Education Committee

The Education Director presents several current issues to the board that affect residents in many ways. The discussion includes, among other things, the launch of the sustainable municipal economy program, the budget framework for 2027, and current public transport matters. Additionally, early childhood education capacity situation monitoring, customer survey results, and school well-being survey results for spring 2026 are presented. The board would acknowledge this information without separate decision-making.

The new student welfare plan for the municipality of Lempäälä for the years 2027-2029 is presented for approval from August 2026. The plan defines how low-threshold student welfare services are organized in the municipality from pre-primary education to upper secondary education, including school social worker, psychologist, and health services. The goal is to promote student well-being, identify support needs early, and prevent problems in cooperation with the wellbeing services county. The plan has been prepared by a multidisciplinary steering group, which included experts from the municipality and the wellbeing services county as well as representatives of students and guardians.

The Education Committee considers a proposal to organize a homeroom class for 7th graders starting from August 2026. According to the proposal, the class would be implemented as one weekly lesson and would focus on students' group formation, interaction skills, and school well-being, particularly during the transition to lower secondary school. The class content could be modified annually according to the needs of student groups, and it would be the responsibility of the homeroom teacher as part of normal teaching duties. The Regional State Administrative Agency has required that teaching of students' emotional and interaction skills be organized by teachers qualified for basic education.

Lempäälä municipality's pre-primary and basic education curriculum is proposed to be updated starting from the beginning of August 2026 in accordance with the new regulations of the Finnish National Agency for Education. The main change concerns strengthening the promotion of an active lifestyle as part of schools' operational culture, which means that schools will need to support children's and young people's active lifestyle more systematically than before. Additionally, updates are proposed for Finnish as a second language instruction for students with immigrant backgrounds, which will improve their educational equality. The changes have been planned in cooperation with the municipalities of the Tampere region and will be recorded in schools' academic year plans.

The Education and Teaching Board is proposed to order teaching hours from Pirkan opisto for the year 2027, totaling 11,737 hours, which is 1,500 hours less than in 2026. The order is divided into liberal adult education (7,338 hours), basic education in music arts (3,780 hours), and other basic arts education (619 hours). Lempäälä municipality's share of payment would amount to a total of 123,605.50 euros, which is at the same level as the previous year to balance the institute's finances. The institute's principal will present the matter to the board before decision-making.

The board is presented for information with the education sector official decisions from the period 13.5.–10.6.2026. The decision list has been provided to board members in advance as supplementary material. It is proposed that the decisions be noted for information only and not taken up for separate consideration.

It is proposed to approve an agreement where Tampere Region Vocational College Tredu provides adult basic education to Tampere surrounding municipalities as a service purchase. The pilot is intended for two target groups: foreign-language speaking young people of compulsory school age whose Finnish language skills are insufficient for further studies, and Finnish-speaking 17-year-old young people of compulsory school age who have deficiencies in core basic education subjects. The agreement covers a 12-month period and the total cost for the surrounding municipalities would be 206,940 euros, which would be divided according to pre-agreed percentage shares regardless of the actual number of students. The education would be provided primarily at Tredu's Santalahti campus, but also in other facilities when necessary.

The committee approves the meeting agenda and decides on the order of handling matters. According to the administrative regulations, meeting matters are handled primarily in the order specified in the agenda. When necessary, the committee can also take up an urgent matter that was not mentioned in the meeting invitation.

The committee is proposed to decide that daycare center Lemppari of Lempäälän Kristillinen Koulu ry be approved as the municipality's early childhood education service voucher provider starting from the beginning of August 2026. The approval is conditional: the association must first submit the required documents to the Regional State Administrative Agency and the supervisory authority must conduct an inspection visit before the operations begin. In the service voucher system, families can choose a private daycare center approved by the municipality for their child using a service voucher paid by the municipality. The operations are intended to begin on 10.8.2026, if all conditions are met.

Lempäälä proposes to implement tuition fees for upper secondary school students from outside the EU starting from August 2026. The proposed fees are 10,200 euros for youth upper secondary education and 5,600 euros for adult upper secondary education per academic year, and they include teaching with materials, guidance, and school meals. The change is due to a legislative reform whereby students from third countries are no longer taken into account in state subsidy funding. The aim is to harmonize fees across the entire Tampere city region.