Education of language and cultural groups
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).
Own mother tongue 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 mother tongue groups academic year 2023-2024
There are own mother tongue groups for example in the following languages: Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Bosnia/Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, Chinese, English, Spanish, Farsi/Dari, Filipino, German, Greek, Hindi, Igbo, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Joruba, Kannada, Kurdish, Lithuanian, Malayalam, Nepalese, Pashto, Portuguese, Polish, French, Romanian, Somali, Swahili, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Czech, Turkish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Urdu, Russian, Vietnamese and Estonian.
The city of Espoo arranges instruction in the following religion and ethics subjects:
- Evangelical-Lutheral religion
- Orthodox religion
- ethics studies
- Islam
- Catholic religion
- Krishna religion
- Jewish religion
- Buddhism
Each religion and ethic subject have been prepared a municipal curriculum. Instruction is carried out according to the goals and contents of the curriculum.
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, English, Hindi, Chinese, Thai, Ukrainian and Russian.
Cultural instructors' information point at Entresse Library
Our cultural instructors offer advisory services in their own language at the Entresse Library between 11 December 2023 and 13 June 2024 as follows:
On Mondays, 15:00–16:30, Arabic, Hindi/English, Russian
On Wednesdays, 15:00–16:30, Albanian, Somali, Ukrainian/Russian
On Thursdays, 15:00–16:30, Arabic, Dari/Farsi/Kurdish, Chinese, Thai/Lao
At the information point, cultural instructors help clients with various matters, such as service counselling, filling in school documents and forms, finding hobbies, Wilma user instructions and cooperation with the school.
Address:
Entresse Library
Siltakatu 11, 3rd floor
02770 Espoo
Cultural instructors in Espoo’s Finnish-speaking basic education:
Abla El Ouahabi (Arabic)
Tel. +358 43 8273378
abla2.elouahabi@espoo.fi
Yehya Alhajji (Arabic)
Tel. +358 40 6343631
yehya.elhajji@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
Nonglak Yingsuksantisuk (Thai)
Tel. +358 40 6343657
nonglak.yingsuksantisuk@espoo.fi
Viktoria Nyrhinen (Russian)
Tel. +358 40 6344246
viktoria.nyrhinen@espoo.fi
Shqipe Muharremi (Albanian)
Tel. +358 40 6343685
shqipe.muharremi@espoo.fi
Hui Tian-Hänninen (Chinese)
Tel. +358 40 6343658
hui.tianhanninen@espoo.fi
Yuliia Korniushyna (Ukrainian)
Tel. +358 40 6342980
yuliia.korniushyna@espoo.fi
Vineet Malhotra (Hindi and English)
Tel. +358 40 6344172
vineet.malhotra@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
- Download file: Foreword in Finnish and English, inaccessible.docx.Foreword in Finnish and English, inaccessible.docx
- Download file: The book in Albanian, inaccessible.The book in Albanian, inaccessible
- Download file: The book in Arabic, inaccessible.The book in Arabic, inaccessible
- Download file: The book in Bengali, inaccessible.The book in Bengali, inaccessible
- Download file: The book in Spanish, inaccessible.The book in Spanish, inaccessible
- Download file: The book in English, inaccessible.The book in English, inaccessible
- Download file: The book in Farsi and Dari, inaccessible.The book in Farsi and Dari, inaccessible
- Download file: The book in Hindi, inaccessible.The book in Hindi, inaccessible
- Download file: The book in Indonesian, inaccessible.The book in Indonesian, inaccessible
- Download file: The book in Lithuanian, inaccessible.The book in Lithuanian, inaccessible
- Download file: The book in Malayalam, inaccessible.The book in Malayalam, inaccessible
- Download file: The book in Mandarin Chinese, inaccessible.The book in Mandarin Chinese, inaccessible
- Download file: The book in Norwegian, inaccessible.The book in Norwegian, inaccessible
- Download file: The book in Portuguese, inaccessible.The book in Portuguese, inaccessible
- Download file: The book in Somali, inaccessible.The book in Somali, inaccessible
- Download file: The book in Thai, inaccessible.The book in Thai, inaccessible
- Download file: The book in Turkish, inaccessible.The book in Turkish, inaccessible
- Download file: The book in Urdu, inaccessible.The book in Urdu, inaccessible
- Download file: The book in Vietnamese, inaccessible.The book in Vietnamese, inaccessible
- Download file: The book in Estonian, inaccessible.The book in Estonian, inaccessible
- Download file: Literature nutrition circle (multilingual), inaccessible.Literature nutrition circle (multilingual), inaccessible
- Download file: Literature nutrition circle (three languages), inaccessible.Literature nutrition circle (three languages), inaccessible
- Download file: The book in Bulgarian inaccessible.The book in Bulgarian inaccessible
- Download file: The book in Tagalog inaccessible.The book in Tagalog inaccessible
More information
Own mother tongue instruction
omanaidinkielenilmoittautuminen(at)espoo.fiIlham Hamdouni
Coordinator+358 46 8773293ilham.hamdouni(at)espoo.fiPupil admission to preparatory education for basic education and guidance
Päivi Kakko
Planner+358 43 8273103paivi.kakko(at)espoo.fiAdvice on preparatory education for basic education for immigrants, group-based fixed-term education for immigrants and linguistically aware education.
Sheena Kopsala
Planner+358 40 6365483sheena.kopsala(at)espoo.fiCoordination for pupils' own mother tongue instruction