Preschool

Joar Forssell (L)

Madam Speaker! Thank you, all members who are still remaining in the Riksdag at this late hour! We are going to debate preschool today. I hope that the members have access to nightlights because it is so late.

Mr. Speaker! It is often said that the social climb begins in the classroom, but that is a truth with modifications. It is true that school – primary school, high school and so on – is very important for the social climb, but the social climb does not begin in the classroom. The social climb begins in preschool, already on the first day when one is left in the preschool's cloakroom. One can therefore say that the social climb begins in the cloakroom at the preschool. That would be more true.

The reason why the government has done so much in the preschool area and continues to have a high ambition there is precisely that it is important to give children equal opportunities early in life so that they can be the masters of their own fate, build their own future and receive fair conditions regardless of who they are, where they come from and what life choices their parents have made. Then we can equalize life chances early so that they get good conditions to complete school and later in life complete upper secondary school and, most preferably, higher education beyond that. That is why preschool is so incredibly important.

Mr. Speaker! That is also why we care that the preschool is managed correctly and properly and have moved forward with a proposal for a principle of public access. That is why we have strengthened the state grant for quality-enhancing work. That is why we have lowered the fee so that more children will attend preschool. That is why we have ensured that the preschool shall be screen-free. That is why we have regulated the teaching mandate so that preschool staff get more time to plan.

Mr. Speaker! We want a mandatory language school and language requirements for the staff. It is about children, regardless of background, getting equal and decent opportunities in life. We also want to ensure that the child sizes, or rather the group sizes for children, become more reasonable – the children can be of any size as long as they are of the right age. We also want to ensure that the staff density becomes more reasonable. Today, it is not always completely reasonable given how little staff there is.

Mr. Speaker! With this said, I want to emphasize that the reason why preschool is so important is that it is only with a functioning preschool that children can be given equal opportunities throughout their lives. It is there that the opportunities for equal life chances are created. That is why this is a core liberal issue.

In order for the debate not to become too long, I would like to move for the approval of the proposal in the committee report and the rejection of all reservations from the opposition.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Isabell Mixter (V)

Mr. Speaker! I apologize to everyone here in the chamber for requesting the floor, but I believe the preschool deserves that attention.

Forssell spoke in his contribution about smaller children's groups and equal opportunities for all children. It is very nice and good if we can reach that. However, I am extremely concerned about what has happened during this government's mandate period, namely that the children's groups in the country have become larger. In 2021, 48.6 percent of the children's groups in the younger ages were larger than the target, but in 2024 it was 53.7 percent. For the older ages, it has also increased, from 46.9 percent in 2021 to 57.2 percent in 2024.

It cannot be a coincidence that this is happening during the government's mandate period. I understand that Forssell will surely say that this is a municipal responsibility, but the government has indeed shifted the cost crisis onto the municipalities and the households. It has not provided enough money to the municipalities so that they can even maintain the same level as the previous year.

Now the government has appointed an inquiry into reduced children's groups in preschools. That can be good, but it is also far too late. If one has already managed to close a lot of preschools and lay off staff, how can one then be able to solve it when the government's inquiry eventually is finished? Now we have a unique opportunity. The government would need to act now to ensure that the closures are stopped.

I therefore want to ask Forssell: How does he view the fact that the children's groups in the preschool have become larger during this parliamentary term?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Joar Forssell (L)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Member Mixter, for the important questions!

I completely share the frustration that the member expresses regarding the size of the classes in preschool. Just as the member himself says, it is the municipalities that bear the great responsibility. I do not mean this in the way the member describes – that I would want to shift the responsibility onto the municipalities. On the contrary, it is a problem that there are such large differences between municipalities across the country. This applies throughout the entire school system with all its forms.

It is also a problem at all levels in the school system that the municipalities allocate different amounts of money to schools and that the quality differs. There are differences in what life chances one manages to create for children with different backgrounds in all the municipalities across the country. It is therefore necessary for more regulation at the state level.

From the perspective that preschool may be the most fundamental thing we have to ensure that people across the country receive equal and fair life chances, it is very strange that some municipalities allow themselves not to allocate the resources that need to be allocated to preschool. That is why a greater state responsibility is needed. I do not think that is strange.

