Mandatory Swedish
Encyclopedia
In Finland
, Swedish
is a mandatory school subject for Finnish
-speaking pupils in the last three years of the primary education
(grades 7 to 9). It is also mandatory in high school
s, vocational school
s, and vocational universities
. Furthermore, all Finnish-speaking university graduates must demonstrate a certain level of proficiency in Swedish (the so-called public servant's Swedish). Similarly, Finnish is a mandatory subject for the Swedish-speaking population. Altogether 92% of Finnish citizens are native Finnish speakers, whereas 5.5% of the population report Swedish as their mother tongue.
According to the Finnish constitution
, both Finnish and Swedish are national official language
s. The national government as well as municipal governments in bilingual municipalities are required to serve citizens in their mother tongue, either Finnish or Swedish. The official term for both mandatory Swedish and Finnish is the second domestic language. However, the requirement to study Swedish is often referred to as pakkoruotsi, a somewhat charged term in Finnish meaning "mandatory Swedish", or "enforced Swedish". Pakkosuomi (mandatory Finnish) is sometimes used as a reaction to the word pakkoruotsi.
both official languages, Finnish and Swedish, are mandatory subjects for pupils in primary
and secondary
schools. The Swedish test of the Matriculation Examination
was recently (2004) made voluntary, although all university graduates must demonstrate that their skills in the other official language meet the standard required of all academically educated public servants. Usually this means the completion of a so-called public servant's Swedish test. The status of Swedish as an official national language in Finland is defined by the Finnish constitution. The Swedish language is also one of the main agendas of the Swedish People's Party that has been a minor partner in most Cabinets
since Finland's independence, and in all Cabinets since 1979.
The autonomous Åland Islands
(pop. 26,000, 95% Swedish, 5% Finnish) has only one official language, Swedish, and international treaties to some degree grant it the right of remaining exclusively Swedophone.
The Swedish language is an official language in Finland as a result of the history of the country of Sweden
, which gradually annexed what now is Finland from around A.D. 1200. There was also a migration of Swedish peasants to Finland during the Middle Ages. During this period, when Finland was a part of Sweden, Swedish language became part of the culture of Finland
. During Swedish rule the Finnish language was passively oppressed by the Swedish-speaking ruling class. The Finnish language was not given an official status until 1860, well into the period of Russian rule
(1809–1917).
Supporters of Mandatory Swedish argue that it brings Finland closer to the Nordic countries
, since Swedish is quite similar to, and to some extent mutually intelligible
with, both Danish
and Norwegian
, while Finnish belongs to the unrelated Finnic language
group. Supporters also claim that studying Swedish makes it easier to learn other Germanic languages
, such as English and German. Lastly, they argue, mandatory Swedish is necessary to ensure that Swedish-speakers can interact with governmental institutions and get service, such as health care, in their own mother tongue.
from the Middle Ages to the end of the Finnish War
in 1809. Swedish migrants settled in coastal areas, and the language of administration was Swedish. This prompted many Finnish-speakers to learn Swedish in hopes of improving their social status, and some switched to Swedish altogether.
As a result of the Finnish War, Sweden ceded Finland to Russia, and the Russian tsar established the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland
. Although a Governor-General was installed by the Russians as the highest authority within the Grand Duchy, much of the political system remained the same: Finland was allowed to keep its ”laws, religion and language” from the Swedish time. The czar wanted to avoid trouble in the new territory and also used former Swedish upper class to further modernisation in Russia; Finnish was not an option at that time as official language, as the administration did not know Finnish well enough and the language was undeveloped regarding such use.
When Finland became autonomous there was a big interest in creating a new national identity. There was an immense interest in the Finnish language and Finnish culture in the mostly Swedish speaking upper class. At some point the Fennoman
movement arose, that thought that the country should be a united nation
, with only one language, and, as a reaction, the Svecoman
movement, that was afraid that abandoning Swedish would lead to slavicisation
or worse.
However, during the 1860s, under Czar Alexander II
, it was decided that legal equality between Finnish and Swedish as languages of administration was to be gradually introduced. Thus since the late 19th century Finnish has been a co-official language of administration in Finland. Modernizations typical for the era in Europe were introduced, boosting the status of the Finnish-speaking majority: the special rights of the higher estates of the realm
were abolished, a modern parliament based on universal suffrage
was introduced 1907 and in 1917 Finland became independent.
