esikoulu

esi- (“pre-”) +‎ koulu (“school”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈesiˌkou̯lu/, [ˈe̞s̠iˌko̞u̯lu]
• Rhymes: -oulu
• Syllabification^(key): e‧si‧kou‧lu

esikoulu

1. kindergarten (US), reception (UK)

In the Finnish education system, esikoulu refers to an educational institution that provides a year of education preceding the first year in peruskoulu (roughly equivalent to elementary school). esikoulu has been de facto compulsory since 2015. As peruskoulu begins the year a child turns 7, esikoulu begins the year the child turns 6 years old. The term is commonly translated as preschool (as would be its literal translation), but this translation is usually incorrect, as preschool tends to refer to either an even earlier stage of education, which would more correctly be referred to as päiväkoti in Finnish, or to all education prior to compulsory education as a whole. The closest equivalent to esikoulu is kindergarten in the United States education system and reception in the United Kingdom education system.

Informally, esikoulu may also refer to this stage of education as a whole (which is more correctly called esiopetus).

• (colloquial) eskari

• esiopetus

• “esikoulu”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02