In the US there is an intense debate over whether children should be wearing masks in school. (The current advice in the US is that all children over 5 should be wearing masks at all times in school, some enforce as low as 2 years old). People who object to this often point to Scandinavian countries as examples letting children attend school without masks.
I see that masks are [recommended](https://minedu.fi/en/the-impact-of-coronavirus-on-education-and-culture) in ages 12 and above (roughly grade 6?), I am curious how much that recommendation is being followed?
Are children currently wearing masks in school? If so, what percent? Does it vary by school and region?
What about the previous school year? Were masks mandated in schools in the 2020-2021 school year? Was the adoption rate high?
Don’t want to trigger any political or contentious dialogue, just trying to understand what is going on in Finland. I asked a similar question a month+ back on the Denmark board and got some informative replies, hoping to get similar feedback here.
Thanks!
36 comments
From grades 1-6 (7-12y) no masks. I think there was a couple of weeks when 6th graders wore masks. 7th grade and upwards have to wear masks in school. In classes people wear them. On breaks a bit less.
And it is also depending on the region. Where there is less corona there is no mask rules in schools.
For example my son (now 4th grader) hasn’t wore a mask in school at all in Helsinki.
In Janakkala because of the higher rate of COVID they wear masks and are having remote school a few days a week. The latest US CDC studies show it reduces transmission by x 3.5 and the ‘debate’ in the US isn’t a debate it’s a bunch of anti-science MAGA nutbags being used to spread chaos by Trump and the republicans to wreck Biden’s presidency, they don’t care how many kids die. Finland and indeed most of the rest of the world have dealt with it using science so are in a better place
My wife teaches 2nd grade and her school’s students don’t. Only the adults (staff and visitors) wear them inside.
My son is in 4th grade and he always wear mask to school and inside the school. We live in Turku.
The older one on 8th grade has been wearing mask in the school since 6th grade (first outbreak 2 years ago).
Tampere, pupils over 12 year wear masks provided by the school, but it is voluntary, so some do not wear them. I’d say 80 percent do. The incentive is that if you wear a mask you may avoid quarantine if a COVID case is detected in the class. But the rules and practises differ from school to school.
No masks were used in school before this fall.
I’m a sub. I’d estimate thet on grades 7-9: 75% wear a mask, or atleast have it somewhere on their face. Grades ”10-12”: about 100% wear it.
Although hugely depends on how strict you are with them.
I live in Raisio (near Turku). Here using masks is forced from the first grade, but not sure about other cities
Here it’s voluntary so you don’t see many. In gener the attitude in Finland (or nordic countries) has been way more relaxed than US and other european countries (Spain, Italy, etc), for better or for worse.
12 year and older use em here at my town
In my district mask recommendation was lifted just a few days ago. Before that, basically, everyone wore masks at all times. After it was dropped about 1 in 4 still wear them, but to be fair almost all have had the first shot and soon the second one.
I’ve understood, that masks were not worn in schools earlier, because the government officials thought that children are in low risk of getting complications and possibly are contracting COVID very rarely. But with new information, the position has changed.
in my school, masks are heavily recommended, but you wont be thrown out if you dont have one. (this is in upper secondary school)
Where I’m studying (students aged 16-19) everyone ALWAYS wears a mask. You can get them for free at school. We don’t **have** to wear them but everyone does it out of respect for each other.
Last year you’d see about 60%ish of the students wearing masks. As it got more serious in my town, it didn’t take long at all for everyone to start wearing them.
(Our school has about 700+ students. I live in a town that has about 81 000 people)
I’m on 9th grade and we have to wear masks. Altought about 1/3-1/2 of the people don’t usually wear them properly, because they think they are too cool for the masks or some shit. Also there’s some people who think it’s funny that they take off their mask and cough to your face. I don’t know is this such a big problem in other school’s though.
So yeah the answer is yes, but there’s always some idiots.
Grades seven to nine wear them allways, but exeptions are made for grades one to six. Vaccinations are also held in schools and the lions share of people take them.
Im a high schooler from the oulu area and we dont *have* to wear masks, tho they are still recomended
In my area students age 12+ must wear them.
