Language Education Network and Teacher Unions Demand Two Weekly Mother‑Tongue Lessons for Immigrant Pupils
The Language Education Policy Network and two teacher unions have urged municipalities and lawmakers to guarantee at least two weekly mother‑tongue lessons nationwide for pupils with immigrant backgrounds, warning that local cuts—including in Tampere—undermine equality.
In a joint press release, the Language Education Policy Network, together with the Finnish Language Teachers' Union (SUKOL) and the Association of Mother Tongue Teachers, has called on municipalities and lawmakers in Finland to guarantee at least two weekly mother‑tongue lessons for pupils with immigrant backgrounds.
They point to the Basic Education Act’s equality requirements and the Regulation on the Financing of Education, which allows municipalities to receive state subsidy for two weekly mother‑tongue lessons; national curricula were drafted on that basis. Research shows mother‑tongue competence supports learning other languages, boosts overall school performance, strengthens identity and helps prevent marginalization.
Implementation currently varies between municipalities. Jyväskylä and Turku are cited as examples of accessible practice: Jyväskylä requires just four pupils to form a group and Turku eight, and both city websites list instruction in roughly 30 languages. By contrast, many municipalities have increased group sizes, cut lessons or reorganized provision in ways that do not meet the stated educational goals.
Tampere has reduced mother‑tongue instruction in recent months and replaced some lessons with a model where the mother‑tongue teacher acts as a language‑aware support in other subjects. Communication with families about these changes has not always been adequate. The groups warn this is part of a structural trend: multilingual instructors and other support roles are being used inconsistently and sometimes as a justification for reducing formal mother‑tongue teaching.
To reverse the trend they propose securing two weekly mother‑tongue lessons in law nationwide, standardizing practices for organising instruction to match need, and clearly defining the role of multilingual instructors and other support measures as distinct from mother‑tongue teaching. They also call for multilingualism to be recognised strategically in education policy.
The statement is signed by Irina Piippo and Essi Laitinen from the Language Education Policy Network, Outi Vilkuna of SUKOL and Larissa Aksinovits of the Association of Mother Tongue Teachers.
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