Finland breaks new ground with English-language upper secondary curriculum
A law change introduced last year means upper secondary school students can now take classes and sit the end-of-school matriculation exams in English.
On Thursday, Finland's first students embarked on an English-language upper secondary school curriculum across six cities, including Vantaa, Helsinki, Tampere, Jyväskylä, Oulu, and Pori. This change, spurred by a law passed last year, permits students to study and sit matriculation exams in English. The aim is to attract foreign skilled workers with families and encourage Finnish expats with children to return to the country.
The inaugural class will sit their English matriculation exams in 2028. The program commenced at Aviapolis upper secondary school in Vantaa, where 17-year-old Aakash Gamage, who recently moved from Sri Lanka, expressed relief at the prospect of studying in English. He aims to improve his grades by avoiding the language barrier. Eoghan Donnelly, a 24-year-old from Ireland, hopes this option will allow him to pursue history, philosophy, or engineering at a Finnish university.
However, teachers are grappling with a lack of English-language study materials to match the Finnish curriculum.
Written by urgent.news from Yle News Finland's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
