SUOMEN YKSITYISTEN OPPIKOULUJEN DIGITAALINEN MATRIKKELI
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Digital register of independent grammar schools in Finland from 1872 to 1977

In addition, corresponding school-specific information is given on independent lower secondary schools, contract schools and upper secondary schools from 1977 to 2004.

Overview of the register

Jari Salminen and the Association of Independent Schools hold the copyright of this digital register and are responsible for its administration. The information presented in this register is based on the book Yksityisoppikoulumatrikkeli 1872-1977 (Jouko Teperi - Jari Salminen) published in 1993. The digital register gives certain school-specific information on all independent grammar schools that have operated in Finland from 1872 to the adoption of the comprehensive school (basic education) system (1972–1977), and, after that, on independent schools providing education corresponding to basic education, and, since 1999, independent contract schools and independent upper secondary schools until 2004.

New information has been generated and errors in Yksityisoppikoulumatrikkeli have been corrected in compiling the digital register. The premises of the schools have now been systematically recorded and more details are provided on the history of several schools. Hitherto unknown photographs of school buildings have been discovered in archives or received from private individuals.

The greatest advantage a digital register has over a printed one is that it is possible to amend and update information. Should you notice some missing or erroneous material in the database, please let the register administrator know by email: jari.salminen@helsinki.fi. It is also possible to incorporate hitherto missing photographs of school buildings in the register.

Financial support by the Finnish Cultural Foundation has enabled us to realise the digital version to its present extent. I particularly want to thank the nearly three hundred municipal or archive clerks, teachers, head teachers and private individuals who have helped to collect the information and acquire the photographs contained in this digital register.

The register is in Finnish, but its lists and some school-specific information can be used without knowledge of Finnish with the help of the following overview.


Helsinki, 20 August 2005

Jari Salminen

Defining independent schools

While working on the register of independent grammar schools, we often had to define and delimit the information given in the register. This is mainly due to the fact that the terms ‘independent’ and ‘grammar school’ are not unambiguous in the history of Finnish schools. Legislation governing independent schools has changed through the decades and Finnish school legislation does not contain a decree that unambiguously created an independent grammar school system.

As to the time period covered, we decided to begin providing information from the 1872 School Regulations onwards. This decree defined independent schools providing elementary education, that is, independent grammar schools, and by equating them with other schools, created a fairly detailed administrative framework for them. Simultaneously, the number of independent grammar schools clearly increased and, thereby their operation became increasingly significant. Independent educational institutions that discontinued operation before 1872 have been omitted from the database. They played an important role in the creation of independent education in Finland and they are discussed in more detail in Yksityisoppikoulujen historia 1872–1977 (Jari Salminen - Jukka-Pekka Pietiäinen - Jouko Teperi), published in 1995.

The digital register provides information on all independent Finnish- or Swedish-speaking grammar schools authorised by the government that operated in Finland from 1872 to 1977. Therefore this register does not include so-called home schools, which were run by private people in the 19th century in particular. Independent foreign-language grammar schools that operated in Finland from 1872 to 1977 are given under: Suomessa toimineet vieraskieliset yksityiset oppikoulut 1872-1977 (Independent foreign-language grammar schools that operated in Finland from 1872 to 1977).

Primary schools and secondary schools ceased to exist in Finland by 1 August 1977. Primary schools and lower secondary schools were merged to form comprehensive schools while upper secondary schools remained separate institutions. In this regard, the traditional secondary school, “grammar school”, ceased to exist. The majority of independent grammar schools had given themselves over to municipal ownership by the aforementioned transition deadline. Starting from 1977, the database provides school-specific information on the independent educational institutions that continued as schools providing education corresponding to basic education (comprehensive school education). Since 1999, these schools have been called contract schools and/or independent upper secondary schools. In addition, these schools are required to have the right to award comprehensive school or upper secondary school certificates.

The latest information in the register comes from the academic year 2003/2004. Currently operating independent schools awarding comprehensive school certificates and upper secondary schools are listed under: Toiminnassa olevat yksityiset koulut, joilla on oikeus antaa perusasteen päästötodistuksia sekä yksityiset lukiot (Currently operating independent schools and upper secondary schools awarding comprehensive school certificates).

