Response to interpellations 2023/24:483 and 504 on mother tongue instruction
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the role of mother tongue instruction for integration and knowledge development 1 2. L argues that the investigation aims to examine how mother tongue instruction can improve study results, help students develop identity, and support newcomers 3 4. L also emphasizes that national minority languages have a special status 4. S argues that mother tongue instruction is important for identity and language development 5. S claims that it is a prioritized integration policy measure that helps students learn other languages faster 6 7. S argues that the government has a hidden purpose to improve the students' Swedish through the mother tongue instruction 5 and expresses concern that the right to mother tongue instruction will be abolished 8. S believes that SD wants to phase out mother tongue instruction through signal politics 9.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Mr. Speaker! Linus Sköld has asked me if it is my intention to act to change the purpose of mother tongue instruction. Linus Sköld has also asked me how, in that case, I intend to design the amendment directives for the investigation on the introduction of basic Swedish and the review of mother tongue instruction.
Mirja Räihä has asked me if I intend to ensure the right to mother tongue instruction going forward.
The government appointed the inquiry on the introduction of basic Swedish and the review of mother tongue instruction in December 2023. The inquiry's mandate is to ensure that mother tongue instruction does not negatively affect integration or the students' knowledge development in the Swedish language (dir. 2023:175). The inquiry's mandate is also to review the subject Swedish as a second language in order for the subject to better meet the needs of both students who lack basic knowledge in the Swedish language and students who have progressed further in their second language development. By December 6, 2024, at the latest, the inquiry shall report on its mandate.
The commission's mandate is not about the existence or non-existence of mother tongue instruction. What is to be investigated, according to the directives, is whether and, if so, how participation in mother tongue instruction affects students' integration, study results, and knowledge development in the Swedish language at different stages and school forms. The investigator shall also report on international experiences of how education in the mother tongue can be organized. Furthermore, the investigator shall, if necessary, propose measures to ensure that mother tongue instruction does not negatively affect students' integration or knowledge development in the Swedish language.
Linus Sköld asks a question regarding the purpose of mother tongue instruction. The purpose of the subject mother tongue is described in the curriculum for each school level. The Government does not intend to make changes to the curricula or any other regulations concerning mother tongue instruction, but we are awaiting the inquiry's report in due course. In this context, I would like to mention that there is another inquiry underway which has been tasked with reviewing the curricula so that instruction is based on curricula that are clearly knowledge-oriented.
I look forward to taking part in the proposals from both this investigation and the investigation on the introduction of basic Swedish and the review of mother tongue instruction.
Linus Sköld (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the opportunity to once again debate mother tongue education, which is important for students who have a mother tongue other than Swedish. It is about the possibility of maintaining one's self-image, one's own identity and contact with family and friends, and developing in one's mother tongue.
It is also about the possibility of creating a larger vocabulary in the mother tongue that must be used to acquire one's second language and about supporting the student's entire language development in that way. It is an incredibly important activity which, according to the guidelines, aims for students to develop knowledge in and about their mother tongue.
Now the government has appointed an inquiry entirely in accordance with the Tidö Agreement which shall instead analyze whether mother tongue instruction negatively affects students' integration, study results, and knowledge development in the Swedish language.
If one is serious about the aim of mother tongue instruction being to strengthen integration, academic results, and knowledge development in the Swedish language, a reasonable consequence of that position should be that the aim in the curriculum is rewritten. Otherwise, one has a hidden purpose regarding what the mother tongue instruction is intended to lead to.
The purpose that exists states that mother tongue instruction shall lead to the students becoming better at their mother tongue. The purpose that the government seems to have with mother tongue instruction is that it shall lead to the students becoming better at the Swedish language. In that case, one needs to give mother tongue instruction that purpose in the regulations.
On March 14 last year, I stood in the chamber with Lotta Edholm and debated mother tongue instruction. At that time, Lotta Edholm said as follows: "There are many questions in the discussion that I cannot answer. This is because the inquiry has not even been appointed and has not yet received any directives. Linus Sköld is naturally well aware that as a minister, one cannot answer questions where we have not even reached conclusions on what the directives to the inquiry should look like. I therefore request to be able to return – naturally first when the directives have been written and then when the unbiased inquiry has been appointed."
