Laihian yläkoulu (Lower secondary school of Laihia)

Laihia is a municipality of about 8 000 inhabitants in the Ostrobothnia region of Finland. Laihia is widely known in Finland due to its peculiar reputation of being stingy or parsimonious, “nuuka”. The stingy people living in Laihia are even a subject of many jokes and Laihia is sometimes referred to as Finland’s Scotland. Before the parsimonious reputation was seen as negative and the people living in Laihia were ridiculed for being stingy.

Today this reputation is mostly seen as a positive thing and the people in Laihia are even proud of it. Today being parsimonious, “nuukuus”, is seen as an economical and ecological way of life. People living in Laihia are not stingy, they are smart and save both money and nature. The prudent people in Laihia consider carefully what to buy, make the best use of everything they have and act in favor of their community.

Lower secondary school of Laihia is located in Laihia, 27 km from the nearest urban centre. The school provides education to 350 students, ages 13 to 16. The school operates in three buildings, which are functional, modern and comfortable.

Lower secondary school of Laihia participated in the LfE project as a seven school network (Hulmi school, Isonkylä school, Kirkonkylä school, Kylänpää school, Lower secondary school of Laihia, Perälä school, Rauhala school). The major pedagogical and technical challenges in the applying schools were lack of digital devices and the existing devices that are dated, slow and unreliable. The gap between Laihia's schools and schools in larger cities remains visible. 

The school network bough 77 Chromebooks altogether, and they divided them between schools by the number of students. Lower secondary school of Laihia received 22 Chromebooks and management licences for them.