During the time period in question, several separate lines or parallel schools were established in connection with the independent grammar schools. These have included continuation schools, agricultural lyceums, night schools and separate parallel schools. The administrators of the educational institutions had to acquire a separate licence to establish these departments, as well as the necessary licence to grant university admission and middle school certificates. Their government subsidies were also granted separately. However, as they operated in quite close contact with their mother schools (same owner, often same headmaster, same building, same teachers), these departments are not considered independent schools in the register. Information and statistics pertaining to them are given under the mother school under Erityispiirteet (Special features).

Parallel departments of government grammar schools, which were run with private funds especially during the period of Finnish autonomy, are not considered independent grammar schools in this context. In practice, they were essential parts of government schools although they were funded from private sources and could in some aspects of administration (licence procedure) be compared to independent schools. Although school authorities could simplify their catalogues and statistics by defining the private continuation classes (upper secondary schools) of government grammar schools and private continuation schools of girls’ schools as being administratively independent schools, there were in practice quite significantly different to actual independent schools. They were parts of the government schools in their everyday work. They often shared the same building, had the same headmaster or mistress and the same teachers as their mother schools and, in practical school work, they were natural parts of the mother schools. Privately funded continuation classes and schools closely connected to government schools are listed separately under: Valtion oppikoulujen yhteydessä toimineet yksityiset jatko-opistot ja jatkoluokat (Privately funded continuation classes and schools closely connected to government schools).

This register does not take account of the owners of independent schools as such. It might have been a private individual, a supporters’ association, a limited company, a foundation or a municipality. There are, however, certain restrictions as regards grammar schools run by municipalities.

In autumn 1945, the municipalities of Luumäki and Utajärvi established a coeducational school according to the legislation pertaining to independent schools. However, their aim from the beginning was to form a so-called municipal experimental middle school as soon as the necessary legislation was enacted. This took place during the same academic year (10 January 1946). For this reason, the schools in question have not been included in the database, nor are other municipal experimental middle schools, which were established later.

The law on changing independent grammar schools into municipal schools, enacted on 3 June 1966, provided that: “The Council of State can grant permission to a municipality that owns an independent grammar school, or that has concluded an agreement with the owner of an independent grammar school located within its area on the assignment of the school with its assets and liabilities to the municipality’s ownership, to change the school’s middle school into a middle school belonging to an elementary school and a possible upper secondary school into a separate independent grammar school owned by the municipality.” Schools that became municipal schools by virtue of this law have been followed only up until their transfer.

The enactment date of the decree on comprehensive schools, 26 June 1970, also saw the enactment of a decree on municipal and independent grammar schools. The decree separated municipal and independent grammar schools. “In this decree, a ‘municipal grammar school’ shall refer to a grammar school administered by a municipality, a joint municipal authority or a limited company in which one or more municipalities have the principal authority which they are committed to keeping. An ‘independent grammar school’ shall refer to a grammar school administered by a Finnish citizen, a registered Finnish association or a foundation.” Information on these municipally administered schools is given until their transfer to the comprehensive school system. The same is true of cases in which the municipality has taken on the administration of a school from a supporters’ association or a limited company before the municipality adopted the comprehensive school system. In these cases, the date of transfer to the municipality is given either according to the decree of 1966 or the date when the municipality adopted the comprehensive school system. New municipality-run grammar schools established after the decree of 26 June 1970 are not included in the register, but they are listed under: Asetuksen 26.6.1970 jälkeen kuntien perustamat ja ylläpitämät yksityiset oppikoulut (Municipality-run grammar schools established after the decree of 26 June 1970).

Information on independent schools

• Koulun nimi (Name of school): The documents granting the licence to the school do not always give the official name unambiguously. For instance, a licence was granted on 22 March 1905 to establish ‘an eight-year Finnish-speaking coeducational school in Mikkeli’. In such cases – which abound – the name consistently used, as in our example, is Mikkelin (suomalainen) yhteiskoulu (Mikkeli (Finnish) coeducational school). The word ‘suomalainen’ (‘Finnish’) is in parentheses because it was later removed from the school’s name. This has been done in order to make the register clearer and to save space, as it has not been necessary to enter two schools, Mikkelin suomalainen yhteiskoulu and Mikkelin yhteiskoulu, in the catalogue. If the school was transferred to government administration or discontinued operation before the word ‘suomalainen’ was removed from the name, parentheses are not used. Clarifying the use of capital and lower-case letters in the school names proved particularly difficult. Various sources differ greatly as to the way a school’s name was spelled. This is particularly true of the first letter of the words ‘suomalainen’ and ‘yhteiskoulu’ (‘coeducational school’). The database uses lower-case letters in such words as ‘suomalainen’, ‘yhteiskoulu’, yhteislyseo’ (coeducational lyceum), ‘tyttökoulu’ (girls’ school) and so forth, unless the school in question has drawn special attention to capitalisation in connection with data collection for the register.
  
