Finland To Scrap Handwriting Lessons

How’s your handwriting? Did your teachers make you practise hard as a child to dot the ‘i’s and cross the ‘t’s?

Learning joined up writing, especially with a grown up fountain pen, has been a tradition in UK schools for at least a century or two! And most of us probably appreciate a beautifully written card or letter from a friend with a neat hand.

But in Finland, schools are abandoning pen and ink in favour of typing lessons, according to the Savon Sanomat newspaper.From autumn 2016, pupils won’t have to learn cursive handwriting or calligraphy, but will focus on keyboard skills.

“Fluent typing skills are an important national competence,” said Minna Harmanen from the National Board of Education in Finland. Ms Harmanen said it is a major cultural change, but typing is more relevant to everyday life.

It is likely that children will need extra drawing lessons and handicraft lessons in order to develop their fine motor skills when handwriting lessons are scrapped.