
The Urban Policy Council is an independent scientific panel consisting of researchers specializing in education and segregation from Aalto University and the University of Helsinki. Its mission is to provide research-based evaluations of urban policy actions and decisions. The Council is funded jointly by the cities of Espoo, Helsinki, and Vantaa, together with Aalto University and the University of Helsinki.
More Information
Mirjam Kalland
Chair of the Council
+358 29 412 8401
Jari Järvenpää
Secretary-General of the Council
+358 40 355 7304
