Mandatory Swedish

The party also demands that Finnish taxpayers' money be used to pay for a campaign in Sweden, Norway and Denmark to attract people to study in Swedish-speaking educational institutions in Finland.

In Finland, the study of Swedish has always been compulsory in high school (however, no longer since 2004 in the matriculation records), in the 1970s it became compulsory in primary school at the request of the Swedish People's Party (RKP, SFP) and Johannes Virolainen and later, at the request of the said party, the requirement was extended to almost all other educational institutions in Finland.

[9] It is currently possible for Finnish citizens to report a different mother tongue for themselves as many times as desired by submitting a form to the Population Register Center.

The Swedish Matriculation Examination was made voluntary in 2004, although all university graduates must demonstrate that their skills in the other official language meet the standard required of all academically educated public servants.

The area that today is Finland was an integral part of Sweden proper from the Middle Ages to the end of the Finnish War in 1809.

Although a Governor-General was installed by the Russians as the highest authority within the Grand Duchy, much of the political system remained the same: Finland was allowed to keep its ”laws, religion and language” from the Swedish time.

As a reaction, the Svecoman movement began and grew in strength, representing fears that abandoning Swedish would lead to slavicisation or worse.

However, during the 1860s, under Tsar Alexander II, legal equality between Finnish and Swedish as languages of administration gradually began to be introduced.

Since the end of the 19th century, administrative services have been offered in both domestic languages; therefore, employees are proficient in both Finnish and Swedish.

It also sought to improve social mobility by ensuring that a decision on language in the early school years would not become an obstacle for applicants to the civil service.

Between 1990 and 2003, Taloustutkimus Oy conducted more than ten surveys for Suomalaisuuden liitto, an organization opposing mandatory Swedish.

[19] A study conducted in 1997 by Folktinget, an official consultative organization representing Finland's Swedish-speakers, concluded that 70% of the Finnish-speaking population considered "Swedish a vital and important part of Finnish society."

[15] A study conducted by Åbo Akademi in 2014 indicated that 74 percent of Finnish speaking respondents agreed with the statement "The teaching of the Swedish language should be voluntary".

Supporters argue that knowledge of Swedish gives Finnish citizens access to the culture and labour market of Scandinavia, a region four times the size of Finland.

[22] Lastly, they argue mandatory Swedish is necessary to ensure that Swedish-speakers can interact with governmental institutions and get service, such as health care, in their own mother tongue.

The experiment of making the Swedish test voluntary in the matriculation examination (the completion of which is a de facto requirement for university enrollment) was declared successful and has been made permanent.

Moreover, the rationale of mandatory tuition in Swedish and other subjects is to give the students a more general knowledge base, and not to train them for a specific field.

University students are required to not only master their selected field, but also to study at least two languages beside their mother tongue, one of which is obligatorily Swedish for Finnish-speakers.

There have been numerous petitions and other similar campaigns arranged by some small but dedicated organizations to pressure lawmakers into abolishing mandatory Swedish; however, to date, they have had no significant impact on the established policy.

Thus, while the ongoing debate is often heated and passionate, the support for mandatory Swedish tuition remains strong enough among politicians for the government not to consider a change of policy.

[27] According to Hufvudstadsbladet, the Confederation has subsequently changed their stance and no longer favors making Swedish voluntary, while maintaining the need for learning other languages.

[28] In the 2000s, the government dropped the requirement to take Swedish (or Finnish in the case of the Swedish-speaking minority) as part of the high school matriculation examination.

In 2014, a citizens' initiative demanding an end to mandatory Swedish teaching on all levels of education was brought to the Finnish Parliament.