It is not about placing the responsibility on the municipalities, but it is about stating that many municipalities are not able to manage the task as it stands today.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Isabell Mixter (V)

Mr. Speaker! The Left Party also sees that state responsibility is needed and that we need to legislate on smaller child groups in preschool. That is where we have landed and we are presenting such concrete proposals. I have not seen any from the government yet.

I am, as I have said, positive that an investigation is underway, but the government has had four years. During this mandate period, we have seen that the development has gone completely in the wrong direction. We have seen how childcare workers and preschool teachers are becoming increasingly exhausted, and they are being signed off on sick leave to a higher extent than before. This is simply not sustainable, and the government is responsible for it.

Even though it is municipal politicians who manage the operations in the municipalities, they are affected by the fact that the government has chosen to lower the tax for the richest instead of ensuring that there are enough hands to hold in the preschool. The government is also responsible for this by actively choosing to ensure that the state grants do not cover the cost developments that exist in the municipalities.

The municipalities must then choose whether it is Göran, who is 87 years old and lives in an elderly care home, who should receive help, or if it is Saga, who is 3 years old and attends preschool, who should receive help when she falls in the slide. That is the dilemma the municipality is faced with. What should it choose to prioritize? It cannot prioritize away anything, but the result instead becomes, for example, that the children's groups become larger. That is how the municipality gets "the shoes" [the brunt] of the problem when it does not receive enough money from the state.

I understand why the government may have chosen to be faster with other investigations than with this one. This reform is not cheap, and that should not be hidden. It is clear that it is much cheaper to ban mobile phones in school. I am not against doing that, but it is much cheaper than ensuring that our young people get a really good start.

It would pay off in the end to ensure that children are properly prepared for school and receive good tools so that they can become functioning members of society later in life and perhaps not end up in crime, which the government needs to spend an enormous amount of money on now. I think the government should have done this a long time ago. You are responsible for the situation we are in now, Joar Forssell.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Joar Forssell (L)

Mr. Speaker! I feel a great responsibility. I may have only been chairman of this committee for three weeks, but I still feel a great responsibility as a politician in Sweden. I believe that all of us who are politicians in Sweden have a great responsibility for the situation that the school is in.

I believe that the 80-year-old whom the member described in their speech primarily grew up in a social democratic Sweden. The left side has, after all, governed this country for the vast majority of the years since we introduced democracy, but I admittedly acknowledge that I and all other politicians have a great responsibility for the state in which the school system finds itself. That is why we are moving forward with such an enormous reform package in the school area and in particular in the preschool area, which this debate is about.

Mr. Speaker! I do not share the view that the Left Party has on tax money, but that perhaps surprises no one. We have taxes that are too high in Sweden, and that means people do not work enough. It means that companies cannot expand enough, and it means that the tax revenues become too low. It is not the case that one suddenly gets more money if one raises the tax. That is not how the economy works.

Mr. Speaker! Furthermore, it is such that for the person who pays tax, it does not matter whether the tax goes to the state or to the municipality. It is a politician's perspective that I think we should get rid of. It is a narrow and inward-looking politician's perspective. The person who pays the tax only sees that the money disappears from the account.

One must instead ask what one is spending the money on, and we think that one should spend the money on, for example, more reasonable sizes for the classes in preschool. We think that one should spend them on the quality of the preschool, on the preschool's staff, and so on.

Then there are a lot of other things that we do not want to spend state money on, but I do not think it surprises anyone watching this debate that Vänsterpartiet wants to spend money on very many different things. Then the money is not sufficient for what is important.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Anna Lasses (C)

Mr. Speaker! I promised here outside that I would not request any remarks, but now it has happened anyway.

It is the staffing density and the group size that are the main issues, honestly, and those are the two challenges we have when it comes to preschool in Sweden. I completely agree with Joar Forssell that we should not raise any taxes. On the other hand, we should ask ourselves what we are spending the money on, for example, the maximum fee. We would not have needed to do that, but we could have spent that money on exactly staffing density or group size.

