Pupils’ Swedish Skills Crumbling
Image: YLE
A fresh study by the National Board of Education suggests that pupils’ Swedish-language skills have significantly deteriorated in the past six years.
Researchers say students’ reading and listening comprehension results have fallen several percentage points. The Board of Education examined ninth graders' Swedish skills and attitudes towards learning the language between 2001 and 2008.
Researchers gave students' Swedish skills an average grade of seven on the Finnish school grading scale, which spans from four (fail) to ten (excellent).
Boys seem to be more critical of their Swedish lessons than girls, and many boys questioned whether learning the language would pay off. High school-bound girls meanwhile were the most optimistic about learning Swedish. Their enthusiasm also translated into better test results.
Swedish is the mother tongue of some six percent of the population.
YLE