Own mother tongue instruction

Groups for native language lessons have been formed e.g. in the following languages: Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Bosnia/Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, Czech, Dutch, English, Estonian, Farsi/Dari, Filipino, French, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Greek, Kurdish, Kurmandji, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malayalam, Mandarin Chinese, Nepalese, Norwegian, Pashto, Portuguese, Polish, Romanian, Russian, German, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Tamil, Thai, Tigrinja, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu and Vietnamese.

A pupil can participate in the teaching of only one native language.

Requisites for admission to the teaching of one's native language are:

•  the pupil's and/or their guardian's native language is other than Finnish or Swedish; and
• the pupil and/or the pupil's guardian have an immigration background related to language and culture (pupils who have moved from abroad, pupils with a second or third generation immigration background)

A native language lesson group is established when the minimum number of applicants determined by the city is required. Native language lessons are voluntary for pupils, but once lessons are started, pupils must participate regularly to the lessons. The class is free of charge and provided once a week, two teaching hours (90 minutes). The class can be in another school other than the child’s own school.  Attending native language lessons doesn’t entitle the pupil for transportation support from the city. The guardian is responsible for arranging transportation to/from the lessons and its possible cost.

• grades 1–6 (or 1–2 and 3–6)
• grades 7–9
• upper secondary school pupils.

The school must inform pupils/guardians of the possibility of studying their mother tongue. Instructions can be found on the registration form. 

• Grades 1–2: from 13 to 15
• Grades 1–6: from 14.30 to 17
• Grades 7–9 and part of grades 1–6: from 16 to 18.30

The application period to own mother tongue instruction is from 1 January to 30 April 2023 in Wilma.  If you are unable to use the Wilma service, you can find the form on page Forms and applications. Applications received later will not be accepted.

Only pupils who have moved to Espoo in the middle of the school year can apply to own mother tongue instructions after the application period. 

The application is valid for the pupil's whole basic education period. Parents can cancel the pupil's participation anytime thru the cancellation form that can be found in Wilma (in Applications and Decisions). If the pupil interrupts or cancels their participation, they must apply again during the application period.

The materials not only encourage enriched moments between guardians and pupils while reading and enjoying the text together, but also could be used by the teacher as part of classes or homework. For those children who do not yet read independently, their guardians can read for them and initiate the activities.

With these books, our goal is to provide an encouraging and fun way to improve mother tongue language skills of our enthusiastic readers. 

The packages don’t meet the Finnish or English accessibility criteria, and based on this they need to have the marking inaccessible. Nevertheless, they are fully usable for children and parents alike.