Sweden has declared a “system failure” for its free schools and promises the biggest restructuring in 30 years, questioning a model in which for-profit companies run state education. Sweden’s friskolor – private schools funded by public money – have attracted international recognition, including from Britain, which used them as a model for hundreds of new British free schools opened under David Cameron’s government.
But in recent years, falling Swedish educational standards, and growing inequality and growing discontent among teachers and parents, have helped drive change. A report from Sweden’s largest teachers’ union, Sveriges Lärare, warned in June of the negative consequences of becoming one of the most commercialized school systems in the world: the view of pupils and students as customers, and a lack of resources that generates greater dissatisfaction.
The union demanded that the commercialized and for-profit schools be phased out and, in the meantime, that they reinvest all profits into their businesses. “Corporations are not a sustainable, long-term form of operation to carry out school activities,” he said.
Now Lotta Edholm, a liberal who was appointed education minister last year during the formation of Sweden’s minority coalition led by the Moderate Party, has launched an investigation into the issue that she says would support her reform plans.
“It will not be possible in the reformed system to make profits at the expense of a good education,” Edholm told The Guardian.
The minister confided that she planned to “severely limit” the ability of schools to withdraw profits and introduce fines for free schools that did not comply. “It cannot be that the state invests a lot of money so that you can improve your business and at the same time a part of that money comes to you as profits. We will put an end to that,” she stated.
Friskolor
The greatest benefits were obtained by upper secondary schools, known in Sweden as gymnasieskola. “There it has been easier to make profits with poor quality,” Edholm added. There are thousands of friskolor – translated as “independent schools” but known as “free schools” – throughout Sweden, but with a higher proportion in the cities.
About 15% of all primary school students (ages 6 to 16) and 30% of all upper secondary school students (ages 16 to 19) attend free school. The rest are enrolled in the mixed model. Edholm acknowledged that he could not say how many schools were experiencing these problems, but said the problem lay with the system itself. “It’s not just a multi-school problem, it becomes a system failure throughout.”
He also promised to tighten controls on religious influence on teaching in such schools, and strengthen rules on school ownership, citing a government report that warned that free schools could be exploited by Swedish and foreign owners who They would like to influence society.
Edholm also accused some free schools of tinkering with grades because it meant better scores and bonuses, creating an imbalance throughout the system. “It is unfair and also leads students to think that they have much more knowledge than they really have,” the minister endorsed.
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Before joining Ulf Kristersson’s government, Edholm was precisely on the board of directors of the free education group Tellusgruppen. When she was appointed Minister of Education, the value of the group’s shares increased, but Edholm sold her shares and left the board, ensuring that she was willing to deeply reform the system beyond her affiliation. And Sweden’s schools also face significant safety and crime challenges as the country grapples with a national gun crime crisis involving increasingly younger children.
“The whole society is now in the process of changing its relationship with the terrorist threat but also with gang crime, which is really affecting Swedish schools,” Edholm said. “These gangs recruit children. And where are the children? At school,” added the minister, who also wants to reduce screen time in schools and increase the number of physical books in classrooms, offering incentive state subsidies for a book in each subject for each student.
Based on scientific research, he added that it was “extremely questionable” for any preschool to have iPads, and that it was “a public health issue.” His legacy, he hopes, will be to introduce more “peace and tranquility” into schools with less problems, violence and bullying, as well as improving children’s knowledge.
He also wants more young people to go into engineering. “I often say that Sweden is based on three things: forests, iron and engineering. That is what Sweden has built. And we are in the process of losing the engineering part.” “What makes the Swedish school system exceptional is that any child can choose a school without it costing them anything. It is important to hold on to that and make corrections,” he concluded.
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