Education in Sweden

By Aida Badouli

When we think of Sweden, we might remember a personality such as Greta Thunberg which illustrates an ideal of youth, responsible and involved. But if we ask ourselves what could be the origin of a youth so mature and confident, we cannot ignore that education in Sweden participated in building personalities and balance. We generally hear about the quality of life and education in Sweden, but we don’t know exactly what is so specific about it. You have to know that Sweden is like a laboratory, and generally they are advanced in many things but especially in teaching and pedagogy. Recently they just reformed their education system in order to redesign the use of information and communications technology (ICT) inside the school.

Even though education in Sweden has a long history, it’s especially the recent decision that shaped the actual educational system. In 1967 they created the Swedish model of education, which had the goal to create Class-free society and erase social differences. It exists in Swedish culture, a desire to accommodate the needs of every student, but there is also a tradition of homeschooling students that was sometimes criticized. In the 90’s the Swedish government invested 1.2 billion kronas [$170 million] in developing the hardware and infrastructure so that every school would have broadband and Internet connections. In the early 2000’s the task was completed and schools were given the responsibility to develop and implement ICT. In 2011, the Swedish Education Act was reformed, focusing on student and teacher health, and also for autonomy and freedom.

Despite these efforts, the Sweden Kingdom, a country of 10 million inhabitants, is in the middle of crisis; they obtained a score in the 2021 Pirls Report of 544. Even if those scores are above the European average (528), Spain (522) and Catalonia (507), it is still an important matter since the scores have dropped 11 points compared to the 2016 report.

In order to face this problem, the new Minister of Education, Lotta Edholm, ordered to postpoint the strategy of the National School Education Agency (Skolverket) in its digital plan (2022). At this point a debate started questioning the use of digital devices at school and in the learning process. It is at the same time that Barcelona decided to remove technological devices from classrooms.

Even if the minister does not deny children's digital competence learning, does not eliminate screens, she wants to emphasize paper. For her, the Pirls report (on reading comprehension) is a sign that Sweden has a reading crisis in Swedish schools and she decided to use more budget on textbooks than on ITC. Lotta Edholm argues that learning to read and understanding what we read is a prerequisite for global learning. In her opinion, Swedish schools need to go back to basics “reading, writing and arithmetic,"

So, in this perspective, the government decided to allocate 685 million kronas ($61 million) in 2023 and 500 million ($46 million) annually in 2024 and 2025, to accelerate the return of textbooks to schools.

This decision of Sweden got all over the news, around the world and in Europe, however Sweden’s education system is always ranked in the top 10 globally, there are also Swedish parents who were worried about this decision being made. We can ask ourselves if this new way of education is too quick after we experienced the Coronavirus crisis and the homeschool. ITC sometimes has good values for students, if it’s well used. In my opinion, we can’t forget the progress made due to the use of technologies in teaching and learning. So, where does this decision take us, forward or backward?