Teachers warn home schooling denies some Finnish children education and social contact

An investigation by YLE's MOT programme interviewed 22 supervising teachers and found frequent missed oversight meetings, wide variation in teaching quality and cases where children were kept isolated from peers.

Sastamala principal Jari Andersson says parents repeatedly skipped mandated monitoring meetings and calls some cases "legalized neglect." Seven of the teachers told the programme families cited values, religion or ideology as reasons for home schooling; others pointed to wellbeing or bullying. Andersson later met the family that initially missed their appointment, two weeks after the no-show.

The National Agency for Education counted 945 home learners last year, about 0.18 percent of pupils. That figure has roughly tripled in seven years.

Child Ombudsman Elina Pekkarinen warns that some children’s right to learn may not be realised and urges tighter oversight. Some teachers want authorities to be able to suspend home schooling for child protection reasons or to require more than a simple notification. Others say an outright ban would harm families who need flexibility.

Earlier reporting has highlighted weaknesses in the education system that may worsen the problem, including gaps exposed by the expansion of compulsory education to age 18 and calls from veteran school safety experts for clearer, practical rules to handle safety and wellbeing issues in schools around pupil safety.