Then I have an honest question about something that we in our party are thinking very much about. I had RUT conduct an investigation on how much it would actually cost to follow the guidelines that we ourselves have set, that is, a maximum of 12 children in small children's groups and a maximum of 15 children in the larger children's groups. In the 2024 figures, it would cost 17 billion in addition to the money that is spent today. Then the question is: Where shall we take these 17 billion from? How should we think? Shall we share the responsibility between the state and the municipalities, or what does the plan look like?

It is that plan that I wish had been developed during this mandate period. But now we must look forward, so my question is: How should we think about the financing of preschool?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Joar Forssell (L)

Mr. Speaker! Thanks to Member Lasses for the important questions!

To begin with, I am pleased that I heard the Centre Party open up to increased state responsibility for the school. That is news. I believe those who have followed the school debate for a long time will be pleasantly surprised. The Centre Party is usually the party, together with the Social Democrats, that wants to move school activities as far from the state as possible. I do not know if the Centre Party shares the view that some Social Democrats seem to have – that one should not even place the school on the municipalities but rather preferably on the district boards in those municipalities where there are district boards.

It still seems that the Center Party is now opening the door to perhaps even nationalizing the school system. This is very pleasing because it could help us address the enormous problem that exists at all levels in the Swedish school system: that there is such a large difference between different municipalities. Students are affected by their parents' life choices to live in one place rather than another because we let municipalities manage the school very differently, and in some places, the municipalities do not manage the school well enough.

Sometimes it can be due to bad politics. Quite often it is because the resources do not exist. I agree with that. But a solution to that cannot be that we raise a lot of taxes at the state level and send the money out to the municipalities to plug holes in operations that they themselves should be able to manage better. The solution to that must be that one goes back to when the school began to go properly poorly. That was with the municipalization.

It would be interesting to hear from the member and the Center Party if what I heard here about increased state responsibility might be a small opening to nationalize the school system again. It would be very pleasing for many of us in this chamber.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Anna Lasses (C)

Mr. Speaker! I am afraid I must disappoint Member Forssell. No, it was not the state ownership that I was talking about. It was rather what plan we should have to make this financing work.

Even though it is not the case that the state is to provide the entire sum of money, it is still the case that we actually provide quite large state subsidies to our preschools. On the other hand, we unfortunately have the peculiarity that we want to earmark them and say that they shall be used to remove screens, for maximum fees and so on, instead of saying that the municipalities themselves can actually decide how these funds need to be used.

However, one can naturally ensure that it appears from the spirit of the matter that the guidelines should be followed when it comes to staffing levels and group size. We have guidelines so that they should be followed, not so that they should be broken as much as possible.

It is rather about the money that we actually pay from the state. How should it look? Should the appropriation increase or decrease over a certain period in order to catch up? If we are now to keep these guidelines, what does the plan look like?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Joar Forssell (L)

Mr. Speaker! It was a regrettable but still welcome clarification from the Centre Party that one is still not in favor of state ownership in schools. It is unfortunate for Sweden's students. It is unfortunate for Sweden's future that we do not get the equality we needed and the equal life chances that would have done us so much good. But it is, in any case, a clear message.

Mr. Speaker! As I have already touched upon in my speech, we are providing a lot of new state funds, and we are increasing the state appropriations to various parts of the school system. This is also acknowledged by the member from the Center Party. We are strengthening, for example, the state support for quality work in preschool specifically.

From the Centre Party, it sounds a bit as if it is unclear whether we are to follow the rules or not. There are recommendations; we need to be clear about whether one should follow the recommendations or not.

The Liberals are very clear that we should return to a regulated school. We need to have rules for how the operations should look. If we do not succeed in getting the school nationalized, we need to have very clear rules. We need to have them anyway, but then it becomes even more important that we have very clear rules for how the operations should look because the municipalities manage this differently. It looks too different, and it also looks too different between private and public school actors.

We need to have rules for how the school should be managed and what the operations should look like. It is completely natural because it is the deregulated school, which we have left for the waves, that has ensured that we cannot achieve the level of equal life chances that we want in this country for all of Sweden's children and all of Sweden's school pupils.