In her closing remarks, Lotta Edholm correctly assumed that we would return to this important discussion. She even guessed it, and so rightly she guessed. Here we stand now, almost a year later, returning to the questions I posed in that interpellation debate.
The questions I asked then were: "Does the minister mean that mother tongue instruction today counteracts integration? Does the minister mean that mother tongue instruction today has a negative impact on students' knowledge development in the Swedish language? Yes or no?"
I repeated the two questions in each of my posts in the previous interpellation debate. As we heard in the quote I gave of the minister's answer just now, I received no answers to those questions.
The investigation has been appointed and the directives decided. Now I expect Lotta Edholm to be able to answer whether she thinks that mother tongue instruction today has a negative impact on students' knowledge development in the Swedish language.
Mirja Räihä (S)
Mr. Speaker! In the Tidö Agreement - which we all know is the agreement between Sverigedemokraterna, Moderaterna, Kristdemokraterna and Liberalerna - it is stated that an inquiry shall be appointed with the task of reviewing mother tongue instruction in order that it shall not negatively affect integration or the students' knowledge development in the Swedish language.
From the legislation that came in 2009, it appears that those who have a mother tongue other than Swedish shall be given the opportunity to develop and use this language and that it is an obligation that the individual is given this opportunity. There are provisions regarding students' right to mother tongue instruction in primary school and corresponding school forms as well as in upper secondary school and adapted upper secondary school in the Education Act, the School Ordinance and the Upper Secondary School Ordinance.
There is also a special responsibility to protect and promote the national minority languages Finnish, Yiddish, Meänkieli, Romani Chib, and Sami, and a student who belongs to one of the national minorities shall also, according to the Education Act, be offered mother tongue instruction in the student's national minority language.
Mr. Speaker! As recently as August 2022, just before the election, I participated in a debate on mother tongue education at the Finland Institute here in Stockholm. At that time, part of the current government base was very clear in its intention to abolish mother tongue education for all language groups other than the national minorities. However, it is considered in all research to date, both in Sweden and internationally, that mother tongue education is important for children so that they can develop their language and themselves.
A report was also presented which was deeply critical of how much or how little students received instruction in their mother tongue. One hour a week was by far too little. In the report, it was stated that three hours per week could be the amount of lesson hours that can be used.
Mother tongue instruction gives students the opportunity to develop knowledge in and about their own language. It is a platform for strengthening language skills and understanding. By learning their mother tongue, students can better understand their cultural identity and feel more grounded. This naturally contributes to their personal development.
The mother tongue is a basis for understanding and expressing complex thoughts and feelings. It also provides a deeper understanding of the world and different perspectives, including in Swedish and other languages.
What is now of utmost importance is how the Minister will proceed with the issue of mother tongue instruction in schools and ensure it. The investigation's directives largely refer to newly arrived children and their opportunity for integration and knowledge in the Swedish language, but it is difficult to find anything in the directives that could develop the instruction for children who need to strengthen their mother tongue.
Mr. Speaker! The answer undeniably gives rise to several questions. How will the Minister work to develop the education for all children who are in need of mother tongue instruction? How will children who are already integrated into Sweden and have full knowledge of Swedish also receive good instruction in their mother tongue in order to be able to preserve the language and the culture? These are further questions that were raised by the answer I received from the Minister.
Kadir Kasirga (S)
Mr. Speaker! Initially, I would like to thank Members of Parliament Mirja Räihä and Linus Sköld for raising the issue of the right to mother tongue instruction. I would also like to thank the Minister for Education for the answer.
In recent days, specifically on February 21, International Mother Language Day was celebrated—a day established by Unesco in 1999 to highlight the promotion of the mother tongue. To mark this day, some Kurdish mother tongue teachers had organized an event at ABF Stockholm aimed at students and their parents. In the speeches given by the students and the mother tongue teachers, great gratitude was expressed to Sweden for the opportunity to learn their mother tongue.
