Basic education in the arts is art education provided primarily for children and young people on an extracurricular basis. It is goal-oriented education that progresses from one level to the next. Basic education in the arts is organised across Finland in nine art forms: architecture, visual arts, crafts, media arts, music, literary art, circus art, dance and theatre.

Basic education in the arts comprises two syllabuses: the general and the advanced syllabus. The Finnish National Agency for Education determines the national core curriculum for both syllabuses. The core curriculum is a set of regulations based on which the education provider draws up and approves its curricula for the syllabuses for the art forms in which it provides education.

The Finnish National Agency for Education has issued official regulations concerning the national core curriculum for basic education in the arts for both syllabuses. The valid regulations have been issued in Finnish and in Swedish. In this unofficial English translation, the National Core Curriculum for the General Syllabus for Basic Education in the Arts 2017 and the National Core Curriculum for the Advanced Syllabus for Basic Education in the Arts 2017 have been combined into one document.

National Core Curriculum for the General and Advanced Syllabi for Basic Education in the Arts 2017 has been published also as a digital publication, ISBN 9789521364679. It can be ordered from ellibs.com