That is precisely why the Liberals stand for a slightly tougher school policy with a re-regulation and a nationalization of the Swedish school. We must get rid of the fluff and move forward with the knowledge school.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Rose-Marie Carlsson (S)

Mr. Speaker! I shall speak about preschool, which has never been municipalized. It has always been outside, as it has been a separate form of care. It has been under the social services, and under the Ministry of Education it became a separate form of education. Then we have managed it.

I will, in any case, go back even further in time for a history of preschool, because I think it can be important to carry with oneself that the Swedish preschool did not begin as a pedagogical reform. It began as a solution to a problem. When industrialization took off in the 1800s, working parents needed somewhere to leave their children. Day nurseries emerged, mostly under simple conditions, where the children were supervised during the time their parents worked.

As time passed, the view of the children changed. One became inspired by ideas from Friedrich Fröbel that children's play, language, and curiosity also needed nourishment. What began as supervision became pedagogy. What began as charity became a right.

Today, preschool is a distinct form of schooling and the first step in lifelong learning. Preschool is one of the cornerstones of an equal society. It is through preschool that we as a society take advantage of young children's desire to play and learn, but also enable parents to work and pursue education.

Preschool should offer all children a good start in life. Regardless of what background one has, preschool shall be there for a safer and more equal upbringing. We Social Democrats want to raise the quality in preschool. For that to be possible, small children's groups and increased staffing density are required.

Every day, it is almost half a million children who go to their preschool. It is a preschool that is built on knowledge, care, and learning. It is a preschool that meets the children where they are and lets them grow from their own circumstances. It is a preschool that meets the children with competent and educated staff.

Many different factors have influenced preschools in recent years. The Convention on the Rights of the Child has become Swedish law. The pandemic showed increased risks regarding both the staff's health and the children's learning. More children participate in preschool, and the stay times are becoming longer. At the same time, the preschool's language development mission regarding both Swedish and other mother tongues has become more complex. Furthermore, more and more preschools are operated in corporate form.

Even though the number of children is decreasing, the proportion of children enrolled in preschool remains at the same level as the previous year. But one must not rest on one's laurels. It is important to work actively with monitoring children's attendance in preschool, so that the children actually participate in the activities. High attendance in preschool is important for the continuity in the children's group, and high attendance in preschool counteracts high absence in upper secondary school.

The budget is already set for expenditure area 16, which includes preschool. But in our budget, which unfortunately did not receive support, we strengthen the preschool with an additional 600 million kronor.

Since the focus is so rarely on preschool – preschool often falls into the shadow of school; the Swedish National Audit Office has pointed this out in its report and in the quality review contained in the committee report – and because we know that investments and early interventions yield effects further ahead, I intend to speak about the investments that we are making on preschool specifically.

For some children starting preschool, it may be the first time they encounter the Swedish language. To counter segregation and to ensure that all children get a good start in school, the preschool's language development work must be strengthened. Therefore, we want to add 300 million kronor to a special initiative for language development and high quality to the 200 preschools that need it most.

When the number of children decreases, it should lead to higher quality and smaller groups, not the other way around. We also want to provide the municipalities with 170 million, so that they can hire and retain staff specifically for the purpose of reducing the size of the children's groups.

Many children encounter the Swedish language for the first time in preschool. And preschool is the key to continued learning and to the opportunity to succeed in school, just as I have mentioned earlier. Therefore, we want to make a targeted initiative on language development in preschool and strengthen the competence of the staff with an additional 80 million.

In order for everyone to be able to work and take the jobs that are available, with today's labor market, access to childcare during inconvenient working hours is required. To stimulate the municipalities to offer childcare during inconvenient working hours, there is a state grant that the municipalities can apply for. It has been at the same level for many years. We want to strengthen it with an additional 50 million. It is almost a doubling of the existing amount.

Mr. Speaker! The Education Act emphasizes the importance of preschool teachers, and the curriculum emphasizes the collective competence of the work team, where the childcare workers constitute a large and important part. At the same time, we know that the supply of competence in preschool is a major challenge moving forward. Today, approximately half of the staff in preschool lack relevant education to work with children. This affects both the quality of the teaching and the working environment for the staff.

