Needs-based resource allocation and the role of schools for (sub)urban development in the city of Helsinki, Finland

In many (European) countries, school segregation is on the rise. It is both a manifestation and cause of educational inequality and thus one of the key challenges in education. This is mainly related to the concern that the specific composition of school classes can have an effect on pupils’ performances that exceeds the effects of pupils’ individual characteristics. Even in the egalitarian context of the Finnish education system, differences between the socio-economic and ethnic composition of schools are growing, with the risk of educational inequality being particularly emphasised in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods – characterised by indicators, such as low levels of adult education, income, and employment – and their schools.

The aim of the study is two-folded. First, it seeks to better understand both the specific challenges the funded schools (basic education) face in terms of segregation and educational inequality and the mechanisms by which the needs-based funding policy might help to face them. Second, the study tries to scrutinise the schools’ self-conceptions and wider strategies that go beyond the schools’ traditional purpose of education and to what extent the funding might be used to support them – in particular as regards the schools’ role in supporting the local integration of (immigrant) families and neighbourhood development.