In the current form, mandatory Swedish was implemented as a part of the modernisation of the educational system
in the 1970s. Previously, a Swedish test had been compulsory on university level and in oppikoulu, a secondary school that was a prerequisite to matriculation to a university, but not in the common kansakoulu. The introduction of the peruskoulu (student ages 7–15), compulsory for all children, introduced a course in Swedish compulsory to all pupils, while Swedish courses and standardized tests at higher levels remained compulsory. This was motivated by the possibility that any student could become a public official and would thus be required to know Swedish.
was introduced in the 1960s as a part of modernization of the primary education system, where the nine-year school (peruskoulu) was made universally compulsory. Until then there had been mandatory courses only in secondary
and tertiary education
. Administrative services have, since the end of the 19th century, been offered in both domestic languages; therefore, theoretically employees should be proficient in both Finnish and Swedish. The reform was to some extent based on a political ambition to strengthen the ties with the Western world
through Scandinavia, and to show that Finland was still a part of the Nordic countries
, and not an Eastern Bloc
country. It also sought to improve social mobility by ensuring that a decision on language in the early school years would not become an obstacle for applicants to the civil service.
In the upper secondary general school
all the students learn at least two languages besides their mother tongue, one of which is the other domestic language, except for people studying some other language as mother tongue (e.g. immigrants and those studying Sami
). Finnish speakers take Swedish, and vice versa. According to Statistics Finland
, practically all the students take English
, either as a compulsory or an optional language. There is also a possibility to take one or more extra foreign languages: 44 percent take German
and 21 percent French
. Despite Finland being a neighbour of Russia, Russian is not taught in most schools of Finland, and only 1.5% of Finns know some Russian. The hindrances are cultural and political, as there has been relatively little cultural exchange between the Finns and Russians in the 20th century, and Finland's relations with the Soviet Union were hostile from the Finnish Civil War
(1918) until World War II
(1939–1944).
The arrangement of "mandatory Swedish and practically-mandatory English" has been criticized, because it reduces the diversity of the language skills of the population. The EU target is to teach two foreign languages. As English is an overwhelmingly popular choice, it has been suggested by, for example, the Confederation of Finnish Industries
that keeping Swedish compulsory directly prevents choosing other languages, such as Russian.
A number of studies into opinions regarding mandatory Swedish have been made with various results. The big differences between studies exemplifies the problems in conducting a neutral and broad study without asking leading question
s on the particular subject. Furthermore, some of the studies have been commissioned by organizations that have politically partisan views on the subject of mandatory Swedish.
Between 1990 and 2003 Taloustutkimus Oy conducted a series of more than ten surveys for Suomalaisuuden liitto, an organisation opposing mandatory Swedish. According to these surveys, 66–72% of Finns were "in favour of voluntary Swedish education or against mandatory Swedish education".
Suomen Gallup's 2003 survey concluded that while a small majority supported "compulsory second domestic language studying", it was opposed by 42% of Finns while 25% did not want both Finnish and Swedish to be official languages of Finland. This study was commissioned by YLE, the Finnish publicly funded national broadcasting company. The question posed to those surveyed was very verbose in comparison to the Taloustutkimus surveys on the same subject. The question did not include the word "Swedish".
In 1992 a study by Valitut Palat (the Finnish edition of Reader's Digest
) concluded that 90 percent of the parents of third to fourth grade pupils "supported a reduction of compulsory languages" (only Finnish and Swedish are compulsory). When Valitut Palat did a new survey in 2003 it found 64% opposing mandatory Swedish, and 25% not wanting to have two official languages.
An IEA
study (2000) revealed that 67% of young people studying in Finnish-speaking schools wanted to make Swedish a voluntary subject. The most politically aware youths were the most critical against Swedishness in this study.
A study conducted in 1997 by Folktinget, an official consultative organisation representing Finland's Swedish-speakers, concluded that 70% of the Finnish-speaking population considered "Swedish a vital and important part of Finnish society." This study also indicated that the most negative opinions about mandatory Swedish were found among those with academic degrees.
