Mother tongue/home language (other than Finnish or Swedish) studies at comprehensive municipal schools are meant for pupils, for whom this language is their:

• mother tongue by the civil register 
• home language spoken with one of the parents or with other close relative OR
• the language in which the pupil has obtained skills living abroad and studying in this language at comprehensive school 

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​You can find more information on the website of City of Helsinki. Also you should contact your child’s forthcoming school for more detailed information about this specific school’s actual situation considering mother language instruction. 

Information about mother tongue instruction

•  instruction at elementary school
• Statistics
• How to enroll to mother tongue instruction

• Note! 
• ​Mother tongue instruction - survey - results

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Mother tongue instruction statistics

• In 2021 there were 47 different mother tongues taught, in 130 study groups, at the schools of Helsinki, in Espoo nearly the same amount and in Vantaa about 30 languages.
  
  
• By the statistics of Finland´s 11 biggest cities, in 2021, top 3 languages in the number of study groups were Somali, Russian and Arabic. After those follows Persian, Chinese, Estonian and English. See the whole diagram here.
  
  
• Normally the minimum for a language class is 10 pupils

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​how to Enroll to mother tongue instruction

While you enroll your child to comprehensive school and compulsory education (usually this is in January) enroll her/him also to mother tongue instruction. Mother tongue/home language instruction is available only for those pupils who have enrolled in it. Enrolment is also important in sense that based on it, on demand, different language instruction groups are organized.

Applying for mother tongue instruction is voluntary, but once a pupil has registered for a group she/he is supposed to attend the lessons. A separate transcript will be given for mother tongue instruction.

​If you missed the enrolment in the mother tongue/home language instruction when your child started in compulsory education, you can do it also later. Just find out first which are the languages taught at your child’s school and if there is a study group in your language, enroll your child by the following application form. ​
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• HELSINKI: Application form for instruction in mother tongue here
• ESPOO: Enrollment to own mother tongue lessons is every year from January to April via Wilma. If you don´t have Wilma username yet, you can enroll by emailing to [email protected]
• VANTAA: To enroll to mother tongue/home language instruction, contact your nearest school and request the correspondent form.

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Note!

• Policies of mother language/home language instruction do vary depending on municipality. Information given here applies to Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa. Recommendation to organize mother tongue/home language instruction is national but in the end dependent on the recourses of municipality in concern. Municipalities can apply state subsidy for this.  
  
  
• Mother language/home language instruction is maintenance instruction meaning that it is not for learning a new language from the start but instead pupil should have at least basic level/knowledge about the language in question.
  
  
• Mother tongue studies are additional studies that increase the weekly schoolwork by two hours. These classes are not included in pupil’s basic school timetable but will be added there after the normal school day.
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• This instruction may not be organized at the pupil’s own local school, instead lessons might take place at another school in a group that combines pupils from several different schools. Your child’s school does not organize transport to the classes.  

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MOTHER TONGUE/HOME LANGUAGE SURVEY RESULTS

In February 2022 we conducted a survey to the parents of bi- and multilingual school kids about mother tongue/home language instruction in elementary school. With this survey we wanted to find out 

• How aware parents are about mother tongue/home language instruction 
• What is the level of participation of multilingual children to this instruction 
• What kind of experiences do parents have, in general, about mother tongue instruction 

We got many responses (154) all over the country and in total 32 different languages were spoken in these families that responded.  

Three main points resulted:

1. High amount of children who are entitled to mother tongue instruction do not attend to it at all 
2. Almost half of the children who do participate do that unwillingly and lack motivation 
3. Parents are not inform about this service/instruction  

The results point out following needs:

• More guidance and information about linguistic rights of children and families
• More resources to conduct mother tongue instruction in a way that better supports and motivates pupils
• Possibility to register more than one mother tongue: it would give us better understanding about languages spoken in Finland and help us to organize services in more efficient and functional way.

Donwload the report here!