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EDUCATION

Swedish schools hit ‘grim’ new low: report

A new study by the Swedish National Agency for Education has revealed that a record number of students are failing to get the grades required to enter upper secondary school

Swedish schools hit 'grim' new low: report

The figures released by Skolverket show that 13.1 percent of pupils in spring didn't pass the core subjects at the end of the compulsory nine-year school (Grundskola). Students have to pass the subjects to be able to continue their studies in upper secondary, known in Sweden as Gymnasium. 

In 2006 when the Alliance was elected the failure rate was 10.6 percent and considered alarming at the time. By 2010 the figure had increased to over 12 percent.

"It's a very grim figure, it has increased and continues to rise and that is a bad result for Swedish schools," Director General Anna Ekström told SVT who analysed the findings.

The agency says they are concerned about the findings which demonstrate how vital a child's background is when it comes to doing well at school.

For example the figures show that only five percent of children whose parents are university graduates fail to gain entry to upper secondary.

Children of parents who just completed Gymnasium make up 15 percent, while the figure rockets to 42 percent for children whose parents also failed to pass the core subjects at Grundskola.

Under the Swedish education act everybody is entitled to a good education but the figures make for alarming reading said Ekström of Skolverket.

"Everybody should be able to develop to their full potential," she said and added that the differences between various schools continued to increase.

However, the figures also showed that children of immigrant backgrounds did just as well or even better than native Swedes. That applied to children who had been in Sweden for between eight and nine years.

By contrast children who have recently arrived had a much higher failure rate – 50 percent – precluding them from entering upper secondary school.

Girls continue to outperform boys according to the study. In April The Local reported that Sweden had tumbled down the Pisa rankings with Swedish kids scoring the lowest marks in the Nordic region.  

The Local/pr

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EDUCATION

Inquiry calls for free after-school care for 6-9 year-olds in Sweden

Children between ages 6-9 years should be allowed admittance to after-school recreation centers free of charge, according to a report submitted to Sweden’s Minister of Education Lotta Edholm (L).

Inquiry calls for free after-school care for 6-9 year-olds in Sweden

“If this reform is implemented, after-school recreation centers will be accessible to the children who may have the greatest need for the activities,” said Kerstin Andersson, who was appointed to lead a government inquiry into expanding access to after-school recreation by the former Social Democrat government. 

More than half a million primary- and middle-school-aged children spend a large part of their school days and holidays in after-school centres.

But the right to after-school care is not freely available to all children. In most municipalities, it is conditional on the parent’s occupational status of working or studying. Thus, attendance varies and is significantly lower in areas where unemployment is high and family finances weak.

In this context, the previous government formally began to inquire into expanding rights to leisure. The report was recently handed over to Sweden’s education minister, Lotta Edholm, on Monday.

Andersson proposed that after-school activities should be made available free of charge to all children between the ages of six and nine in the same way that preschool has been for children between the ages of three and five. This would mean that children whose parents are unemployed, on parental leave or long-term sick leave will no longer be excluded. 

“The biggest benefit is that after-school recreation centres will be made available to all children,” Andersson said. “Today, participation is highest in areas with very good conditions, while it is lower in sparsely populated areas and in areas with socio-economic challenges.” 

Enforcing this proposal could cause a need for about 10,200 more places in after-school centre, would cost the state just over half a billion kronor a year, and would require more adults to work in after-school centres. 

Andersson recommends recruiting staff more broadly, and not insisting that so many staff are specialised after-school activities teachers, or fritidspedagod

“The Education Act states that qualified teachers are responsible for teaching, but that other staff may participate,” Andersson said. “This is sometimes interpreted as meaning that other staff may be used, but preferably not’. We propose that recognition be given to so-called ‘other staff’, and that they should be given a clear role in the work.”

She suggested that people who have studied in the “children’s teaching and recreational programmes” at gymnasium level,  people who have studied recreational training, and social educators might be used. 

“People trained to work with children can contribute with many different skills. Right now, it might be an uncertain work situation for many who work for a few months while the employer is looking for qualified teachers”, Andersson said. 

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