In many cases, pupils have negative expectations and experiences towards learning Swedish which may foster a negative attitude towards the Swedish language and culture. This behaviour is claimed to hark back to the time when Finland was a part of Sweden (see Sweden–Finland), and Swedish was the language of prestige while Finnish was looked down on by the government. (Interestingly, however, very similar negative attitudes and motivational problems have arisen in Ireland
against mandatory Irish
, even though it is supposed to be the national language, so the lack of motivation in learning a language spoken by a small minority may not necessarily be due to nationalistic feelings among the Finnish-speaking majority.) Negative opinions towards studying Swedish are also grounded in the fact that mandatory Swedish is taught throughout the country, even though there are few Swedish-speakers in mainland Finland
outside the coastal area by the Baltic Sea
, and thus contact with Swedish-speakers is rare for most Finns. This fact can for some make the policy of bilingualism seem artificial, but the basic curriculum remains the same for the entire country. On the other hand there is quite a lot of migration to the regions where Swedish is spoken, such as the Helsinki
region.
According to a study published in 2002 students are interested in the Swedish language, and find it as an important part of education, but they perceived Swedish being compulsory lessened their motivation (this argument has been made very frequently in the public debate). The experiment of making the Swedish test voluntary in the matriculation examination (the completion of which is a de facto requirement for university enrollment) was declared successful and was made permanent: 88% of students take the Swedish test voluntarily. This, however, can be argued not to reflect students' motivation, as after studying Swedish compulsorily for many years, they naturally prefer to complete the Swedish test of the examination. The percentage has since been constantly dropping and was 67 % in 2009 (less than 50 % of boys).
There has also been a lot of criticism of the methodology used to teach Swedish and the lack of competence among many of the teachers. This has contributed to student's lack of motivation to study Swedish, and may not learn to speak the language beyond a very basic level. Some students argue that they will never need Swedish as its utility in the Finnish job market is limited to a few fields. Moreover, the rationale of mandatory tuition in Swedish and other subjects is to give the students more of a general knowledge base, and not train them for a specific field.
In addition to the direct costs of the tuition, some argue that mandatory Swedish effectively replaces elective courses in languages such as French, German and Russian, that these persons argue are more important than Swedish in a globalized world. University students are required not only to master their selected field, but also to study at least two languages beside their mother tongue, one of which is obligatorily Swedish for Finnish-speakers. As study material is often in English, this effectively removes the free choice; the two "voluntarily chosen" languages must be Swedish and English. Despite being a neighbour of Russia, it is in practice possible to study Russian only in some schools (due to low interest or it not being offered); only 1.5% of the Finns have a good knowledge of Russian. Also very few Finns speak Estonian (which is not taught in most schools), a language of the same Finnic language group
as Finnish, and national language of Finland's southern neighbour Estonia
, although Finnish is popular in Estonia.
Sentiments toward mandatory Swedish vary. Many prominent politicians (both Finnish- and Swedish-speaking) wholeheartedly support mandatory Swedish in schools, while others oppose it. There have been numerous petitions and other similar campaigns arranged by some small but dedicated organizations to pressure the lawmakers to abolish mandatory Swedish, but to date, they have had no significant impact on the established policy, and thus have not attained a great deal of momentum. Thus, while the ongoing debate is often heated and passionate, the support for mandatory Swedish tuition remains strong enough among politicians for the government not to consider a change of policy.
Mandatory Swedish is supported by the main political parties in Finland, the National Coalition Party, the Centre Party
, the Social Democrats
and the Left Alliance
. However, the government recently dropped the requirement to take Swedish (or Finnish in the case of the Swedish-speaking minority) as part of the high school matriculation examination.
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
is a mandatory school subject for Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
-speaking pupils in the last three years of the primary education
Education in Finland
The Finnish education system is an egalitarian Nordic system, with no tuition fees and with free meals served to full-time students. The present Finnish education system consists of well-funded and carefully thought out daycare programs and a one-year "pre-school" ; a nine-year compulsory basic...
(grades 7 to 9). It is also mandatory in high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
s, vocational school
Vocational school
A vocational school , providing vocational education, is a school in which students are taught the skills needed to perform a particular job...
s, and vocational universities
Vocational university
A vocational university is an institution of higher education and sometimes research, which provides both tertiary and sometimes quaternary education and grants academic degrees at all levels in a variety of subjects...
. Furthermore, all Finnish-speaking university graduates must demonstrate a certain level of proficiency in Swedish (the so-called public servant's Swedish). Similarly, Finnish is a mandatory subject for the Swedish-speaking population. Altogether 92% of Finnish citizens are native Finnish speakers, whereas 5.5% of the population report Swedish as their mother tongue.