At this event, I had the opportunity to speak with many mother-tongue teachers, parents, and students who expressed great concern that the government was about to abolish the right to mother-tongue instruction. There is great concern over what the government's chosen path will lead to. Thousands of people across the country are worried that the government will abolish the right to mother-tongue instruction to satisfy the Sverigedemokraterna. In that case, School Minister Lotta Edholm will be obliged to provide a clear answer to calm the anxiety of the children, teachers, and parents.
Mr. Speaker! The American feminist and author Rita Mae Brown once said: "Language is like a map of culture. It tells us where people come from and where they are headed."
If a person can speak several languages, it should reasonably be seen as an advantage for the individual and an asset for society, not as a burden. Unfortunately, there is currently a political party in the Swedish Riksdag, which is also a basis for the current government, that thinks this is a burden. A large part of the timetable in primary school is already devoted to language studies, yet the extra hour of 60 minutes in mother tongue instruction is seen as a stolen hour that both counteracts language development in Swedish and places the child in exclusion.
This is problematic. It is a strange view because there is extensive research showing that mother tongue instruction is good for language development. This also applies to non-European languages.
The mother tongue is the foundation for all other learning. This means that students who are allowed to develop their mother tongue are also given better conditions to learn Swedish, as well as to acquire knowledge in all other subjects. The answer to this is given in the government investigation of mother tongue instruction conducted in 2019.
Mr. Speaker! In view of this, of the debate and of the answer from the Minister for Education, I would like to ask the question: Can Minister for Education Lotta Edholm promise that the government does not have as a starting point to either reduce or worsen mother tongue instruction in Sweden?
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Mr. Speaker! The investigation is not about removing a subject. It is about analyzing and seeing whether the mother tongue instruction that we have in Sweden today – which is unique – affects the children's and students' integration, their study results, and their knowledge of the Swedish language. That is what is part of the investigation.
Another part of the investigation concerns how we can achieve a specific curriculum in the Swedish language for students who are newly arrived. Today, they have the same curriculum as other students, which leads to major problems for these students. The investigation therefore has two different parts.
I also want to point out that when it comes to the national minority languages in Sweden, the right to learn these languages has even been strengthened over the past year. One should be able to learn a national minority language without having prior knowledge, which was previously required. In that regard, the government has actually strengthened the possibility.
The very purpose of the investigation is to analyze how mother tongue instruction in Sweden affects our students. I find it difficult to understand how one can think that it is upsetting, especially considering that the Swedish system for mother tongue instruction is relatively unique. There is very little research on what consequences it has and how this works in the context of the Swedish school system. I truly look forward to being able to take part in the investigation in due course.
Linus Sköld (S)
Mr. Speaker! Now I have asked these questions four times, and I am trying a fifth. Does the Minister mean that the mother tongue instruction today has a negative effect on students' knowledge development in the Swedish language? Does the Minister mean that the mother tongue instruction today counteracts integration?
I expect the Minister today – almost an entire year after she was asked the questions for the first time and said she would answer them when the investigation directives were decided – to provide an answer.
The Minister says it is difficult to understand that it should be upsetting that the investigation has been appointed. I shall explain how it relates and why it is upsetting. At its national meeting the year before the parliamentary election, the Liberals decided to regard mother tongue instruction as a prioritized measure in the party's own integration policy. So well the Liberals thought of mother tongue instruction then, and so important they thought it was.
Then the Liberals joined forces with the Sweden Democrats and wrote in the Tidö Agreement that the investigation shall be commissioned with directives to analyze how mother tongue instruction affects integration and knowledge development in the Swedish language.
After that, the Sweden Democrats submitted a committee motion here in the Riksdag which clarified how they viewed the agreement. They regarded it as a victory and as that mother tongue instruction would now be phased out, for that is the Sweden Democrats' political stance.
