Vasa övningsskola (VÖS) is a Swedish-speaking normal school in
Vaasa
Vaasa (; , ), formerly (1855-1917) known as Nikolaistad (; ),Finland
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
. VÖS is a part of
Ã…bo Akademi University
Ã…bo Akademi University ( , ) is the only exclusively Swedish language multi-faculty university in Finland (or anywhere outside Sweden). It is located mainly in Turku (Ã…bo is the Swedish name of the city) but has also activities in Vaasa. Ã… ...
, and its Faculty of Education and Welfare Studies located in Vaasa. It is the only Swedish normal school in Finland. VÖS provides preschool, primary and lower and upper secondary education, and in addition is one of the 17 schools in Finland with an
International Baccalaureate
The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), more commonly known as the International Baccalaureate (IB), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the I ...
upper secondary school programme.
The predecessor of VÖS was ''Wasa Trivialskola'', which was officially founded in 1684, although teaching began already in 1611. The name ''Trivialskola'' refers to the ''
trivium
The trivium is the lower division of the seven liberal arts and comprises grammar, logic, and rhetoric.
The trivium is implicit in ("On the Marriage of Philology and Mercury") by Martianus Capella, but the term was not used until the Carolin ...
'', and in that time, the subjects were religion,
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
and
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
. In 1844, the school changed its name to ''Vasa Gymnasium''. In the town fire of Vaasa in 1852, the school building was destroyed, and upon rebuilding, the school was located to its present location in the center of the city, next to the church of Vaasa on ''Kirkkopuistikko'' (Swedish: ''Kyrkoesplanaden'').
In rankings based on scores of the Finnish
matriculation examination
A matriculation examination or matriculation exam is a university entrance examination, which is typically held towards the end of secondary school. After passing the examination, a student receives a School leaving qualification, school leaving ce ...
, the upper secondary school of VÖS (''Vasa övningsskola gymnasium'') has been ranked as #8 of the 35 Swedish-speaking schools of Finland.YLE news (in Swedish) The average score was 25.1, slightly higher than the national average of 24.0, which score nevertheless places it #1 in the city of
Vaasa
Vaasa (; , ), formerly (1855-1917) known as Nikolaistad (; ), 104 students completed the matriculation examination in 2009, and 49% gained admission to tertiary education immediately upon graduation.
Former students of the school include Finland's national poet
Johan Ludvig Runeberg
Johan Ludvig Runeberg (; 5 February 1804 – 6 May 1877) was a Finnish priest, lyric and epic poet. He wrote exclusively in Swedish. He is considered a national poet of Finland. He is the author of the lyrics to (''Our Land'', in Finnish) whi ...
(1804–1877).
See also
*
Education in Finland
The educational system in Finland consists of daycare programmes (for babies and toddlers), a one-year "preschool" (age six), and an 11-year compulsory basic comprehensive school (age seven to age eighteen). As of 2024, secondary general acade ...