12 Secondary education

On the lower secondary level, pupils who have a Saami language as their main language get 284 hours of teaching. Pupils who  follow the Saami 2 or Saami 3 pathway get 228 hours of Saami lessons during their three years of lower secondary education. On the upper secondary education, all of these groups get 309 hours of teaching in their chosen Saami language. 

In addition, upper secondary education also may offer Sami 4 courses. This one named Saami 4 is for pupils on the upper secondary level who have not learnt Saami earlier. These pupils get 309 hours of Saami lessons during their three upper secondary education years. Alternatively one may choose to learn Saami as a foreign language, but the former variant gives opportunities for deeper knowledge and higher formal competence in Saami language.