Two-year pre-primary education trial

Introduction

Vantaa was part of a national two-year pre-primary education trial, where some children started pre-primary education at the age of 5. The purpose of the trial has been to strengthen educational equality and to improve the quality and effectiveness of pre-primary education.

The purpose of the trial

- Strengthen equality in education and training
- To improve the quality and effectiveness of pre-primary education
- To clarify the continuities between early childhood education and pre-primary and primary education
- To clarify the service choices of families
- To obtain information on the impact of two years of pre-primary education on children's development and learning conditions, social skills and healthy self-esteem

Schedule and implementation of the trial

The Ministry of Education and Culture's trial ran from August 2021 to May 2024, meaning that the national trial will have ended at the end of May 2024.
In Vantaa, 26 day-care centres drawn by the Ministry of Education and Culture participated in the trial.
Children born in 2016 and 2017 were divided into trial and control groups. The children in the trial group attended two years of pre-primary education and the children in the control group attended one year of pre-primary education as usual. In Vantaa, about 1000 children have been in the trial group and about 4300 in the control group. These groups were set up by the Ministry of Education and Culture and Vantaa has had no influence on these decisions.

Follow-up study as part of the trial

The trial has been accompanied by a national research project to evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of the trial. The follow-up study will systematically and comprehensively assess, among other things, the following aspects.
- the achievement of the purpose of the two-year pre-primary education experiment
- the experiences of children, families and educational staff
- the impact of longer pre-school education on the development of children's learning skills

The follow-up study will continue in the autumn of 2024 for the 1st year of primary education.

Trial follow-up study and trial register
The trial is provided for by law and is part of a national survey (Ministry of Education and Culture). In the follow-up study, children have participated in assessments and carers and early childhood education staff have been interviewed. The results of individual child assessments and carer questionnaires are not reported in the follow-up study and respondents cannot otherwise be identified. Even if a child does not participate in the two-year pre-primary education programme at the trial site, information on your child is recorded in the register.

The trial follow-up study will include children from both the trial group and a control group.

Frequently asked questions

Children eligible for two-year pre-primary education were attending early childhood education at the day-care centre selected as a trial unit at the time of sampling (2016-born in March 2021 and 2017-born in January 2022) or the family of a child at home lived close to such unit. Those eligible for two-year pre-school education received a decision on their inclusion in the sample group.

The experiment will monitor the impact of two years of pre-school education on the children participating in it. Therefore, children were divided into trial and control groups.
Your child was selected for the trial group if he or she was attending early years education at the day-care center running the trial or if you lived near to the day-care center.
Your child was selected for the control group if he or she was not in the trial group under the above conditions. However, children in the control group will participate in the follow-up study of the trial together with the children in the trial group.
In Vantaa, there are about 1000 children in the trial group and about 4300 in the control group. These groups were set up by the Ministry of Education and Culture and Vantaa had no influence on these decisions.

More information

two-year pre-school education in Vantaa curriculum 2021 (In Finnish) Ministery of Education and Culture (In Finnish)

Go to early childhood education homepage >

Go to pre-primary education homepage >

Preschool education

Units

Service has 23 units in total