Committee: Shortage of Teachers in Immigrant Education and Training
The committee estimates that 650 more teachers will be needed by the year 2012 so that immigrant education on different levels can be provided as immigration increases. According to the committee, the teacher shortage can be alleviated by supplementing teacher training programmes, ensuring that persons with an immigrant background have access to teacher education, and by widening the possibilities of supplementing teacher qualifications awarded abroad. The committee, appointed to estimate teacher needs in immigrant education in the period 2007-2012, handed in its report to Minister of Education Sari Sarkomaa on Tuesday in Helsinki.
The committee proposes that the growing shortage of teachers should be considered in the intakes to vocational teacher education and in teacher education for immigrants. One way to promote better access to teacher training for students with immigrant backgrounds is to develop the options, resources and implementation of teacher training in universities and polytechnics.
According to the committee, teachers and school communities need be better informed about teaching, educating and counselling persons with immigrant backgrounds. Teachers should be provided with in-service training in encountering immigrant students and pedagogic skills geared to considering different language backgrounds. The committee proposes that in-service training of teachers who teach immigrants should be made one of the priorities of government-financed supplementary education in the years 2007-2012. The government should be prepared to provide in-service training for at least 1500 persons annually.
The committee emphasises the importance of increasing the possibilities and resources for supplementing teacher qualifications awarded abroad.
According to the committee, the qualification requirements of teachers with immigrant backgrounds should be more precisely defined than they currently are. At the moment, no qualifications for preparatory instruction and education or the teaching of immigrants' native languages have been defined. This complicates educational arrangements and makes estimating the teacher shortage.
Measures should be taken to develop statistics on teachers who teach persons with immigrant backgrounds. Statistics on the human resources available for teaching persons with immigrant backgrounds should be compiled systematically and comprehensively every three years in connection with other teacher statistics. The next round of data acquisition will take place in 2008.
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The number of foreign citizens residing in Finland has increased five-fold since 1990. In 1990 approximately 0.5% (26 000) of the entire population were foreign citizens, whereas by the end of 2006 the number amounted to 2.3% (122 000) of the population. The number of persons with an immigrant background is even larger, as this figure includes persons who are born abroad but have received Finnish citizenship and foreign language speakers born and residing in Finland.
Because of increasing immigration, the number of people participating in education has grown at the different levels of education. According to the committee, the share of foreign language speakers in different age groups will continue to grow. The committee estimates that foreign language speakers will amount to 5% of the population in the year 2012, compared with the current 3%. This development will affect the need for teachers who teach persons with immigrant backgrounds.