Mandatory Swedish
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In Finnish schools, Swedish is a mandatory school subject for Finnish-speaking pupils from the 7th through 9th grade (13/14 to 15/16-year-olds). It is also mandatory in high schools, vocational schools, and vocational universities. Moreover, 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. Of all Finnish citizens 92% are native Finnish speakers, whereas 5.5% of the population report Swedish as their mother tongue[1].
According to the Finnish constitution, both Finnish and Swedish are national (official) languages. The national government as well as municipal government in bilingual municipalities must be able 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 word pakkoruotsi.
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[edit] Overview
In Mainland Finland 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 annexed Finland 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). (See also: Finland's language strife.)
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 Finno-Ugric 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 ensuring that Swedish-speakers can interact with governmental institutions in their own mother tongue.
[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 migrants settled in coastal areas, and the language of administration was Swedish, declared by the Swedish crown to be the only official language in Finland. 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 government 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: the status of Swedish as the sole language of administration was retained, as were the ancient rights of the mostly Swedophone ruling class. However, during the 1860's, Czar Alexander II ordered 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.
[edit] Current situation
A compulsory introductory course to Swedish for all pupils in primary education 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 foreign languages, one of which is the other domestic language (Swedish or Finnish). 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 per cent take German and 21 per cent French. [2] 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 reasons are cultural and political: 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) through 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 that keeping Swedish compulsory directly prevents choosing other languages, like German and French.
[edit] Surveys
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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 questions 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 percent of Finns were "in favour of voluntary Swedish education or against mandatory Swedish education".[3]
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.[4] 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".[citation needed]
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.[5]
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.[6]
A study conducted in 1997 by Folktinget, a political lobby 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.[7]
[edit] Opinions
In many cases, pupils have negative expectations 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. 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 of a narrow strip bordering on the Baltic Sea, and thus contact with Swedish-speakers is rare or non-existent 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, and this question has not been addressed by lawmakers.
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.[8] 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 highly successful and was made permanent: 88% of students take the Swedish test voluntarily[citation needed]. 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.
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 the fact that many students are unmotivated 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, the counter-argument to this being that 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.
The resources needed to maintain the system of mandatory Swedish are significant. 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 foreign languages, one of which is obligatorily Swedish for Finnish-speakers. Despite being a neighbour of Russia, only 1.5% of the Finns have a good knowledge of Russian. Also very few Finns speak Estonian, a language of the same Baltic-Finnic language group as Finnish, 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 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 national 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, 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.
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources
- ^ Swedophone population
- ^ Pakkoruotsi (Finnish). Suomalaisuuden liitto ry.
- ^ Suomalaisuuden liitto: Pakkoruotsi
- ^ Suomen Gallupin tutkimus 2003
- ^ Valittujen Palojen tutkimus 2000
- ^ IEA/Civic Education Study. Nuorten käsityksiä Ruotsista ja ruotsalaisuudesta.
- ^ Vårt land, vårt språk - kahden kielen Kansa. rapport 35.
- ^ Lammi, Kati. Kielisalkku motivoi ruotsin kielen opiskeluun. (Language portfolio as a tool in promoting motivation in the study of Swedish at senior high school: student and teacher views and experiences.) Dissertation at University of Jyväskylä, 2002. [1]
