Primary school in crisis – Too little is demanded of children, says a researcher

SUoman primary schools seem to be in crisis. The lessons are noisy and unruly, the students are fiddling with their smartphones and can’t read books. Teachers get frustrated and exhausted.

“Primary school feels like a detention center where too little is required of children. The weakest ones are let through from the year class to the next with bad results, for others, school is too easy. Somehow, by listening in class, they pass elementary school with good grades. In high school, they get shocked when they have to do work and there is no routine for it,” says Hea, a special expert at the Education Evaluation Center of the University of Helsinki. Sirkku Kupiainen.