We want to offer all children and young people equal opportunities to study languages and encourage them to make more varied choices in choosing a language to learn. We want to ensure that across the city districts people have a comprehensive and balanced selection of languages to choose from.
The language teaching strategy will apply to all levels of education and form a coherent whole, ranging from early childhood education through pre-primary and comprehensive education to upper secondary education, as well as liberal adult education. The measures planned in the language teaching strategy will affect pre-primary and comprehensive education.
The proposed changes would come into effect in stages from the start of the 2027–2028 school year.
What would change?
Finnish-language pre-primary education
We want to ensure that more people choose a language other than English as their A1 language, i.e. their first foreign language. We will continue to organise language taster sessions on a regular basis so that children can become familiar with the range of languages offered at their local schools. We will communicate with parents and guardians about the importance of language learning and language choices, for example through joint information sessions.
Finnish-language comprehensive education
For the A1 language, i.e. the first foreign language, we intend to start following the national minimum number of lesson hours, under which students in grades 1 and 2 would have one weekly lesson per school year in the A1 language. At present, they have two lessons per week, one of which has been an extra lesson provided by the city. In the future, the city would still provide extra lessons, but they would be allocated to optional language classes in grades 8 and 9.
We propose that the size of starting language groups be standardised so that all schools have a minimum of 15 students in each group. This also applies to groups starting bilingual education, except for Finnish–North Sami education. Joint teaching arrangements between local schools ensure that a wide range of language options is available. We will also ensure that A2 English groups, can be formed for third graders even with smaller group sizes. We propose changing the criteria for student admission to bilingual Finnish–English and Finnish–Spanish teaching into a two-stage process.
Swedish-language comprehensive education
We propose that the size of starting language groups be standardised so that all schools have a minimum of 15 students in each group. Currently the minimum group size is between 13 and 15.
The city is also exploring the possibility of offering bilingual comprehensive education in Swedish and English in the future. This would mean that part of the teaching would be in Swedish and part in English. The aim is to expand Swedish-language education in Helsinki and give students the chance to develop their skills in both languages.
At this stage, we are asking for feedback from student associations and school boards regarding the suggested changes.
Next steps for the language teaching strategy
Teams session for parents and guardians
We had a Teams session for parents and guardians in Finnish on Thursday 17 September. During the event we provided further details on the language teaching strategy, its objectives and proposed measures. The link to the event was shared with parents and guardians via Wilma in comprehensive education and via Edlevo in early childhood education.
You can find the recording of the event at the end of this page.
What's next?
The Finnish and Swedish sub-committees of the Education Committee will discuss the language strategy in autumn 2026 and decide on the following aspects:
- A1 and A2 language teaching implementation / distribution of lesson hours
- the size of starting language groups
- admission to bilingual education.
Following the sub-committees’ deliberations, we will launch a review of the schools’ language programmes in line with the strategy.
Questions and answers (Q&A)
In recent years, the number of lessons in mother tongue and literature, as well as mathematics, has been increased for grades 1–6. This means that children’s school days are longer than they were when Helsinki placed its own extra language lessons in grades 1 and 2. Moving these extra lessons to lower secondary school, means that the school days of the youngest students do not become too long.
Moving the language lessons to lower secondary school also gives students in grades 8 and 9 greater freedom of choice than before. In addition to language studies, students can also choose other optional subjects.
For grades 1–6, Helsinki would adopt the national distribution of lesson hours in language studies. But even after these changes, students in Helsinki would continue to study their A2 and B1 languages for one hour more per week than in the national distribution of lesson hours.
According to the city’s proposed language teaching strategy, Helsinki’s own extra language lessons would be moved from the A1 language in grades 1 and 2 to lower secondary school, where they would be provided as part of A2 language studies.
The A2 language is one of the optional subjects that students can choose from in lower secondary school. The range of these optional subjects available varies between schools. In addition to the A2 language, the options on offer may include subjects such as photography, playing in a band or programming.
Moving the extra language lessons to lower secondary school would mean that students studying an A2 language would be able to, if they so wish, choose one additional lesson from the other optional subjects available in both grade 8 and grade 9.
Additionally, every student takes optional studies in the artistic and practical subjects, which may include music, visual arts, crafts, physical education and home economics. These subjects are taught in accordance with the national core curriculum. If the student chooses to study an A2 language it does not affect the number of optional lessons in these artistic and practical subjects.
This proposal does not suggest changes to the number of lessons in the A2 language.
Local language options and the formation of groups
We want to ensure that students are offered a choice of several different A1 language options and that they can continue studying their chosen A1 language throughout their school path.
The may still be differences in the range of languages available at different schools. Not all languages are taught at every school.
The language teaching strategy proposes a minimum of 15 students for a new language group. If this condition is not met, efforts will be made to ensure that students’ language choices can be accommodated through joint groups organised with other schools in the area.
We want to encourage a diverse range of A1 language choices among students.
We will support this diversity in through the following measures and arrangements:
- On the basis of their A1 language choice, students are entitled to attend another suitable school designated by the municipality.
- When students choose a language other than English as their A1, A2 English groups can be formed even when the group sizes are smaller.
- In areas receiving needs-based funding, the size of a new language study group may be smaller than 15 students. This matter will be decided on separately.
The language teaching strategy does not specify matters such as how the teaching of less commonly chosen languages is organised in joint groups between schools. The teaching arrangements will be planned once the sub-committees have decided on the proposed measures. Different practices and options for collaboration will be planned with schools in a student-centred manner and by taking into account the varying circumstances and needs of different areas. The practices may vary between areas.
Admission into bilingual Finnish–English and Finnish–Spanish education
Previously, grade 1 students were selected solely on the basis of an entrance exam. To provide more children with an opportunity to access bilingual education, we carried out a two-year pilot in which places were allocated randomly.
We identified some issues with the random selection method, so we want to further develop the selection process. It is important that the groups are filled and the students have the necessary capabilities to attend bilingual education.
According to the proposal, an entrance examination would be introduced as part of the selection process. The proposal only concerns Finnish–English and Finnish–Spanish education. The entrance examination would test the applicant’s proficiency in either Finnish or English/Spanish. In cases where there are more applicants who have passed the exam than there are places available, the places would be allocated randomly.
An entrance examination would not be used in the following cases of student selection for bilingual education: Nordic Comprehensive School (Finnish–Swedish), Finnish–North Sámi, Finnish–Russian, Finnish–Chinese and Finnish–Estonian.
In bilingual education, students’ skills are tested in either Finnish or the target language, i.e. English or Spanish. The parent or guardian decides whether skills in Finnish or the target language are to be tested.
Recording of the 17 September Teams info session (in Finnish)
Video: Tuomas Hakkarainen