According to the national security review published by the Finnish Security Intelligence Service on Tuesday, homeschooling may, in the long run, increase security threats related to the fragmentation of society. This risk is heightened by the fact that it is extremely difficult for authorities to monitor the teaching that takes place in homeschooling and in informal homeschooling institutions.
The parliamentary parties also share concern about these security threats. Their proposed solutions range from more effective oversight of homeschooling to an unambiguous compulsory school attendance requirement, with exceptions granted only for extremely compelling reasons.
It is therefore likely that the next government programme will include more or less radical restrictions on children’s homeschooling. At the same time, this would reduce people’s freedom of choice regarding the upbringing of their children.
In practice, this change is occurring as a result of the immigration policy pursued in Finland, because it has brought both radical Islamism and—partly as a reaction to it, as well as to other forms of “wokeism”—far-right extremism into our society. According to the head of the Finnish Security Intelligence Service, Juha Martelius, these are precisely the kinds of undesirable phenomena that are increasingly being promoted in homeschooling environments.
It remains to be seen, however, how well the negative impact of immigration on people’s freedom will be recognized in Finnish public debate. That is, on the constitutional right which states that “everyone has the right to life, personal liberty, integrity and security.”
The debate about compulsory schooling described above is, of course, only part of this process. It is also connected to, for example, threats and fears related to safety—especially for women but also for young people—as well as restrictions on freedom of speech in accordance with an Orwellian understanding of language.
Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Jimmie Åkesson Is Sweden’s Most Widely Accepted Politician
On Freedom, Debate, and the Murder of Charlie Kirk
Finally, Honest Reporting on Immigration and Crime
The original blogpost in Finnish:
Maahanmuuttopolitiikka rajoittaa ihmisten valinnanvapautta