  
• Koulutalon valokuva (Photograph of the school building): The photograph shows the school’s most recent premises, unless otherwise stated.
  
  
• Perustamislupa (Establishment licence): The register gives the date when the educational institution was issued an establishment licence by the Senate Economic Division, or, after 1918, the Council of State. In the 19th century and early 20th century in particular, the establishment licence was applied for by private persons. Occupations or titles are given for them. After Finnish independence in 1917, establishment licences were granted almost without exception to a supporters’ association or a limited company. Because supporters’ associations had to be registered associations, the abbreviation ‘r.y.’ (registered association) is not given separately after each name.
  
  
• Omistajat (Owners): The register gives the name of the supporters’ association, the limited company, the municipality or the private person(s) that owned the school. In case of possible changes in ownership, years of ownership are also given.
  
  
• Oikeus antaa keskikoulutodistuksia, peruskoulun päästötodistuksia (Right to award middle school certificates, comprehensive school certificates): The register gives the date when the educational institution was issued the right to award lower secondary school certificates (comprehensive school certificates). The independent grammar school decree of 18 March 1919 decreed that independent grammar schools, although they had an official licence, had to apply for the right to award certificates.
  
  
• Ylioppilastutkinto-oikeus (Right to matriculation examination): The register gives the date when the educational institution was issued a temporary or permanent right to admit students to university, the so-called matriculation examination.
  
  
• Tilastoja (Statistics): Statistics are given for each school’s first and second official year of operation and academic years beginning at the beginning of a decade, that is 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1938 (exception because of the Winter War), 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000. The statistics give: a) the number of teachers, b) the number of students, and c) the number of students who passed the matriculation examination in the spring. After 1977, the statistics are only given for the academic years 1980-1981, 1990-1990 and 2000-2001.
  
  
• Erityispiirteitä (Special features): Under this heading are listed the possible extension of the school, establishment of continuation classes, agricultural lyceums, parallel schools and night schools, transfer under government administration, significant departures from government grammar school curricula, extensive school experiments, special religious or ideological orientation, curricular emphasis on occupational qualifications and special histories of evacuee schools from ceded Karelia.
  
  
• Toiminnan päättyminen yksityisenä oppikouluna (Discontinuation as an independent grammar school): This section gives the date and reason for discontinuing as an independent grammar school. The reason can be one of the following:
  1. assignment over to the government (VAL)
  2. becoming a municipal school or assignment over to a municipality (KUN)
  3. amalgamating with another independent school (YHD)
  4. closing down the school (LAK)
  
  
• Koulun rehtorit (School head teachers): Until 1951, independent grammar schools were supervised by a headmaster or headmistress. Only permanent head teachers or those who held the temporary post for at least a year are mentioned.
  
  
• Koulurakennukset (School buildings): This section gives the school’s most important premises. It also lists the year of completion for any particular school building and for significant extensions and renovations.
  
  
• Koulua koskevat julkaisut (Publications pertaining to the school): This section gives printed publications, such as histories, registers, anniversary volumes and commemorative publications pertaining to the school. Many school annuals have summaries, histories and register information dealing with the school’s history. Especially during the autonomy period and the first decades of independence, schools were in the habit of writing about their history in the school annual on anniversary years. This register gives information on such writings that are longer than a few pages. If no separate volumes or articles have been published on the school, in some cases this register provides information on local history that deals with the school in question.
  
  
• Yksityisen koulun toiminnan jatkaja (Continuator of the independent school’s operations): The possible continuator(s) of the independent school’s work is given here.
  
  
• WWW-kotisivujen osoite (Website): The websites of still continuing independent schools are given here. As to independent grammar schools that have been transferred to government or municipal ownership, the website given is that of the school continuing the work of the independent school. If the continuator comprises a separate lower secondary school and upper secondary school, the website of the upper secondary school is given. The functioning of the http addresses was checked on 14 August 2005.

