The research programme Finnish Local Government 2004 was a joint programme launched by the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, universities and research centres. It was funded by Finnish municipalities and the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities. The project engaged in a systematic and comparable analysis of the development of the municipal sector in 1995-2004. The 47 municipalities participating in the programme were representative of the Finnish local government sector.
The study programme comprised of 14 research modules. For most modules, data were collected through mail surveys. The data may be used for cross-sectional or time series analysis.
Similar surveys were also carried out in 1995 and 1998. In the 2002 survey, primary schools and lower secondary schools received a questionnaire that was different from the one sent to post-lower secondary schools and institutions, unlike in the two earlier surveys. This survey deals mainly with three topics: the contents of primary and lower secondary education services, and the municipal administration and development policies of educational institutions.
First, the respondents were asked questions about the administrator of the school, the number of teaching groups, whether the school organises preschool education for 6-year-olds, and whether the school provides specialised teaching (e.g. music-oriented or language-oriented teaching). The respondents estimated their satisfaction with different supplementary and support services organised by their schools, including student lunch, cleaning, and maintaining the school library. In addition, they were asked how the provision of those services was organised in the institution. Changes in the educational activities (e.g. size of teaching groups, remedial teaching, independence of the school) since 1998 were queried, as well as their state at the time of the survey.
In relation to management and decision-making, the respondents were asked which elected body was mainly in charge of the central issues connected to their school. They also assessed the significance of that elected body in various matters (e.g. the acquisition of resources). Views on which elected body was in charge of different issues related to schools, such as deciding on the distribution of work, the selection of personnel, the expulsion of students, and allocating funds within the institution. Some questions pertained to the effect that various bodies (e.g. the EU, local government, teachers) have on the activity of the school. The respondents were also presented with a set of attitudinal statements covering the importance of various roles in their work as well as changes in their importance over the past few years. Views on future development goals were also probed.
Background variables included the respondent's year of birth, title, work experience in the field, and level of education. In addition, the data include external background variables.
Two-stage stratified sampling in selecting project municipalities.
The project municipalities were selected separately from those with less than 10,000 inhabitants (28 municipalities) and from those with more than 10,000 inhabitants (19 municipalities). The selection aimed to be representative within both groups in relation to all municipalities with the same population size. Large municipalities were over-represented because 70% of the Finnish population lives in large municipalities. Representativeness criteria included regional location, age and education of the population, industry structure, municipal economy parameters, political situation and variables related to municipal policy. The selected municipalities form a small scale model of all Finnish municipalities. The Åland Islands municipalities were excluded because of special features resulting from Åland's autonomy.
The questionnaire was sent to all primary and lower secondary schools in the project municipalities (N=583). 463 schools responded. The respondents were persons in charge of the schools.