Kindergartens and schools

You can look after your own children at home. If you are entitled to home care allowance, you can apply for it from Kela. You can also apply online. For more information, visit the Kela website.

Home care allowance

In Kotka, you have the opportunity to participate as a family in the day care centres, in West Kotka at the Velho day care centre (Velhon päiväkoti), in Kotkansaari at the Katariina day care centre (Katariinan päiväkoti) and in Karhula at the Raitti day care centre (Raitin päiväkoti), according to a schedule to be announced. Open early childhood education is on holiday at the same time as schools.

More information

Children under school age have access to a range of day care and club activities. Day care is provided in municipal and private day nurseries. Kotka has several day care centres. The day care centres are open from 6.30–17.00 and, if necessary, from 6.00–18.00. Some of them also offer evening and weekend care.

Applications for day care places are primarily made electronically.

Day care centres in Kotka

Good to know: Early childhood education in a daycare centre and family daycare is subject to a fee. The fee is based on the family’s gross income, size of the family and extent of the service. Early childhood education for 5-year-olds and pre-primary education for 6-year-olds are free-of-charge for four hours a day.

In Finland, every child has the right to pre-primary education before compulsory schooling. By law, a child must attend pre-primary education or other similar activities for one year before compulsory education begins. Pre-primary education prepares children for comprehensive school. Children usually enter pre-primary education at the age of 6 and comprehensive school at the age of 7.

Pre-primary education is free of charge. In Kotka, pre-primary education is mainly provided in pre-primary groups attached to schools.

Pre-primary education in Kotka is available in English and private Swedish, as well as preparatory pre-primary education. Preparatory pre-primary education is for children with an immigrant background whose Finnish or Swedish language skills are not sufficient for pre-primary education.

The parent or guardian registers their child for pre-primary education.

Enrolment in pre-primary education

Basic education is free general education. Comprehensive school lasts nine years and is for children aged between 7 and 16. Compulsory education starts in the year in which the child turns seven, but it is possible to start school a year earlier or later. In the past, compulsory education ended at primary school. In future, compulsory education will end when

– the young person reaches the age of 18, or
– the young person completes upper secondary education.

Kotka has several comprehensive schools offering basic education. For immigrant pupils (aged 7–15) whose Finnish language skills are not yet sufficient for studying in basic education groups, preparatory education for basic education is organised in Kotka. In preparatory education groups, students learn Finnish and are prepared to move on to general education.

Preparatory education is organised for primary school pupils at Hovinsaari school and for secondary school pupils at Langinkoski school.

Basic education in Kotka
Preparatory education in Kotka 

English line education program is bilingual program where Finnish and English both are used as language of introduction. The English education program is based on the Finnish primary school curriculum but it will be bilingual. This means, that the subjects and lesson hours will follow the same curriculum as the other primary schools in Kotka. The program is open to pupils interested in studying in Finnish and English however these language skills are not required from applicants… read more

Swedish-language primary education is provided by Kotka Svenska Samskolas garantiförening r.f. run by Kotka Svenska Samskola.

Etelä-Kymenlaakso Vocational College (Ekami) organises basic vocational education and training in Kotka and Hamina. Applications for vocational education and training are made through a joint selection procedure.

Ekami 

The City of Kotka’s  high schools offer a wide range of upper secondary courses. You can apply to a high school through a joint selection procedure. You can enter upper secondary school if you have completed the basic education syllabus and have a sufficiently good average in the reading subjects.

High schools

At the University of Applied Sciences of South-Eastern Finland (Xamk) you can study for a polytechnic degree in several different fields.

XAMK

If you have a degree from another country, you may need a recognition decision to work or study in Finland.

Recognition of qualifications (Finnish National Board of Education)
Foreign qualifications in Finland

Kotkan opisto and Kymenlaakson opisto offer quality education for all ages, mainly in finnish.