We want to see a Finland where everyone can carry out their daily lives in our two national languages: Swedish and Finnish. SFP is the best champion of a dynamic, bilingual Finland. Our bilingualism must be fostered, ensuring it also works in practice.
To ensure that the availability of services in both languages is secure in the future, we want to revise official language skill requirements, so that Swedish speakers are also able to hold public sector jobs without complete fluency in Finnish.
SFP has overseen the formulation of a new Strategy for the National Languages of Finland during the ongoing parliamentary term. Now we want to see its measures put into practice.
Various types of language supplements should be more widely applied to encourage and incentivise employees to use their second national language.
We want language teaching in schools to start at an earlier stage, and to ensure that enough lessons are dedicated to it. We also want to increase investments in language immersion, language showering and other tried and tested language learning methods. We must train more language immersion teachers to satisfy the current demand for immersion and showering among families with children.
WE WANT
- to see the measures listed in the new national language strategy being put into practice
- to have reciprocal and customised language competence requirements implemented in the government
- language supplements to be used and to be sufficiently incentivising
the National Certificate of Language Proficiency tests in Finnish and Swedish at the highest level to be free of charge - to continue working towards Swedish-language solutions concerning education, culture, non-government organisations, massmedia and the Church
- to secure public services in both the national languages and for special-needs groups. We want to see more Swedish-language and Nordic TV programmes on YLE, as well as more subtitled programmes.
- to maintain and strengthen Finland-Swedish Sign Language
- language impact assessments to be made at an early stage of legislation and other plans
- that everyone can rely on being properly served in Swedish by Finland’s courts of law, the National Enforcement Authority, the police and the other authorities
- to have enough police officers, emergency centre operators and other personnel being trained in Swedish