According to the Finnish constitution
Constitution of Finland
The Constitution of Finland is the supreme source of national law of Finland. It defines the basis, structures and organisation of government, the relationship between the different constitutional organs, and lays out the fundamental rights of Finnish citizens...
, both Finnish and Swedish are national official language
Official language
An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...
s. The national government as well as municipal governments in bilingual municipalities are required to serve citizens in their mother tongue, either Finnish or Swedish. The official term for both mandatory Swedish and Finnish is the second domestic language. However, the requirement to study Swedish is often referred to as pakkoruotsi, a somewhat charged term in Finnish meaning "mandatory Swedish", or "enforced Swedish". Pakkosuomi (mandatory Finnish) is sometimes used as a reaction to the word pakkoruotsi.
Overview
In Mainland FinlandMainland Finland
Mainland Finland is a term used for instance in statistics to exclude the autonomous Åland Islands under Finnish sovereignty. Mainland Finland is not to be confused with Finland Proper, which is the province adjacent to Åland...
both official languages, Finnish and Swedish, are mandatory subjects for pupils in primary
Primary education
A primary school is an institution in which children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as primary or elementary education. Primary school is the preferred term in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth Nations, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational,...
and secondary
Secondary education
Secondary education is the stage of education following primary education. Secondary education includes the final stage of compulsory education and in many countries it is entirely compulsory. The next stage of education is usually college or university...
schools. The Swedish test of the Matriculation Examination
Abitur
Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...
was recently (2004) made voluntary, although all university graduates must demonstrate that their skills in the other official language meet the standard required of all academically educated public servants. Usually this means the completion of a so-called public servant's Swedish test. The status of Swedish as an official national language in Finland is defined by the Finnish constitution. The Swedish language is also one of the main agendas of the Swedish People's Party that has been a minor partner in most Cabinets
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...
since Finland's independence, and in all Cabinets since 1979.
The autonomous Åland Islands
Åland Islands
The Åland Islands form an archipelago in the Baltic Sea. They are situated at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia and form an autonomous, demilitarised, monolingually Swedish-speaking region of Finland...
(pop. 26,000, 95% Swedish, 5% Finnish) has only one official language, Swedish, and international treaties to some degree grant it the right of remaining exclusively Swedophone.
The Swedish language is an official language in Finland as a result of the history of the country of Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, which gradually annexed what now is Finland from around A.D. 1200. There was also a migration of Swedish peasants to Finland during the Middle Ages. During this period, when Finland was a part of Sweden, Swedish language became part of the culture of Finland
Culture of Finland
The culture of Finland combines indigenous heritage, as represented for example by the country's Uralic national language Finnish, and the sauna, with common Nordic and European culture. Because of its history and geographic location Finland has been influenced by the adjacent areas' various...
. During Swedish rule the Finnish language was passively oppressed by the Swedish-speaking ruling class. The Finnish language was not given an official status until 1860, well into the period of Russian rule
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
(1809–1917).
Supporters of Mandatory Swedish argue that it brings Finland closer to the Nordic countries
Nordic countries
The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...
, since Swedish is quite similar to, and to some extent mutually intelligible
Mutual intelligibility
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort...
with, both Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
and Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
, while Finnish belongs to the unrelated Finnic language
Finnic languages
The term Finnic languages often means the Baltic-Finnic languages, an undisputed branch of the Uralic languages. However, it is also commonly used to mean the Finno-Permic languages, a hypothetical intermediate branch that includes Baltic Finnic, or the more disputed Finno-Volgaic languages....
group. Supporters also claim that studying Swedish makes it easier to learn other Germanic languages
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
, such as English and German. Lastly, they argue, mandatory Swedish is necessary to ensure that Swedish-speakers can interact with governmental institutions and get service, such as health care, in their own mother tongue.
History
The area that today is Finland was an integral part of Sweden properSweden proper
Sweden proper, , is a term used to distinguish those territories that were fully integrated into the Kingdom of Sweden, as opposed to the dominions and possessions of, or states in union with, Sweden....
from the Middle Ages to the end of the Finnish War
Finnish War
The Finnish War was fought between Sweden and the Russian Empire from February 1808 to September 1809. As a result of the war, the eastern third of Sweden was established as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian Empire...
in 1809. Swedish migrants settled in coastal areas, and the language of administration was Swedish. This prompted many Finnish-speakers to learn Swedish in hopes of improving their social status, and some switched to Swedish altogether.
