Mandatory Swedish

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In Finnish schools, Swedish is a mandatory school subject, amounting at an average of two hours a week in classes 7-9 in the Finnish nine-year compulsory school and at an average two hours a week during three years of secondary education. Also all university graduates are required to complete a basic test in Swedish. These requirements are justified by referring to the status of Swedish as a national language along with Finnish. Namely, the national government, and municipal government in bilingual municipalities, is required to use both languages. The Finnish speaking population is dominant as a 91.6 % majority, while the Swedophone population amounts to 5.5 %^[1], concentrated into certain coastal areas. Furthermore, 3% of the population lives in municipalities with a Swedish speaking majority.^{[citation needed]}

The official term for both mandatory Swedish and mandatory Finnish is "the second domestic language"; in Finnish, toinen kotimainen kieli, in Swedish, det andra inhemska språket. However, critical opinion often calls the Swedish instruction and testing pakkoruotsi, a mildly charged term in Finnish meaning "mandatory Swedish".

"Away with mandatory Swedish".
A campaign logo against mandatory Swedish.

Similarly, Finnish is a mandatory school subject for the Swedophone students, although in Swedish speaking schools the tuition is usually started earlier, at grades 3 or 5, and similar requirements apply. Analogously, this is sometimes called 'mandatory Finnish', in Swedish tvångsfinska, by the Swedish speaking students.^{[citation needed]}

1 Overview
2 History
3 Surveys
4 Opinions
5 See also
6 Sources
7 External links

[edit] Overview

In Mainland Finland both domestic languages, Finnish and Swedish, are mandatory subjects for pupils in primary and secondary schools (although not compulsory in the final exams). The status of Swedish as an official national language in Finland is protected by the Finnish constitution. The Swedish language - although not excplicitly it's mandatory education - is also one of the main agendas of the Swedish People's Party, that has successfully been a minor partner in most Cabinets since Finland's independence.

The autonomous Åland Islands (pop. 26,000) have only one domestic 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 empire of Sweden-Finland, during this period swedish language became part of the Finnish culture. (See also: Finland's language strife.)

Supporters argue that mandatory Swedish brings Finland closer to the Nordic countries, since Swedish is quite similar, and to some extent mutually intelligible, with both Danish and Norwegian, while the Finnish language belongs to the vastly different Finno-Ugric language group. For this reason, supporters also maintain that mandatory Swedish improves learning of other Germanic languages, such as English and German. Lastly, they argue, mandatory Swedish is necessary to ensure that all citizens can interact with governmental institutions in their own language.

[edit] History

The area that today is Finland was an integral part of Sweden proper from the middle ages to the end of the Finnish War in 1809. Swedish-speakers settled coastal areas, and governing was done mostly in Swedish. Some Finnish speakers changed their language to improve their social status. In 1809, Russia invaded the area, and established the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. Although a Governor-General was installed, much of the political system remained the same; the status of Swedish as a sole language of government was retained (except for a Russian influence culminating in Pan-Slavism), as were the ancient rights of the mostly Swedophone upper class (the estates). A legal equality between Finnish and Swedish as a language of government was introduced during the time of the autonomy^{[citation needed]}. Finnish actually achieved a status of a language of government with developments that were typical for the time in Europe in the beginning of the 20th century: the special rights of the higher estates were abolished, a modern parliament with political parties was introduced, and Finland became independent.

Swedish teaching for all pupils in primary education was introduced in the 1960s as a part of the peruskoulu that modernized the primary education system. Until then it had only been required in secondary and tertiary education. Governmental service is, since the end of the 19th century, offered in both domestic languages; therefore employees must 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 bad decision on language in the early school years should not become an obstacle for applicants to the civil services.

