More comprehensive school students study English

Studying English grew in grades 1 to 6 of the comprehensive schools in 2019, according to Statistics Finland.

Eighty-three per cent of students in grades 1 to 6 studied English. The number of students

Studying English in those grades in 2019 increased by nine percentage points from that in 2018.

Eighteen per cent of students in grades 1 to 6 and 93 per cent of students in grades 7 to 9 studied Swedish as a foreign language.

Nearly all pupils attending grades 7 to 9 studied both English and Swedish or Finnish either as mother tongue, or as a compulsory, optional or elective foreign language.

German was studied by nine per cent and French by five per cent of the pupils attending grades 7 to 9, mainly as an optional or elective foreign language.

Last year, almost all students in grades 7 to 9 studied English. A total of 371,102 students attended grades 1 to 6, of whom 189,974 were boys and 181,128 girls. Grades 7 to 9 had a total of 183,063 students, of whom 93,684 were boys and 89,379 girls.

According to the updated curriculum for basic education, all students in the first grade have started studying their first foreign language or a second national language from 2020–the spring at the latest.