As a result of the Finnish War, Sweden ceded Finland to Russia, and the Russian tsar established the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland
Grand Duchy of Finland
The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed 1809–1917 as part of the Russian Empire and was ruled by the Russian czar as Grand Prince.- History :...
. Although a Governor-General was installed by the Russians as the highest authority within the Grand Duchy, much of the political system remained the same: Finland was allowed to keep its ”laws, religion and language” from the Swedish time. The czar wanted to avoid trouble in the new territory and also used former Swedish upper class to further modernisation in Russia; Finnish was not an option at that time as official language, as the administration did not know Finnish well enough and the language was undeveloped regarding such use.
When Finland became autonomous there was a big interest in creating a new national identity. There was an immense interest in the Finnish language and Finnish culture in the mostly Swedish speaking upper class. At some point the Fennoman
Fennoman
The Fennomans were the most important political movement in the 19th century Grand Principality of Finland. They succeeded the fennophile interests of the 18th and early 19th century.-History:...
movement arose, that thought that the country should be a united nation
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
, with only one language, and, as a reaction, the Svecoman
Svecoman
The Svecoman movement was a Swedish nationalist movement that arose in the Grand Duchy of Finland at the end of the 19th century chiefly as a reaction to the demands for increased use of Finnish vigorously presented by the Fennoman movement...
movement, that was afraid that abandoning Swedish would lead to slavicisation
Slavicisation
Slavicisation is a term used to describe a cultural change in which something non-Slavic becomes Slavic. The process can either be voluntary, or applied with varying degrees of force.* Bulgarisation* Croatisation* Czechification* Polonization...
or worse.
However, during the 1860s, under Czar Alexander II
Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
, it was decided that legal equality between Finnish and Swedish as languages of administration was to be gradually introduced. Thus since the late 19th century Finnish has been a co-official language of administration in Finland. Modernizations typical for the era in Europe were introduced, boosting the status of the Finnish-speaking majority: the special rights of the higher estates of the realm
Estates of the realm
The Estates of the realm were the broad social orders of the hierarchically conceived society, recognized in the Middle Ages and Early Modern period in Christian Europe; they are sometimes distinguished as the three estates: the clergy, the nobility, and commoners, and are often referred to by...
were abolished, a modern parliament based on universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
was introduced 1907 and in 1917 Finland became independent.
In the current form, mandatory Swedish was implemented as a part of the modernisation of the educational system
Education in Finland
The Finnish education system is an egalitarian Nordic system, with no tuition fees and with free meals served to full-time students. The present Finnish education system consists of well-funded and carefully thought out daycare programs and a one-year "pre-school" ; a nine-year compulsory basic...
in the 1970s. Previously, a Swedish test had been compulsory on university level and in oppikoulu, a secondary school that was a prerequisite to matriculation to a university, but not in the common kansakoulu. The introduction of the peruskoulu (student ages 7–15), compulsory for all children, introduced a course in Swedish compulsory to all pupils, while Swedish courses and standardized tests at higher levels remained compulsory. This was motivated by the possibility that any student could become a public official and would thus be required to know Swedish.
Current situation
A compulsory introductory course to Swedish for all pupils in primary educationPrimary education
A primary school is an institution in which children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as primary or elementary education. Primary school is the preferred term in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth Nations, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational,...
was introduced in the 1960s as a part of modernization of the primary education system, where the nine-year school (peruskoulu) was made universally compulsory. Until then there had been mandatory courses only in secondary
Secondary education
Secondary education is the stage of education following primary education. Secondary education includes the final stage of compulsory education and in many countries it is entirely compulsory. The next stage of education is usually college or university...
and tertiary education
Tertiary education
Tertiary education, also referred to as third stage, third level, and post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of a school providing a secondary education, such as a high school, secondary school, university-preparatory school...
. Administrative services have, since the end of the 19th century, been offered in both domestic languages; therefore, theoretically employees should be proficient in both Finnish and Swedish. The reform was to some extent based on a political ambition to strengthen the ties with the Western world
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
through Scandinavia, and to show that Finland was still a part of the Nordic countries
Nordic countries
The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...
, and not an Eastern Bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
country. It also sought to improve social mobility by ensuring that a decision on language in the early school years would not become an obstacle for applicants to the civil service.
