Education of language and cultural groups
Own native language instruction is a supplementary and non-compulsory teaching to basic education and intended for pupils living in Espoo with an immigrant background.
Pupils with an immigration background means:
- pupils who moved from abroad
- second-generation pupils with an immigrant background
- third-generation pupils with an immigrant background
Own native language groups
We have native language groups, for example, in the following languages: Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian, Bulgarian, Czech, Dutch, English, Estonian, Farsi/Dari, Filipino, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Hungarian, Igbo, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Kurdish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malayalam, Mandarin Chinese, Nepali, Norwegian, Pashto, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tigrinya, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese and Yoruba.
Espoo provides instruction in the following religious and worldview subjects:
- Evangelical Lutheran religion
- Orthodox religion
- Ethics
- Islam
- Catholic religion
- Krishna religion
- Judaism
- Buddhism.
Each religious and worldview subject has its own curriculum. Instruction in these subjects is carried out in Finnish (with the exception of the English-language instruction provided at Kivimiehen koulu and Espoo International School) in accordance with the curriculum. Lessons do not involve practising the religion and are not faith-based. The instruction also covers other religions and worldviews besides the chosen subject.
Religious or worldview studies are included in the basic education curriculum for all pupils.
Read more: Religion and ethic studies in basic education | City of Espoo
Cultural instructors act as links between schools and immigrant families and support cooperation and intercultural understanding. Their activities include service counselling, consultation and providing emotional support. They can, for example, help at meetings between school staff and guardians or assist with other support measures, such as assessment meetings, enrolment in school, absence intervention measures and many other situations. Cultural instructors are under an obligation of confidentiality.
Cultural instructors do preventive work, in line with the principles of early intervention. Cultural instruction is a free-of-charge service for authorities and clients. Schools can contact the instructors directly.
In addition to Finnish, the cultural instructors’ languages include Albanian, Arabic, Persian (Dari/Farsi), Kurdish/Sorani, Chinese, Somali.
Cultural instructors in Espoo’s Finnish-speaking basic education:
Abla El Ouahabi (Arabic)
Tel. +358 43 8273378
abla2.elouahabi@espoo.fi
Maryam Al-Qased (Arabic)
tel. +358 40 6366330
maryam2.al-qased@espoo.fi
Hajrije Hasa (Albania)
tel. +358 40 6343809
hajrije.hasa@espoo.fi
Manuchehr Salimi (Persian [Dari/Farsi] and Kurdish/Sorani)
Tel. +358 43 8253846
manuchehr.salimi@espoo.fi
Abdulkadir Abshir (Somali)
Tel. +358 46 8773292
abdulkadir.abshir@espoo.fi
Hui Tian-Hänninen (Chinese)
Tel. +358 40 6343658
hui.tian-hanninen@espoo.fi
Materials
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.
Downloadable files
- Foreword in Finnish and English, inaccessible.docx
- The book in Albanian, inaccessible
- The book in Arabic, inaccessible
- The book in Bengali, inaccessible
- The book in Spanish, inaccessible
- The book in English, inaccessible
- The book in Farsi and Dari, inaccessible
- The book in Hindi, inaccessible
- The book in Indonesian, inaccessible
- The book in Lithuanian, inaccessible
- The book in Malayalam, inaccessible
- The book in Mandarin Chinese, inaccessible
- The book in Norwegian, inaccessible
- The book in Portuguese, inaccessible
- The book in Somali, inaccessible
- The book in Thai, inaccessible
- The book in Turkish, inaccessible
- The book in Urdu, inaccessible
- The book in Vietnamese, inaccessible
- The book in Estonian, inaccessible
- Literature nutrition circle (multilingual), inaccessible
- Literature nutrition circle (three languages), inaccessible
- The book in Bulgarian inaccessible
- The book in Tagalog inaccessible
More information
Own mother tongue instruction
oak(at)espoo.fiPreparatory education
valmistava(at)espoo.fiMulticultural Education Services
Application for preparatory education
In Espoo, pupils belonging to foreign language and cultural groups are arranged preparatory education, Finnish as a second language education, pupil's own mother tongue education and intensified support after preparatory education (MMO support).