SHARE
COPY LINK

EDUCATION

Sweden told to invest in better teaching staff

UPDATED: Swedish schools have been sharply criticized by experts from the OECD after a decade of slipping education results and told to invest in teacher training.

Sweden told to invest in better teaching staff
Pupils in Stockholm. Photo: TT

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; }a:link { }

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released a review of Sweden's school system on Monday morning.

The report, titled 'Improving Schools in Sweden: An OECD Perspective', provided a series of recommendations to reverse a decade-long decline in the country's performance in the OECD's Programme of International Student Assessment (Pisa) survey, with a focus on teacher training and higher entry requirements for future school staff.

The study comes follows the latest international Pisa survey, in December 2013, which showed that Swedish pupils' knowledge in the subjects of mathematics, natural sciences, and reading comprehension had dropped the most out of all the 33 OECD countries – after having been one of the top performers at the start of the new millennium. The then centre-right coalition asked the OECD for help to assess what had gone wrong.

OECD Director for Education and Skills Andreas Schleicher, Professor Graham Donaldson of Glasgow University, and OECD analyst Marco Kools presented the findings to Sweden's Education Minister Gustav Fridolin of the Green Party, Minister for Upper Secondary Schools Aida Hadzialic of the Social Democrats, and the Director-General of the Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket) Anna Ekström at a press conference in Stockholm on Monday.

Schleicher said that Sweden needed to invest in its teaching staff, through higher wages and career opportunities. He also said that Swedish teachers should demand more from their pupils.

"In general, the Swedish students' own expectations were relatively low in comparison with other countries," he told the conference.

He highlighted large divides between schools in different regions. Swedish schools are largely run at council level. The current government has previously mentioned greater state involvement as one of the areas it wants to invest in.

"The teaching profession is no longer attractive in Sweden," he told reporters.

"Only five percent of teachers think what they do everyday is respected by society."

The report also warned of growing inequality with almost half (48 percent) of immigrant children failing to make the grade in mathematics and called for changes to the free school-choice system to counteract the risk of segregation.

Anna Ekström, head of Sweden's education agency, said "no one was surprised" by the critical report which was requested by the outgoing centre-right government last year.

"Our education system has problems," she said, adding: "we have a clear view of the challenges the Swedish school system is facing."

Sweden's left-green government has launched an inquiry into new education reforms due to report next year and had pledged a major increase in teaching salaries from 2016.

 

 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

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. 

SHOW COMMENTS