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EDUCATION

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

Thirty years after their introduction, Sweden is a world leader of "free schools" owned by for-profit companies that pay dividends to shareholders -- a business model hotly debated ahead of the general election on September 11, 2022.

Sweden's pioneering for-profit 'free schools' under fire
Students attend a class at the Drottning Blanka secondary school in Järfälla, Sweden. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP

In a Stockholm suburb, the Drottning Blanka secondary school premises look more like an office space than your traditional red-brick institution with a schoolyard and gymnasium.

Like many of Sweden’s “free schools”, it doesn’t have its own building — instead, it rents a commercial space alongside other companies.

Here, performance is not just about how students do in exams.

“Free schools” owned by for-profit companies that pay dividends to shareholders are a business model hotly debated ahead of Sunday’s general election.

Drottning Blanka’s senior high school in Järfälla, Sweden. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP

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.

Known elsewhere as voucher or charter schools, Sweden is a world leader in this type of schooling, which offers broader educational choice but still follows the Swedish curriculum.

Around three-quarters of “free schools” are owned by public limited companies and are for-profit, according to official statistics.

The remainder are either non-profit or run by foundations.

But in egalitarian Sweden, in order to ensure the “free schools” are accessible to all, they are 100 percent state-funded.

‘Party’s over’

Critics of the model decry the fact that taxpayer money intended for children’s education ends up in shareholders’ pockets.

“The party is over. The money from your taxes must go to schools, not to company profits,” thundered Social Democratic Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson in July.

She wants to put an end to “free schools” paying out dividends. Schools that do make profits should instead reinvest them in their establishments, she argues.

“The quest for profits in Swedish schools must end,” insisted Andersson, who is seeking the Social Democrats’ third straight mandate in the election.

Conceived as a right-wing reform in 1992 and supported by successive left and right governments since then, proponents of the system initially thought it would pave the way for a few schools run by individuals passionate about education.

Little did they know that it would give rise to a bevy of schools owned by private companies often listed on the stock exchange, such as AcadeMedia, Sweden’s biggest education group with annual revenues of over $1 billion (one billion euros).

The group recently announced — in the midst of the election campaign — that it would dish out 185 million kronor ($17 million) in dividends to shareholders, or about a quarter of its profits.

School Principal Pia Johansson poses for a photo at the Drottning Blankas secondary school in Jarfalla, Sweden. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP

In the capital’s Järfälla suburb, principal Pia Johansson says her school’s parent company, Drottning Blanka AB which runs 27 establishments and belongs to AcadeMedia, has a profit margin target of six percent.

She’s opposed to a ban on dividends. “It’s like any other business: people invest money, large sums of money,” she says.

“It’s natural that investors want some of the profit,” she adds, acknowledging however that there “maybe should be some kind of limit”.

That’s the approach preferred by the leader of the opposition conservative Moderates, Ulf Kristersson, who is challenging Andersson for the role of prime minister on Sunday.

“I’ve always said that dividends at well-run school groups are not a problem for Sweden. I’m much more concerned about the bad state-run schools,” he said after AcadeMedia announced its dividend payout.

His party has called for dividend caps on schools that “perform poorly” academically.

Dividend ban?

While a large majority of Swedes are in favour of “free schools”, most are opposed to them turning huge profits, opinion polls show.

Prime Minister Andersson in July appointed a special rapporteur to draw up proposals on how to move forward with a ban on dividends from schools.

The issue is tricky, as existing shareholders would likely demand costly compensation.

Detractors of the for-profit system say the model attracts irresponsible actors, and encourages owners to cut costs to maximise profits and inflate students’ grades in order to bring in “clients”.

Marcus Strömberg, AcadeMedia’s chief executive, insists, however, that profits are necessary.

A company’s budget surplus enables it to invest in and develop its educational operations and provide “security for students”, as well as “create more school places”, he told AFP.

By AFP’s Karine Pfenniger

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EDUCATION

Swedish government proposes longer school days

Schoolchildren aged 6-10 could have longer school days and more Swedish and maths lessons, if a new proposal by the government is approved.

Swedish government proposes longer school days

According to data from the Swedish government from spring 2022, 18,000 students, or 15 percent of students in year nine, the final year of compulsory schooling in Sweden, did not have high enough grades to move on to gymnasiet, upper secondary education for 16-19 year olds.

“Many students, most of all boys, have huge issues with reading and writing today,” Schools Minister Lotta Edholm said.

In order to improve these figures, the government wants to extend school days at the lågstadiet level, which would affect 6-10 year olds.

“Swedish schoolchildren are at school for a relatively short time, and we can see big problems regarding reading, writing, and mathematics. The foundation for much of this is laid in lågstadiet,” Edholm said.

The government proposes that teaching time be increased with an hour per school day in lågstadiet, which would mean students in the first three years of school would be at school for an extra 20 minutes each day, if this hour was split equally among each year group.

This teaching time would be dedicated to Swedish and maths, without cutting down on any other subject.

“Simply put, it’s more time in school,” Edholm said.

In the government’s budget proposal for 2023, 900 million kronor has been earmarked for this per year, starting in 2025 – the earliest date the government expects that the proposal could be approved.

At the same time, Sweden is facing a lack of teachers. According to the Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket), there will be a shortage of around 12,000 trained teachers and preschool teachers in the country until 2035.

Skolverket will now be tasked with analysing the proposal to see how it could be implemented in practice, Edholm explained.

“At the same time, we’re going to invest in special teachers in Swedish schools, both by increasing the number of places on teacher training courses and by increasing the number of positions.”

She also added that the government will launch an investigation in to how the administrative burden on teachers could be lessened, so more study time can be dedicated to teaching and less on paperwork.

“The number of children in the lower years is decreasing somewhat, but it’s clear that we have a large shortage of teachers at a foundational level,” Edholm said. “Part of it is getting young people interested in becoming teachers, but also getting more teachers to come back to the profession or stay in it a little bit longer.”

“We know that this aspect of the administrative burden makes a big difference there.”

The Swedish Teacher’s Union, Lärarförbundet, disagrees. Its chairman, Johanna Jaara Årstrand, said that more teaching hours for students sounds good in theory, but would not work in practice.

“The biggest issue we have today is that students don’t have trained teachers in their classes. This proposal would mean that we need 1,100 more teachers in a situation where we’re already lacking tens of thousands,” she said.

“This proposal is simply detached from reality, which in practice would mean more lessons without teachers. That doesn’t create quality or a better work environment for the few teachers we have.”

The government has previously proposed reshuffling teaching hours in schools, after an investigation carried out by Skolverket. Under this proposal, the subject elevens val (‘student’s choice’, a lesson where students can choose which subject to study independently), would be scrapped, with those hours used on subjects covering science and society. That proposal, with a suggested start date of autumn 2024, has now been sent for remiss before it can be voted on in parliament.

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