Since preschool is the first step in our education system, we must ensure that the competence in preschool is high. Therefore, we want to introduce a protected professional title for childcare workers and create a more uniform education for the profession.

We Social Democrats also want to introduce a preschool lift, similar to the Elderly Care Lift, where staff are given the opportunity to educate themselves and strengthen their competence while they work.

Mr. Speaker! We have previously decided here in the chamber regarding staffed school libraries, but we must not forget that libraries and books are also important in preschool. For many children, it is the first time they get to flip through a book and familiarize themselves with pictures and letters. It is important that books are easily accessible for the children as a natural part of preschool. Furthermore, I know that many preschools have so-called "kapprumsbibliotek" (classroom libraries) where guardians are encouraged to borrow books to read together with their children.

In a restless time when many children experience uncertainty and change, the preschool shall be a safe place where they can feel seen, heard, and valued. Here, stability, joy, and community are created – a foundation that strengthens the children throughout life. It is a preschool that does not only educate but also provides security and hope for the future.

Of course, I stand behind all our reservations, but in this debate I move for approval only of reservation 17, which concerns the preschool lift.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Anders Alftberg (SD)

Mr. Speaker! In recent weeks, the Social Democrats have puffed themselves up considerably in the debate regarding honor culture in preschools and schools. They portray themselves as the Islamists' greatest enemy. The Tidö parties and the Sweden Democrats are then all too passive. It is, in other words, Social Democratic poster politics when it is at its worst.

How it really goes when the Social Democrats are in power, the residents of Malmö know very well. Honor-based oppression and honor-based violence have been allowed to rage freely in the municipal preschools in vulnerable areas, with the Social Democratic politicians' good memory. Time and again, the preventive work against honor-based oppression has been completely dismantled in Social Democratic Malmö. The Social Democrats have turned a blind eye, turned a blind eye, and turned a blind eye again.

Is it not time for the member and the Social Democrats to apologize to the residents of Malmö? Is it not time to apologize to all children, especially young girls, who have been subjected to honor oppression and violence at the municipal preschools?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Rose-Marie Carlsson (S)

Mr. Speaker! I thank you very much for the question from the member.

Since I entered the Riksdag in 2022, I have been waiting to receive this question. I know that the member is referring to me as the former chairman of the preschool committee. It is good that I get the opportunity to tell how it actually was and how it is.

With the help of researchers, a survey was conducted in upper secondary schools in large cities to see what the situation was regarding honor issues. When it was presented in the Malmö city council, the school administrations – we have three of them – were tasked by the council to work with competence-enhancing measures in their operations.

When it came to the preschool, which I was chairman of, the administration thought like this: If we are to train the staff, we must really find out how things stand. A researcher from Pedagogisk Inspiration, PI, was hired, who conducted a survey at ten different preschools around the city. The staff were allowed to anonymously describe how they perceived different preschools. The whole thing was compiled into a report as a basis for the administration. We in the committee received information about this and how it looked. One must first find out how things look before deciding on what the training should look like and what is lacking.

Just a couple of years before this survey was conducted, we asked the administration to carry out an investigation because a rumor was circulating that children were using veils in preschool. The administration was tasked with finding out what the situation was and returning to the committee to describe how it looked. But nothing such was found in the municipal preschools. On the other hand, there were problems in the independent ones.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Anders Alftberg (SD)

Mr. Speaker! That was a truth with modifications. For a number of years, it had clearly and explicitly emerged from various instances what was happening in, among other places, the preschools in Malmö. The same thing, unfortunately, we also see in the rest of Sweden.

Children of different genders are not allowed to play with each other. Girls are not allowed to wear short sleeves and shorts. Little boys are allowed to say whatever they want and decide over female staff. Girls are forced to wear a veil, not only because of the parents but also because of orders from the staff. Staff inform the parents if the children deviate from Muslim honor norms, and Arabic is all too often the primary language of communication. One might think they are at a preschool in Baghdad, but it is the Social Democrats' Malmö they find themselves in.

The Social Democrats completely lack credibility on the issue. It is worth thinking about. Does the Social Democratic member feel any responsibility at all for the miserable situation Malmö finds itself in today?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Rose-Marie Carlsson (S)

Mr. Speaker! Children should be allowed to be children, regardless of where one comes from. I have visited all the municipal preschools and also some of the independent ones. There has absolutely not been any preschool that one would think is located in Baghdad.