Using the digital register and catalogues:

You can move to school-specific information from the alphabetical list: Koulut nimen mukaan (Schools by name) or the list of years, in which independent grammar schools are given in the order of their establishment: Koulut perustamisjärjestyksen mukaan (Schools by order of establishment):

In addition, the following catalogues are at your disposal:

1. Toiminnassa olevat yksityiset koulut, joilla on oikeus antaa perusasteen päästötodistuksia sekä yksityiset lukiot (Currently operating independent schools and upper secondary schools awarding comprehensive school certificates).
2. Yksityiset koulut paikkakunnan mukaan (Independent schools by locality)
3. Lakkautetut yksityiset oppikoulut (Discontinued independent grammar schools)
4. Valtion haltuun otetut yksityiset oppikoulut (Independent grammar schools transferred to government ownership)
5. Suomessa toimineet vieraskieliset yksityiset oppikoulut 1872–1977 (Independent foreign-language grammar schools that operated in Finland from 1872 to 1977)
6. Neuvostoliitolle 1940 ja 1944 luovutettujen alueiden yksityiset oppikoulut (Independent grammar schools in the areas ceded to the Soviet Union in 1940 and 1944)
7. Valtion oppikoulujen yhteydessä toimineet yksityiset jatko-opistot ja jatkoluokat (Privately funded continuation classes and schools closely connected to government schools)
8.Asetuksen 26.6.1970 jälkeen kuntien perustamat ja ylläpitämät yksityiset oppikoulut (Municipality-run grammar schools established after the decree of 26 June 1970)

Tilastot (Statistics) gives the number of independent grammar schools by academic year from 1872 to 1966. The tables provide the following information from 1872 to 1966: a) number of independent schools
b) of which are Swedish-speaking
c) of which are Finnish-speaking
d) number of new independent schools
e) of which were established in rural areas
f) number of boys’ schools
g) number of girls’ schools
h) number of coeducational schools
i) number of schools licensed to grant university admission

The statistics in question include the schools that are included in the digital register. A school is entered in the statistics section for a particular year if it has been issued its operating licence and begun operating during the academic year in question. If the school has been gradually reorganised (from a boys’ or girls’ school to a coeducational school), it is not considered to be two separate schools under items a) to g). Instead, the school is entered in the statistics section under its original category.

If a school has been transferred to government ownership gradually, it has been entered in the statistics section as long as there have been independent classes. The same is true of schools that have been gradually closed down. However, possible temporary short-term disruptions in the school’s operation have not been considered in the statistics section.

Schools with two languages, Porvoon naisopisto and Rudolf Steiner -koulu, have been entered as Finnish-speaking schools. In the statistics section, townships are considered rural, so, for instance, Lahden yhteiskoulu (Lahti coeducational school) established in 1896 has been entered as established in a rural area.

The register entries do not contain information after the academic year 1965/66 for those schools that were brought under municipal ownership by virtue of the law enacted on 3 June 1966. For the same reason, it was not deemed necessary to give statistics after the academic year 1965/66. In addition, as the decree of 26 June 1970 separated municipal and independent grammar schools, providing statistics from spring 1967 onwards would have required collecting and unravelling information on dozens of municipally owned, but still formally independent grammar schools all the way to the comprehensive school system. This was not the objective in compiling this register or these statistics. Furthermore, the fact must be emphasised that even after the law of 3 June 1966 and the decree of 26 June 1970, the annual Statistical Yearbook of Finland has continued to count as independent those schools that are owned by a municipality or assigned to a municipality, in disregard of the wording of the law and decree and unambiguous definitions given in them.

The statistical figures presented in this table for 1892–1893 onwards differ somewhat from the printed register published in 1993. This is due to a change in definitions. Independent, municipally run grammar schools formed from government elementary schools from 1892 to 1905 were not included in the printed register. Instead, they were listed separately. This digital version includes the schools in question with school-specific entries.

Lähteet (Sources) indicate from which archives or printed sources the information is collected. The archival sources for school building photographs are given with each photograph. [The photograph on the register’s homepage: The annual report of Oulun suomalainen yhteiskoulu 1908/1909, University of Helsinki Library collections]. The cataloguing follows the cataloguing practice of each individual archive.