The Education System in Finland and Schools in Oulu
 
The education system in Finland comprises comprehensive schools, upper secondary schools, vocational and professional education institutions and universities.

Compulsory education consists of a nine-year comprehensive schooling, starting at the age of seven. It is free of charge for the pupils. After completing comprehensive school, students are free to continue their studies either in upper secondary school, in a vocational institute or in commercial college.

The school year begins in mid-August and ends at the beginning of June at the latest. In addition to the summer vacation (from June till mid-August) students have Christmas, winter sports (a week in February or in March) and Easter vacations. Some schools have also an autumn vacation (a week in October). There is no school on Saturdays. Pupils usually attend a school in their own school district

More about the Education system in Finland 
More information about Finnish education system from the National Board of Education.

Amount of schools and pupils in Oulu
 
Comprehensive / lower school-years 1-6 map 34 8600
Comprehensive / upper school-years 7-9  map 16 4000
Special schools / school years 1-9 6 560
Upper secondary schools / map 13 4300

There are Oulu International School for all nine years of comprehensive school and an IB Diploma programme in upper secondary school. These classes are aimed at internationally mobile pupils with sufficient linguistic competence to receive
education in English. Oulu city also offers immersion classes for immigrant children to support integration into Finnish schooling.

Oulu International School
Ms. Raija Perttunen, principal, gsm +358 44 703 9418
E-mail: raija.perttunen@ouka.fi
school office, tel. +358 8 558 4 9700

Oulun Lyseo
IB coordinator tel. +358 8 558 4 9455
E-mail: ibcoord@lyseo.edu.ouka.fi

The city of Oulu also has a Swedish-language comprehensive and upper secondary school.
Svenska Privatskolan i Uleåborg

Address: Sepänkatu 7, 90100 OULU
Tel. +358 8 311 2852 (Rektor) Fax +358 8 370 264 
 

The Adult Education Centre at Pohjankartano

Address: Suvantokatu 1, 90140 OULU
Tel. +358 8 558 4 9100.

The Adult Education Centre of the city of Oulu arranges language courses for foreigners at different levels. There are both beginners' and intermediate courses in the Finnish language, as well as conversation courses in spoken Finnish. These courses start in both the autumn and the spring terms. The Adult Education Centre also organizes other classes, lectures, exhibitions, plays and concerts.

More information about day-care and schools in Oulu.

 
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