There seems to be an over-reliance on the preschool to solve all the problems that exist in the surrounding society. The children are in preschool for a few hours. There may be staff who themselves live under honor oppression, regardless of what religion one has; this exists within all religious beliefs. It is therefore not easy to handle this. No, it is not – the member can nod as much as he wants.

This is not solved during the hours the children are in school; it is something much larger. The entire society has a responsibility to work with these children and with the guardians and other adults who are around them. Preschool and school do their part. Now, however, I am not going to speak about the school as a previous member did. Preschool should be able to be a sanctuary for the children.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Joar Forssell (L)

Mr. Speaker! I would like to thank the Social Democratic member. It was a perfect transition, a perfect bridge, for something I reacted to in the debate.

I understand that there is a certain terminology. In fact, my grandmother was a municipal politician for another party, Moderaterna, and introduced what was then called dagis; she is a bit older than I am. As a municipal politician, she introduced the first one in her municipality.

Since then, the legislation and, above all, the view on this part of the school has changed. I actually want to call preschool school, because it is school. It is a part of the school. When I say "school," I mean preschool, primary school, and upper secondary school. Then one can be more specific and talk about preschool, primary school, and upper secondary school. And the preschool is a part of the school.

I would like the Social Democrats to be part of the journey to evaluate the preschool and see it as a school. I think it is an important part of the school for the children. Children need to go to preschool. It is good for children to go to preschool. It lays the foundation for all the education that is to come later.

It is for this reason, for example, that we have presented our proposal on mandatory language preschool. There, it is about children who really need to receive that knowledge from preschool because they do not receive it from home.

I believe that the Social Democrats are on board with the proposal on compulsory language preschool. I would like to hear from the member if I am correct in that. I also wonder, Mr. Speaker, if the member is on board with seeing the preschool as a part of the school and as an important part of the children's education.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Rose-Marie Carlsson (S)

Mr. Speaker! Preschool is a separate form of school. When we talk about school, we mean, in 99 percent of cases, not preschool. When someone talks about these issues, one must sometimes remind that it also concerns preschool, and then the answer becomes roughly "Yes, of course," as if it had been somewhat set aside.

In the same way, it is described in the Swedish National Audit Office's report *Equality in Preschool*, which is addressed in the committee report and which, among other things, concerns supervision. It is highlighted there that it has fallen into the shadows of the regular primary school. Not as much is invested in preschool compared to the regular school forms.

Even Skolverket abandons preschool. Most advice is directed towards primary school. Preschool is pushed aside. For example, the curriculum for primary school is divided into the different stages. But for preschool, the curriculum is the same regardless of whether the child is one, four, or five years old and is about to leave preschool.

That is what I mean. As long as we do not consider preschool to be a natural part of the entire education system, I raise up preschool and talk about preschool. We talk about words, but it is not reflected in action in the way I would wish. I do not think we should talk about "school" in these contexts, because I do not feel that we are really there yet. That is my reasoning.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Joar Forssell (L)

Mr. Speaker! Then I understand. The member from the Social Democrats is not quite there yet. We in the Liberals are there. We believe that preschool is part of school.

It is completely correct that it is a separate form of school, but that in no way contradicts that preschool should be seen as a part of school. It is completely obvious to me that preschool is an important part of children's education. It is incredibly important for children to have equal life chances and fair opportunities to decide over their own lives throughout their lives. It begins in preschool.

There are different stages, and for me, preschool is a stage of school. When I speak about school without specifying primary school, secondary school or preschool, I will also mean preschool. I want to convey that to everyone listening to this debate and who will listen to the other school debates we will have ahead. I think that preschool is an important part of a child's development and of the knowledge one should carry with them throughout life.

Mr. Speaker! I am pleased that the Social Democrats seem to want to move in the same direction. But I did not receive an answer as to whether one stands behind the proposal for mandatory language preschool for children who need it. Such a thing would be very important.

It is also very important to have clear national requirements on language skills for the staff at the preschool.