In the upper secondary general school
Secondary education
Secondary education is the stage of education following primary education. Secondary education includes the final stage of compulsory education and in many countries it is entirely compulsory. The next stage of education is usually college or university...
all the students learn at least two languages besides their mother tongue, one of which is the other domestic language, except for people studying some other language as mother tongue (e.g. immigrants and those studying Sami
Sami languages
Sami or Saami is a general name for a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sami people in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and extreme northwestern Russia, in Northern Europe. Sami is frequently and erroneously believed to be a single language. Several names are used for the Sami...
). Finnish speakers take Swedish, and vice versa. According to Statistics Finland
Statistics Finland
Statistics Finland is the national statistical institution in Finland, established on 4 November 1865 to serve as an information service and to provide statistics and expertise in the statistical sciences. The institution employes over 1000 experts from varying fields....
, practically all the students take English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, either as a compulsory or an optional language. There is also a possibility to take one or more extra foreign languages: 44 percent take German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and 21 percent French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. Despite Finland being a neighbour of Russia, Russian is not taught in most schools of Finland, and only 1.5% of Finns know some Russian. The hindrances are cultural and political, as there has been relatively little cultural exchange between the Finns and Russians in the 20th century, and Finland's relations with the Soviet Union were hostile from the Finnish Civil War
Finnish Civil War
The Finnish Civil War was a part of the national, political and social turmoil caused by World War I in Europe. The Civil War concerned control and leadership of The Grand Duchy of Finland as it achieved independence from Russia after the October Revolution in Petrograd...
(1918) until World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
(1939–1944).
The arrangement of "mandatory Swedish and practically-mandatory English" has been criticized, because it reduces the diversity of the language skills of the population. The EU target is to teach two foreign languages. As English is an overwhelmingly popular choice, it has been suggested by, for example, the Confederation of Finnish Industries
Confederation of Finnish Industries
The Confederation of Finnish Industries is the largest business organisation in Finland. It was formed in the beginning of 2005 when two private sector organisations, Palvelutyönantajat and Teollisuuden ja Työnantajain Keskusliitto , united...
that keeping Swedish compulsory directly prevents choosing other languages, such as Russian.
Surveys
| >
| Year | In favour |
|---|---|
| 1990 | 66% |
| 1991 | 66% |
| 1997 | 72% |
| 1999 | 71% |
| 2001 | 67% |
| 2003 | 67% |
| 2007 | 63% |
A number of studies into opinions regarding mandatory Swedish have been made with various results. The big differences between studies exemplifies the problems in conducting a neutral and broad study without asking leading question
Leading question
In common law systems that rely on testimony by witnesses, a leading question or suggestive interrogation is a question that suggests the answer or contains the information the examiner is looking for. For example, this question is leading:...
s on the particular subject. Furthermore, some of the studies have been commissioned by organizations that have politically partisan views on the subject of mandatory Swedish.
Between 1990 and 2003 Taloustutkimus Oy conducted a series of more than ten surveys for Suomalaisuuden liitto, an organisation opposing mandatory Swedish. According to these surveys, 66–72% of Finns were "in favour of voluntary Swedish education or against mandatory Swedish education".
Suomen Gallup's 2003 survey concluded that while a small majority supported "compulsory second domestic language studying", it was opposed by 42% of Finns while 25% did not want both Finnish and Swedish to be official languages of Finland. This study was commissioned by YLE, the Finnish publicly funded national broadcasting company. The question posed to those surveyed was very verbose in comparison to the Taloustutkimus surveys on the same subject. The question did not include the word "Swedish".
In 1992 a study by Valitut Palat (the Finnish edition of Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
) concluded that 90 percent of the parents of third to fourth grade pupils "supported a reduction of compulsory languages" (only Finnish and Swedish are compulsory). When Valitut Palat did a new survey in 2003 it found 64% opposing mandatory Swedish, and 25% not wanting to have two official languages.
An IEA
International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement
The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement is an association of national research institutions and government research agencies related to education. The IEA is an independent organization. It was founded in 1958 and is headquartered in Amsterdam...
study (2000) revealed that 67% of young people studying in Finnish-speaking schools wanted to make Swedish a voluntary subject. The most politically aware youths were the most critical against Swedishness in this study.
A study conducted in 1997 by Folktinget, an official consultative organisation representing Finland's Swedish-speakers, concluded that 70% of the Finnish-speaking population considered "Swedish a vital and important part of Finnish society." This study also indicated that the most negative opinions about mandatory Swedish were found among those with academic degrees.
