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EDUCATION

More apply to independently manage Swedish schools

Interest in the independent administration of Sweden’s state schools increased dramatically in 2007.

Published: 20 February 2008 10:26 CET

The National Agency for Education (Skolverket) received 59 applications last year, up from only a handful of applications in 2006.

If personnel from a school wish to manage it independently, they must first apply to take ownership of the school.

The personnel can then manage the school independently, but still have access to public funds to support school operations.

Authorities approved a total of 17 applications for 2007, including ten compulsory schools and seven secondary schools.

“To receive approval, applicants need to stress that they have access to facilities, that their finances are in order, and that the school will continue to have a supply of students,” said Skolverket’s Birgitta Fredander.

Nineteen applications were rejected, most often due to a lack of clear financial information or insufficient course offerings.

A further 23 applicants withdrew their submissions from consideration.

Independent schools (friskolor) often specialize in a certain subject or have customized course offerings.

The schools are open to all students, but can have special rules governing which students are admitted in cases when the number of applicants exceeds the number of spaces.

EDUCATION

Sweden’s Social Democrats call for ban on new free schools

Sweden's opposition Social Democrats have called for a total ban on the establishment of new profit-making free schools, in a sign the party may be toughening its policies on profit-making in the welfare sector.

Published: 18 April 2024 16:09 CEST
Sweden's Social Democrats call for ban on new free schools

“We want the state to slam on the emergency brakes and bring in a ban on establishing [new schools],” the party’s leader, Magdalena Andersson, said at a press conference.

“We think the Swedish people should be making the decisions on the Swedish school system, and not big school corporations whose main driver is making a profit.” 

Almost a fifth of pupils in Sweden attend one of the country’s 3,900 primary and secondary “free schools”, first introduced in the country in the early 1990s. 

Even though three quarters of the schools are run by private companies on a for-profit basis, they are 100 percent state funded, with schools given money for each pupil. 

This system has come in for criticism in recent years, with profit-making schools blamed for increasing segregation, contributing to declining educational standards and for grade inflation. 

In the run-up to the 2022 election, Andersson called for a ban on the companies being able to distribute profits to their owners in the form of dividends, calling for all profits to be reinvested in the school system.  

READ ALSO: Sweden’s pioneering for-profit ‘free schools’ under fire 

Andersson said that the new ban on establishing free schools could be achieved by extending a law banning the establishment of religious free schools, brought in while they were in power, to cover all free schools. 

“It’s possible to use that legislation as a base and so develop this new law quite rapidly,” Andersson said, adding that this law would be the first step along the way to a total ban on profit-making schools in Sweden. 

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