The only way I can understand this - and this is what is upsetting - is that the Sweden Democrats have forced Edholm to implement one of their signal-policy proposals. The Sweden Democrats' idea of reporting for public employees, the Sweden Democrats' idea of withdrawing the right to an interpreter in healthcare, and the Sweden Democrats' idea of phasing out mother-tongue instruction - all of this is the same type of signal policy. The signal they want to send is that residents who have a foreign background and who were not born in this country are not welcome here. It aims to clarify the Sweden Democrats' racist stance, and Lotta Edholm is helping them willingly to do this.
That is why it is upsetting that the investigation has been appointed. Now I am speaking plainly so that Lotta Edholm can take it in. I think that Lotta Edholm, as a representative of a party whose democratically made decisions on its own policy state that mother tongue instruction is a prioritized integration policy measure, should answer the question. Does she think that mother tongue instruction today counteracts integration and has a negative impact on students' knowledge development in the Swedish language?
Mirja Räihä (S)
Mr. Speaker! This matter of language is very interesting. When my now middle-aged sons were small, they looked at me and said: Mom, when we become adults, will we speak such strange Swedish as you do? That was the starting point my children had.
I also chose once upon a time to let my children go to a Swedish preschool. We spoke Finnish at home and could provide that language in a home environment, but it was very important with mother-tongue instruction when the boys finally started school.
I sometimes talk about Ville, my middle son, who decided to move to Thailand three years ago – an idiotic idea, but I couldn't exactly stop a 35-year-old from leaving the country. The first job he got in Bangkok was in the Finnish-speaking customer service at a company. Globally, a small mother tongue spoken by only 5 million people in the world can therefore be useful in adulthood in the first job abroad.
Mr. Speaker! 200 mother tongues are spoken in Sweden. Of course, Swedish is the largest - 8 million people have Swedish as their mother tongue - closely followed by Finnish and Arabic. Then we have very many small languages, and there one really needs to focus on ensuring that the children are given this instruction.
I did not really get an answer to the question of how this investigation will develop mother tongue instruction for precisely these children, who already have a well-developed Swedish and are very integrated. Okay, it is very good that it is said that prior knowledge in national minority languages will not be required to read these in school, but if I do not know a single word of Sami, Meänkieli, or Finnish, one hour of mother tongue instruction per week is quite ineffective. One will never be able to use that to develop the identity, the culture, and the language skills that, according to the law, one should be able to develop to strengthen oneself as a human being.
I would have liked an answer to that question, because I think the investigation is very focused on integration and on the fact that mother tongue instruction must not adversely affect the learning of Swedish. We have large groups of children in the Swedish school who are integrated and who need good mother tongue instruction, and they are not discussed anywhere.
I agree with Linus Sköld: It has been very clear during the past weeks that the Sweden Democrats wish for the investigation to end up removing the right to mother tongue instruction, while the Minister himself says in interviews: No, absolutely not, that wording is not in the Tidö Agreement!
Right now we need to trust the Minister. But I really hope that the Minister does not get completely overridden by the government base. We see an imminent risk of that.
Kadir Kasirga (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you for the answer, Minister for Education Lotta Edholm!
Let me make it clear that the Swedish language is, of course, our common language in this country. It is the key to integration, to succeeding in school, and to entering the labor market. It is Sweden's main language.
Sweden has been a unique country when it comes to the right to mother tongue education, a country that is praised by other countries and pointed out as a pioneer in having this extended right also for immigrant groups and not just national minorities.
It is of course pleasing that national minorities receive an enhanced right to mother tongue instruction, but this debate is not about the national minorities. It is about immigrant groups and about children and students who speak a language other than Swedish at home. There is plenty of scientific research showing that being able to speak one's home language leads to being able to learn other languages much faster.
Mr. Speaker! I would like to ask another question to the Minister for Education. Since the directive concerns whether mother tongue instruction contributes to integration or not, does the Minister for Education consider that instruction in the mother tongue weakens integration - yes or no?
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Mr. Speaker! The final question from Kadir Kasirga is exactly what the investigation shall look into, among other things.
