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EDUCATION

Parents in Sweden: How do you feel about sending your children back to school?

Swedish schools are set to reopen after the summer holidays in the coming weeks, after keeping schools for under-16s open during the pandemic. We want to hear from international parents how you feel about back-to-school season in times of corona.

Published: 11 August 2020 11:08 CEST
Updated: 14 August 2020 11:46 CEST
Parents in Sweden: How do you feel about sending your children back to school?
File photo of a school in Stockholm. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT

Sweden kept schools open for young children in spring, but closed them for over-16s to curb the spread of the coronavirus. In autumn, schools will reopen for everyone, but secondary schools (gymnasium) have been given permission to move teaching online if they want to or change the schedule to avoid students travelling during rush hour.

Those who are against school closures tend to point to reports suggesting that schools are associated with lower risk of transmission, that keeping them open is essential for parents in key jobs, and that the social and educational benefits of allowing children to attend school are so crucial that they outweigh any disadvantages.

Those who favour school closures tend to argue in favour of a risk-averse approach, and that parents should be allowed to choose what is right for their children, especially if they have family members who belong to at-risk groups. Some parents have been told they risk being fined if they keep their children at home in Sweden.

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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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