FYI, Finland currently has strictest restrictions among Nordic countries, so I suppose Finland is the only Nordic country where people still wear masks in public places. Hopefully these restrictions will be lifted here soon too.
Wife’s a teacher and I have three kids, 13, 10 and 5 in Helsinki. Kids from 6th grade (they’re 12 or turn 12 this year) and upwards have to wear masks all day, well aside from lunch of course, but still.
This was mandated by the municipality, Helsinki in this case.
Adoption rate is 100% among those that have to wear them. Among the younger kids that don’t need to wear them the voluntary rate is quite low, few individuals, but not very common.
The mandate has been ongoing since last winter or so.
The first spring kids were remote schooled. During the summer of 2020 things got better here and after the summer they returned schools and then things took a turn for the worse and kids from 7th grade and up returned to home schooling. Then during the winter 2020-2021 the mandate came for 12 and up to wear masks.
I suspect, however, that the mandate might not last long anymore. We’re about to open events and everything else here in the coming weeks. Dropping the mask mandate from schools is around the corner, too.
Also worth pointing out that my 13yo daughter got her second shot this week.
In theory yes, in practice no
im 15 and we are required to wear masks in school
Teenagers aged 14-17 from what I’ve seen almost never use masks unless they’re with their parents or it’s an important event. So, the mask recommendation is indeed only a recommendation.
Finland is not a scandinavian country… but go on dude
I Live in a small town and we rarely have cases here anymore. When there used to be a lot of covid around, everyone from grade 5-9 wore masks. Now that everyone are vaccinated, only a few wear masks.
Most of my teachers still wear them but we haven’t had a single case in weeks
No to sure about the exact group you asked about. But in universities they have had a very strong recommendation on masks. Currently lectures with 50+ students are on distance. And those lectures wich are on uni everyone uses a mask. More regulated use of different rooms in the buildings also (gym, student coffee rooms etc.). The vaccinations are on a quite good level with second doses given to young people and children. The government is debating to end all restrictions.
Generally students from sixth grade and up are recommended to wear them. It changes a bit from municipality to municipality. It can’t really be enforced, so it’s voluntary , but most wear them without issue. A bit less now than a year ago though. The older the students are, the more they wear them. In my experience, peer pressure works on the side of the masks – you get more comments from fellow students of you don’t wear a mask than of you do.
The “recommendation” is pretty much a nice way of telling you that you have to wear a mask
the age gap in my school is about 13-18 and literally everyone is wearing a mask
In the municipality where I am from our corona cases from the entire lenght of the pandemic can be counted with one hand’s fingers so my experience is very different from The rest of Finland.
Basically no students or teachers wear masks, there was an around month long period when we students 6th grade and up were hiven masks but even then after the first week of this only around 1 in 15 students wore masks.
In general here the only place where you will see masked people is in the few stores we have and maybe half the people there are wearing one.
In my fairly rural high school, they tell us to wear masks, but maybe 25% do. The only time more than 50% had masks was during the kirjoitukset.
IM in the 8th grade and for is its mandatory, nut still school hand out masks
I’m first year in highschool and for us it’s mandatory, you don’t spot anyone without a mask, and if you do they’re told to put one on. The school provides masks if you don’t have any.
My little brother school and my previous school it’s not mandatory, despite there being more students there. My brother has said barely anyone except the teachers wear masks.
It was never mandatory in my kids’ school (5th and 7th grades). Around 50% of the children in their classes wear a mask.
In my little siblings’ school masks are recommended for grades 6 and up (ages 12+). My little sisters who are in 6th and 8th grade told me that about 60% of 6th graders wear masks, and about 30% of 8th graders wear masks.
All my siblings wear masks and the ones able to be vaccinated (aged 12+) have been vaccinated.
When I asked them about mask-wearing in their school, they expressed that they were really disappointed in their classmates who don’t wear masks, especially the boys. And it seems like the girls are more willing to wear masks but feel singled out and teased by boys if they do, and the boys “constantly complain and whine about everything” and “refuse to follow any rules and ruin it for everyone else” according to my sisters, which is super funny and honestly, I can relate 😀
in our school, almost everyone wore masks (the recommendation is removed in our area now)