Maybe that’s why I love this country so much:
Ideally, Marianne Korkalainen The high school in Rautavaara, a small town in eastern Finland, reportedly welcomes at least 20 new students each year. This fall, its shrinking municipality will send only a dozen. But headmistress Korkalainen has a plan: She plans to invite half a dozen young people from poor countries to help fill her empty spots. Enthusiastic teenagers from places like Burma, Vietnam and Tanzania will swap their tropical cities for her snowy retreat. They will receive a Finnish education, at Finnish taxpayers’ expense.
Here is More information on The EconomistFinland will soon experience a declining population, and worse:
By 2030, the country could have nearly 10% fewer children aged 4 to 18, according to EU Their numbers are projected to decline by a fifth by 2040. This is particularly problematic for rural schools, which are suffering from both low birth rates and rural-urban migration. Hundreds have closed in recent decades. Some now offer local youth perks such as free driving lessons and small cash “scholarships,” in the hope of keeping them.
There is even a Finnish start-up, Finest Future, that offers Finnish language lessons to the world’s poorest students, in the hopes of preparing them for a taxpayer-funded education in Finland. It is believed that recruiting people this way is easier and more efficient than trying to find good candidates abroad and then training them in Finnish. Stuff them with Kalevala!
Finland has about 9% of its population of foreign origin, which is well below the Western European average. I don’t know if this school policy is a good idea, but I know that most people are not good at thinking about it in terms of cost-benefit.