The investigation's mandate is not about removing a subject. Mother tongue instruction gives students the opportunity to develop one of their languages but also to develop their identity, just as the interveners have pointed out. Much suggests that study results can be improved if one participates in good mother tongue instruction. We do, however, need to know more about the issue, precisely because Sweden has a different system for mother tongue instruction than most other comparable countries.
The reason I brought up the national minority languages was that they are mentioned in one of the interpellations. I believe that Mirja Räihä also raised the issue.
If one does not master a national minority language to the extent that one can speak it, then of course one hour a week is not much, but it is still better than nothing. It can lead to one developing an interest in language issues.
Furthermore, some of the minority languages are very small, for example the Sami languages. There may be only a few hundred people who speak them in Sweden today. Thus, this also becomes a way to save these languages from being erased, so to speak, that is to say if more young people become interested in learning something of the Sami languages. Through the changed legislation, this opportunity is given to a greater extent.
I also naturally understand that if one has never spoken the language at home, one hour a week is quite little. But it at least improves the chances for the languages to survive, and I think that can be a good thing.
Linus Sköld (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Lotta Edholm, for the opportunity to ask the questions for a sixth time! Does the Minister mean that mother tongue instruction today counteracts integration? Does the Minister mean that mother tongue instruction today has a negative impact on students' knowledge development in the Swedish language? Yes or no?
Lotta Edholm repeatedly says in the debate that the investigation she has commissioned is not intended to abolish a school subject. It is not about the existence or non-existence of mother tongue instruction, she says. For the Sverigedemokraterna, however, it is. The Swedish constitution stipulates that the government governs the realm, and the Tidö Agreement stipulates that the Sverigedemokraterna govern the government.
I think, therefore, that our questions need to be taken seriously. What does Lotta Edholm envision will happen after the investigation is complete? Will she manage to wrestle down the Sweden Democrats, who are convinced that the investigation will lead to the phasing out of mother tongue instruction? Or will she yield to the Sweden Democrat racism?
Mirja Räihä (S)
Mr. Speaker! Given my background, it is perhaps natural that I always have a certain interest in minority languages. But one could perhaps make a comparison here. The Minister says that it is only a few hundred who speak some Sami languages. So it could also be the case regarding some of the 200 mother tongue groups. In that case, there obviously needs to be a plan for it.
It is in the small languages that language death occurs. If we focus on Sami, we see in the latest report that two of the five Sami languages are dying out completely. There are no students at all in the mother tongue instruction. One of them is Ume Sami. This was clear in the latest report from the Sami Language Centre. I believe that the other Sami language that is dying out is Pite Sami. Then we have three Sami languages left.
Of course, an hour of instruction in a minority language per week can be better than nothing. But it does not lead to a child learning a language. And I hardly believe that a child who has a right to mother tongue instruction to learn a language and receives instruction for one hour a week at all, would be interested in staying after school to attend it.
It will be interesting to see what the investigation will show. Furthermore, the result will be released on Finland's national day. It will be extremely exciting.
I really hope that the Minister does not let himself be wrestled down by the Sweden Democrats in this issue. We have, in fact, exact knowledge of what the party wants regarding mother tongue instruction in all other languages than the national minority languages. I am a little afraid of what will come after the investigation is complete.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Mr. Speaker! I would like to thank you for this interpellation debate.
Linus Sköld has asked the same question time and again, and I have time and again tried to give the same answer: that it is exactly this that the investigation shall look into. We will receive the results of the investigation and see what conclusions we should draw from them.
I represent the government, and the investigation directives that are presented are presented by the government collectively and not by individual parties.
I want to state once again that mother tongue instruction actually gives students opportunities to develop their own language and their own culture. But it also hopefully gives better and greater opportunities to learn the Swedish language. Today we have not talked at all about study guidance. But an important part of this, especially for newcomers, is that one can receive help to develop knowledge even in other subjects in one's mother tongue.
The national minority languages have a special status in Sweden. I believe it should remain so. The national minorities have rights that go beyond the rights for other groups who have languages other than Swedish as their mother tongue. I also think it should remain so.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.