Selvitys taiteen perusopetuksen rahoitusjärjestelmän uudistamistarpeista taiteen perusopetuksen saatavuuden turvaamiseksi sekä rahoitusjärjestelmän selkeyttämiseksi ja ajantasaistamiseksi

On 31 January 2019, the Ministry of Education and Culture appointed Professor Anniina Suominen as the rapporteur for a comprehensive overview of the needs to reform the system of financing basic education in the arts with a view to securing the availability of basic education in the arts and to clarifying and updating its financing system. The rapporteur’s task included making proposals on how legislative amendments or other reform measures and further action could be used to improve the functioning and flexibility of the financing system.

The project was carried out in two stages. The first part of the report, “Document on the key observations and the proposals for measures addressing the reform needs related to central government transfers to local government allocated per lesson in basic education in the arts” was submitted to the Ministry of Education and Culture on 31 March 2019. The first part is included in the final report submitted on 31 May 2019. The rapporteur charts the existing information and forms an overall picture of the financing of basic education in the arts. She points out how challenging it has been to achieve an understanding of this issue owing to the complexity and partial overlaps of decision-making and administration, differentiated and fragmented information gathering, and diversity of the operators on the field. The report is structured around observations and proposals (19). The rapporteur recommends that some of them should be implemented immediately, while others should be further discussed in a working group.

In Stage 1 of the report, the rapporteur examines the possible needs for reform related to the system of allocating central government transfers to local government per lesson in basic education in the arts. She also makes five proposals addressing the predictability, structural reform and better availability of the financing of basic education in the arts. The rapporteur draws attention to the accessibility of basic education in the arts, in addition to availability. In Stage 2, the rapporteur’s proposals address a broader development of basic education in the arts and its financing system.
In her report, Professor Suominen highlights the national significance of basic education in the arts as well as its uniqueness in the global context as a distinct form of education. The rapporteur concludes that basic education in the arts is a form of education that should be supported and developed as a national and cultural
resource and asset.