Mr. Speaker! I would like to ask one more thing. Will the Social Democrats, if God forbid we were to get a left-wing government in the country after the election, be able to bring along the other parties that are gathered on the left side – the Center Party, the Left Party, and the Green Party – on the demands for mandatory language preschool and national requirements on language skills?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Rose-Marie Carlsson (S)

Mr. Speaker! It is good that we agree, but I do not quite trust the member and do not quite believe him when he talks about the preschool being a natural part of the school. When the member talks about the school, it includes the preschool. We are talking about the municipalization of the school. The preschool has never been municipalized but lies outside. It was this that I reacted to.

When it comes to mandatory language preschool, we will have to see what the investigation concludes, how it can practically be implemented, and which children it should apply to. I can see that it would be good, and I can see that it would be less good.

There must absolutely be language requirements for the staff. Children's Swedish is established in preschool, and in that context, it is extremely important to have language skills among the educators. One must determine what professional Swedish is needed and what one needs to know regarding the language.

The previous government set aside money. Now I don't remember what the money is called, because money comes in a bit here and there, but it was in any case money for literacy and for read-alouds for the children. The staff were allowed to train and work on their own language development.

In Malmö, as it has been referred to previously, training was purchased for the staff so that they could be able to read. They spoke Swedish, but they felt that they did not master the language sufficiently to be able to read for the children. Then, as an employer, you have to solve that. We politicians think it is very important, and then we allocate resources to it – that is obvious!

It is as the member says: If one does not encounter the language at home, one must encounter it somewhere else where the children hopefully spend a lot of time.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Anders Alftberg (SD)

Mr. Speaker! Today we are debating one of the most significant issues we as legislators have to handle, namely how we ensure a safe, high-quality, and purposeful preschool for the country's children.

Preschool is not just a place for play and care. It is the foundation for children's language development, social security, and future schooling. The Sweden Democrats enter this debate with the clear direction that preschool should be safe, high-quality, and free from politicization and honor culture. It must also rest on the foundation of the Swedish language. It is based on these principles that we take a position on the reservations and the proposals in the report.

Mr. Speaker! Language is children's tool for understanding the world and participating in education and for later managing in school. Still, we see today activities where children do not receive the linguistic stimulation they need because the staff's Swedish knowledge is insufficient. This is unreasonable and, above all, unfair to the children.

In our policy, this is one of the core issues. We want to introduce a clear language requirement for all pedagogical staff in preschools. We want to see language certification at employment and already at admission to education programs for childcare workers, preschool teachers, and principals. These are issues we have championed since earlier.

The opposition's responses in the reservations often contain fluffy formulations about information efforts or the responsibility of the profession being sufficient. The problems are, however, already known, and we need no more analyses. We need measures.

We further mean that mother tongue elements in preschool – with the exception of national minority languages – do not belong there. Preschool should be a Swedish language environment where children are given the opportunity to develop their Swedish at an early age.

Mr. Speaker! It is also necessary that preschool does not become an arena for honor-related expressions and oppression or for ideological projects. The Sweden Democrats clearly stand up for children's freedom. Therefore, we say no to value-driven veils for toddlers. A child should not wear symbols for religious or cultural control – period.

We also want to counter all forms of gender-political experiments in preschool. It is not the preschool's role to promote gender ideology. Children need security, structure, language, and play – not the adult world's identity politics. The opposition usually describes our proposals as controversial in its reservations on these points. We describe them as self-evident.

Mr. Speaker! The question of group sizes recurs, and with good reason. Too large groups create insecurity, stress, a poorer work environment, and lower quality. We all agree on that. The opposition often proposes immediate and strictly regulated caps without taking into account resources, lack of premises, or the supply of competence.

When it comes to this, the Sweden Democrats have made a clear and responsible change of course. We now welcome a government inquiry into the regulation of the size of children's groups and staffing density. We want to see the Norwegian model tested. The Norwegian model is based, as stated, on the child-per-adult principle, which entails that younger children require significantly more adults, and the regulation is combined with follow-up and implementation support. It is a model that has an effect and does not just sound good in theory.