Opinions
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
against mandatory Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
, even though it is supposed to be the national language, so the lack of motivation in learning a language spoken by a small minority may not necessarily be due to nationalistic feelings among the Finnish-speaking majority.) Negative opinions towards studying Swedish are also grounded in the fact that mandatory Swedish is taught throughout the country, even though there are few Swedish-speakers in mainland Finland
Mainland Finland
Mainland Finland is a term used for instance in statistics to exclude the autonomous Åland Islands under Finnish sovereignty. Mainland Finland is not to be confused with Finland Proper, which is the province adjacent to Åland...
outside the coastal area by the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
, and thus contact with Swedish-speakers is rare for most Finns. This fact can for some make the policy of bilingualism seem artificial, but the basic curriculum remains the same for the entire country. On the other hand there is quite a lot of migration to the regions where Swedish is spoken, such as the Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
region.
According to a study published in 2002 students are interested in the Swedish language, and find it as an important part of education, but they perceived Swedish being compulsory lessened their motivation (this argument has been made very frequently in the public debate). The experiment of making the Swedish test voluntary in the matriculation examination (the completion of which is a de facto requirement for university enrollment) was declared successful and was made permanent: 88% of students take the Swedish test voluntarily. This, however, can be argued not to reflect students' motivation, as after studying Swedish compulsorily for many years, they naturally prefer to complete the Swedish test of the examination. The percentage has since been constantly dropping and was 67 % in 2009 (less than 50 % of boys).
There has also been a lot of criticism of the methodology used to teach Swedish and the lack of competence among many of the teachers. This has contributed to student's lack of motivation to study Swedish, and may not learn to speak the language beyond a very basic level. Some students argue that they will never need Swedish as its utility in the Finnish job market is limited to a few fields. Moreover, the rationale of mandatory tuition in Swedish and other subjects is to give the students more of a general knowledge base, and not train them for a specific field.
In addition to the direct costs of the tuition, some argue that mandatory Swedish effectively replaces elective courses in languages such as French, German and Russian, that these persons argue are more important than Swedish in a globalized world. University students are required not only to master their selected field, but also to study at least two languages beside their mother tongue, one of which is obligatorily Swedish for Finnish-speakers. As study material is often in English, this effectively removes the free choice; the two "voluntarily chosen" languages must be Swedish and English. Despite being a neighbour of Russia, it is in practice possible to study Russian only in some schools (due to low interest or it not being offered); only 1.5% of the Finns have a good knowledge of Russian. Also very few Finns speak Estonian (which is not taught in most schools), a language of the same Finnic language group
Finnic languages
The term Finnic languages often means the Baltic-Finnic languages, an undisputed branch of the Uralic languages. However, it is also commonly used to mean the Finno-Permic languages, a hypothetical intermediate branch that includes Baltic Finnic, or the more disputed Finno-Volgaic languages....
as Finnish, and national language of Finland's southern neighbour Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
, although Finnish is popular in Estonia.
Sentiments toward mandatory Swedish vary. Many prominent politicians (both Finnish- and Swedish-speaking) wholeheartedly support mandatory Swedish in schools, while others oppose it. There have been numerous petitions and other similar campaigns arranged by some small but dedicated organizations to pressure the lawmakers to abolish mandatory Swedish, but to date, they have had no significant impact on the established policy, and thus have not attained a great deal of momentum. Thus, while the ongoing debate is often heated and passionate, the support for mandatory Swedish tuition remains strong enough among politicians for the government not to consider a change of policy.
Mandatory Swedish is supported by the main political parties in Finland, the National Coalition Party, the Centre Party
Centre Party (Finland)
The Centre Party is a centrist and Nordic agrarian political party in Finland. It is one of the four largest political parties in the country, along with the Social Democratic Party , the National Coalition Party and the True Finns , and currently has 35 seats in the Finnish Parliament...
, the Social Democrats
Social Democratic Party of Finland
The Social Democratic Party of Finland is one of the three major political parties in Finland, along with the Centre Party and the National Coalition Party. Jutta Urpilainen is the current SDP leader. The party has been in the Finnish government cabinet for long periods and has set many...
and the Left Alliance
Left Alliance (Finland)
The Left Alliance is a left-wing political party in Finland. It was founded on the basis of the Finnish People's Democratic League and the Communist Party of Finland in 1990....
. However, the government recently dropped the requirement to take Swedish (or Finnish in the case of the Swedish-speaking minority) as part of the high school matriculation examination.