More than half, or 27 out of the 48 teachers surveyed by Yle said they need more support in teaching Finnish as a second language, commonly referred to as S2.
The majority of educators said they needed more S2 teaching material, while many also reported struggling with a lack in training and support.
"More training in S2 teaching, as I personally have never received any training on the matter nor do pedagogy studies include such content. Also, more specialised and accessible S2 teaching materials are needed, especially in digital form. Schools have little funds for providing learning material, and thus free material is crucial," a teacher from Helsinki said.
Echoing this sentiment, Marko Jokinen, chair of the Association of Classroom Teachers, told Yle that 'ready-made' material for S2 teaching is scarce, and teachers often have to come up with it themselves.
"One would hope that education providers would know how to do this properly and to a high standard. Teachers are left to cope with these matters on their own. We teachers often have the feeling that new situations get simply loaded onto our backs," he said.
In Yle's straw poll, 42 out of 48 teachers said they did not have enough opportunities or resources to support students of different language levels.
"We don't have enough resources to support all kinds of learners, and the poll's findings reveal that our hands are tied; we don't have enough time," Jokinen added.
More support for all kinds of teachers
In recent years, the national core curriculum has required teachers to cultivate language and culture-aware teaching practices.
This has not however been achieved sufficiently in practice, according to the findings of University of Turku PhD student Elisa Repo.
Repo's study found that teachers' skills in supporting linguistic diversity were not at the level required by the curriculum, mainly because the system has failed to keep training educators in a timely, relevant manner.
Improving personalised learning is also key, according to Repo, who noted that for example, many students who are fluent in spoken Finnish may still struggle with the written form, and be assessed unfairly harshly as a result.
She argues that support should be provided to all kinds of teachers, not only linguists.
"Supporting diversity should not just be a matter for Finnish language teachers, it is up to the whole school community and the education system to be involved," Repo said.
'Time is running out'
Both Jokinen and Repo called for urgent action to support Finnish language learning.
"We don't have time to wonder and see whether something can be done during the next parliamentary term. These kids will have outgrown the situation by then," Jokinen said.
"If our education system is based on the values of equality, then in the near future we will have to decide how to support language learning in such a way that everyone has an equal chance to succeed," Repo added.