Cultural education plan is a way to ensure accessibility of culture and arts’ for children
Cultural education plan is a design that defines how culture, arts and cultural heritage are integrated into general education in comprehensive schools, early childhood education and even upper secondary schools. The plan gives pupils a chance to experience and make art throughout their school years. It complements the local curriculum and is composed in co-operation between different sectors in municipalities. Cultural education plan is a way to ensure accessibility of culture and arts’ for children and execute children’s right to participate in culture and arts. It brings different cultural institutions, art forms and local cultural heritage into the children’s lives and into the school work. By means of cultural education plans cultural education becomes systematic, diverse and equal. Its benefits include not only pupils, but extend to schools and cultural actors as well.
At the moment about half of Finland’s municipalities have a cultural education plan. Cultural education plans are acknowledged in the national curriculum and municipal politics. However, there are differences between regions and municipalities of different sizes. Cultural education plans are centered around metropolitan areas and other bigger cities when at the same time small, and especially distant municipalities, struggle with accessibility of cultural supply. Over half of the municipalities need help promoting cultural education plans. Therefore more work needs to be done.
In Finland there are several projects in motion whose goal is to promote and support municipalities on their journey to create their own cultural education plans. The projects offer educational and consulting services for composing, initalizationing and improving cultural education plans in municipalities through webinars, trainings and remote access. The projects focus especially on municipalities that do not already have a cultural education plan. That way the number of cultural education plans in Finland is increased, know-how about children’s culture is shared and arts and culture are made even more accessible for every finnish child.
