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ovides for these families by way of maternity protection. In 1964 the maternity allowance was introduced and currently stands at 43 weeks followed by paternity leave in 1978 and fathers were granted the option to have leave and an allowance. From 1985 the child home care allowance was introduced allowing children up to the age of 3 years the option to be raised at home. The parent's jobs are protected by laws that enable them to return after the leave period.

In comparison the United Kingdom socially and culturally expect women to work and not stay at home, whether they have children or not. (A guide for new and expectant mothers who work, 2009). The government helps fund low income parents childcare costs thus allowing mothers with children of all ages to go out to work. The parent's make the final choice but financially parents are offered incentives by the government to work encouraging parents to be part of the working society and not child home educators.

Approximately 400,000 children in Finland are under the age of 7 with three quarters of Finnish children under 3 years old. A third of children under seven-years old are cared at home, mostly by their mothers. In contrast, research on the 'Nordic social model' (Repo, 2003) states,
''This is quite surprising, even contradictory, in a country where public child care
Services for children under school age are universally available''.

Finland is recognised as a homogenous country, primarily because 91% of the population speak Finnish as their mother tongue (Miller, Gearon, & Kostogriz, 2009) and is important to integrate into the Finnish way of life. The Basic Education Act (1998) states, 'the local authority in a municipality which has both Finnish and Swedish-speaking residents shall be responsible for arranging basic and pre-primary education separately for both linguistic groups'.

Further research by Education Research and development plan indicate good Finnish or Swedish language skills are fundamentals for amalgamating into Finnish society and employment. Immigrant children are taught Finnish or Swedish as a second language in schools however, less young immigrants remain in upper secondary education compared with Finnish- and Swedish-speaking children. The main reason is their linguistic skills are insufficient. The research suggests that all children must be able to develop and sustain their mother tongue in addition to learning Finnish or Swedish.

According to The Challenge of Universal Primary Education report (Department for International Development, 2001)'Social exclusion denies the possibility of UPE minorities' and that children may be disadvantaged because of culture, religion however cultural identity and strong linguistic skills creates a great foundation in educating children to adapt into a foreign society.

It is evident why the Finnish society has high rankings such as the annual report from the World Economic Forum identifying Finland as the world's most competitive economy, citing its 'culture of innovation'. (Haatainen, 2004). In addition the International Confederation of Principals evidences the importance of education such as,

'In Finland, we believe we have to invest in education, in research and in higher education. Education can pioneer new areas for jobs. We al本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。