In the upper secondary general school all the students learn at least two foreign languages, one of which is the other domestic language (Swedish or Finnish). The Finnish speakers take Swedish, and vice versa. Practically all the students took English, either as a compulsory or an optional language. There is also a possibility to take one or more extra foreign languages; 44 per cent took German and 21 per cent French. [2] Despite Finland being a neighbor of Russia, Russian is not taught in most schools of Finland, and only 1.5% of Finns know some Russian. This is because of cultural and political reasons: there has been very little cultural exchange between the Finns and Russians. Independent Finland's relations with the Soviet Union were hostile (during and between the World Wars) or neutral (during the Cold War). One of the reasons behind Mandatory Swedish was also the intent to prevent mandatory Russian, a plan the Finnish Communists proposed.

[edit] Surveys

A number of studies into opinions regarding mandatory Swedish have been made with various results. The big differences inbetween studies exemplifies the problematics in conducting a neutral and broad study without asking leading questions on the particular subject. Furthermore, some of the studies have been ordered by involved organizations.

Suomen Gallup's study in 2003 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 launguages of Finland.^[2]

Taloustutkimus Oy conducted a series of surveys for Suomalaisuuden liitto, a grassroots organisation opposing mandatory swedish, during 1990-2003 that concluded 66-72 percent of the asked were "In favour of voluntariness of mandatory swedish education or against mandatory swedish education".^[3]

In 1992 a study by Valitut Palat (the finnish Reader's Digest-magazine) 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 study in 2003 it found 64% opposing mandatory swedish, and 25% not wanting to have two official languages.^[4].

A Civics-study in the year 2000 revealed that 67% of young people studying in Finnish speaking schools wanted to turn Swedish to voluntary. The most politically aware youth were the most critical against Swedisness in this study.^[5]

A study conducted by Folktinget, a Swedish-speaking political forum where most members support mandatory Swedish, in 1997 concluded that 70% of the Finnish-speaking population considered "Swedish a vital and important part of Finnish society.", it also concluded the most negative oppinions against mandatory swedish was among those of academic education ^[6]

[edit] Opinions

In many cases, pupils have negative expectations towards learning Swedish which may contribute to foster a negative attitude towards the Swedish language and Sweden as a country. This behaviour is claimed to reflect back to the time when Finland was a part of Sweden (see Sweden-Finland). Negative opinions towards the Swedish education is also grounded in that mandatory Swedish is taught throughout the country, while the areas where natural contact with the Swedish language occurs frequently is quite bounded to certain coastal areas, this can for some make the policy of bilinguality seem artificial. But as education plans are made on a national basis this has never been accounted for.

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 are unmotivated because it is compulsory.^[7] The experiment of making Swedish voluntary in the matriculation examination (a de facto test for university enrollment) was highly successful and was made permanent: 88% of students take the Swedish test voluntarily^{[citation needed]}.

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. The results also speak for themselves when it comes to uninspired pupils. The way Swedish is taught today has resulted in that compulsory Swedish does not guarantee a sufficient knowledge of the Swedish language in order to pass. Some also argue they will never need Swedish as the need for knowing Swedish in order to gain job opportunities is largely concentrated to certain branches, the counter-argument to this is that the grades of education where Swedish is taught as a compulsory subject are intended to give more of a general knowledge base, and not account the pupil's future plans.

The resources mandatory Swedish uses are significant, because most students learn only two foreign languages at school. Some argue Mandatory Swedish effectively replaces elective courses on, in a more global sense, more important languages such as French, German and Russian. The university student is expected not only to learn the science, but also at least three foreign languages (Swedish, English, and other languages). Despite being a neighbour of Russia, only 1.5% of the Finns have a good knowledge in Russian. Also very few Finns speak Estonian, a language of the same Baltic-Finnic language group, and national language of Finland's southern neighbour 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 grassroots organizations to pressure the lawmakers, but to date, they have had no significant impact on the established policy or general opinion and thus have not attained a great deal of momentum. Thus, while the ongoing national debate is often heated and passionate, the backing of the compulsory Swedish in schools still remains strong enough 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, the Social Democrats and the Left Alliance. However, the Centrist government recently dropped the requirement to take Swedish (or Finnish for the 6% Swedish-speaking) as part of the high school Matriculation Examination.