Minister concerned over rising demand for exams preparation courses

Minister of Education Li Andersson expressed her concern over the increasing demand for preparation courses to improve scores in matriculation exams, reported Finnish national broadcaster Yle on Wednesday.

The minister said that the trend would violate the principle of Finland's public secondary education system, which aims to provide equal opportunities to young people.

"From an educational point of view, this is an alarming trend," Andersson said in Yle's radio morning program on Wednesday.

The minister saw the cost of private preparation courses as an issue of inequality, as not all students can afford to pay for those courses, which can cost up to thousands of euros in Finland, according to Yle.

The best way to solve the problem would be to secure adequate funding for secondary education, suggested Andersson, adding that students should feel that they have sufficient support from their teachers.

Recently, some preparation course companies disclosed that the number of high school students taking preparation courses is increasing, and these types of courses will grow in number by three or four times over the next few years.

Janne Nousiainen, managing director of preparation course firm Valmennuskeskus, told Yle that the sales of high school preparation courses have increased across all subjects of study.

Native language courses recorded the most significant growth, which has quintupled compared to last year, Nousiainen said, adding that the number of youths taking mathematics courses has quadrupled.