Multilingual Early Language Transmission (MELT) - Mercator ...

Child-staff ratios and maximum group size
The ratio is 1 practitioner for every 4 children under age 3 years; 1 trained adult at every day
care is needed. For every 7 children over 3 years 1 trained adult is needed. In family day
care, the ratio per day care parent is 4, plus one half day pre-school or school child including
day care parents’ own (under school age) children. 39
In pre-school education, for 6 years-olds, the maximum ratio is 1 teacher (with an assistant)
for 13 children, with the recommendation for the maximum group size of 20 children
When arranging part-time service the ratio for 3-6-year-olds is one to thirteen and for
children under three the ratio is the same as in full-time service. These ratios apply also to
pre-school education when provided in day care centres. In family day care, the maximum
group is 4 full-day children, plus 1 half day child. In child care centres, there are no group size
requirements. The adult-child ratio in day care centres is one to seven for 3-6-year-olds and
one to four for children under the age of three in full-time service.
2.3.3 Training of practitioners
All teacher education is Swedish had until 2006 been part of Åbo Academy University. Due to
a change in law in 2006 other bilingual universities can now share the responsibility for
educating teachers in Swedish. A new early childhood teacher education program in Swedish
at the University of Helsinki started in September 2011. There was a great need for this
program to be located in southern Finland. (See Gunilla Holm, chapter9).
The day care institutions are led by a pre-school teacher who is required to have at least a
secondary-level degree, a university bachelor degree, mostly in the field of ‘social welfare
and health care’ or ‘social sciences with an additional pedagogical course.’ When group size
exceeds 13, the teacher in pre-school must have an assistant with at least an upper
secondary level training.
One in three of the staff must have a post-secondary level degree (Bachelor of Education,
Master of Education or Bachelor of Social Sciences). Mostly the different institutions, led by
preschool teachers, are supported by other kinds of caring staff.
The pre-school teacher in the Swedish pre-school is commonly a native speaker of Swedish,
usually the pre-school teachers speaks fluent Finnish.
2.3.4 Pedagogical guidelines and Folkhälsan
The aim of pre-school education is to improve children´s capacity of learning; in fact children
are taught new facts and new skills through play. The national curriculum guidelines on Early
39 Starting Strong II: Early Childhood Education and Care (2006) http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/16/2/37423404.pdf [Accessed June 2011].
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