What we, on the other hand, do not want to do, unlike the Social Democrats, Left Party, and Green Party, is to hammer through national maximum levels here and now without knowing whether the municipalities will be able to meet them. The Norwegian model shows that regulation works best when it is carefully investigated, introduced in the long term, and has financial support. It is the difference between routine symbol politics and a reform effort that can actually be implemented.

Mr. Speaker! When it comes to supervision and permits, we can note a few things. The opposition leans on several reservations that require immediate centralization of the supervision responsibility to Skolinspektionen. It sounds simple, but it risks becoming expensive, cumbersome, and over-administered.

We agree that supervision needs to be strengthened, especially when it comes to unserious actors and municipalities that underperform year after year. We want to do this, however, through sharper state tools, clearer guidance and better follow-up – not by overturning the entire organizational model completely before ongoing investigations are finished.

Mr. Speaker! This report must also be seen as part of the entire reform of education policy that we are now carrying out together in the government base. The Sweden Democrats are a supporting part in one of the most extensive quality improvements for school and preschool in modern times.

We are involved in securing historically large resource reinforcements for preschool, initiatives on safety and study environments, a more knowledge-oriented curriculum, more tools to strengthen children's language development early on, and a powerful effort against honor culture and parallel norm systems.

The opposition's reservations often lean towards old thought structures, detailed regulations without a holistic understanding, and continued ideological framing of preschool. We choose a path that starts from the children's needs and not from party-political symbols.

Mr. Speaker! The Sweden Democrats' line is clear: Preschool should be Swedish, safe, neutral, and high-quality. The children's best interests shall take precedence over adults' ideology. Language shall be a key, not a barrier. The solutions we choose shall be feasible and sustainable.

We say yes to a professionally designed regulation of group sizes and language requirements for staff. We say yes to stronger protection against honor norms, higher quality requirements in preschool environments, and a powerful national supervision based on the children's needs. On the other hand, we say no to veils on small children, ideological experiments, ill-considered detailed requirements, and reforms that do more harm than good.

I vote in favor of the committee's proposal.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Isabell Mixter (V)

Mr. Speaker! I shall try not to drag this out at too slow a pace at this late hour.

I remember when my eldest child was starting preschool. Everything was new both for us parents and, of course, for my child. During the first days of the orientation, one had to sit on the floor and play. Then one could leave her for a few hours and come back afterwards, and finally, she managed the days with the educators completely by herself. With a security blanket in one hand and the other in an educator's warm hand, she waved goodbye in the window of the preschool.

That hand to hold is invaluable for a child – when one is left in the morning, when one has fallen in the sandbox, or when one has argued over the Duplo blocks. But as it is today, there are too few hands and too many children. It is not possible to have time to see all the children with today's group sizes.

It is a betrayal of our children that we let this continue, and it is a betrayal of the staff. We must create a preschool where parents can feel security in leaving their children, where the staff can feel pride in their profession and do not become burnt out, and where the children receive both security and the opportunity to develop.

Preschool today is also so much more than childcare. It is a form of school with its own curriculum where children are to develop, get acquainted with letters, practice motor skills, develop curiosity for nature, and so on. This is so important for children's continued learning, and there is strong research support that we will later get back what we invest in preschool. Still, the resources have not kept pace with the fact that preschool has received an expanded mandate.

Skolverket has a target for the size of children's groups in preschool, which many here have mentioned. Despite the fact that the birth rate is falling, we see that the size of the children's groups is now increasing. More than half of the children's groups are larger than Skolverket's target.

Yesterday, Kommunal released a report on quality and staffing in preschools – a very important report. At the report launch, I met Linn, who has worked in preschool for 20 years. She has seen how the children's groups are becoming larger and larger and feels that she can no longer perform her work as she wishes.

In her children's group, there are 22 children with 3 educators, which is 7.3 children per educator. It is an impossible task. She told that they often need to cancel the long-awaited forest outing because the staff need to cover for each other in their departments or at other preschools. Linn also told that she often comes home exhausted from work.

It is obvious that we cannot have it this way. It cannot be like this for Linn and for everyone else who works in the preschool.

I intended to devote a short moment to some statistics from the report that Kommunal released yesterday.

The report shows that 45 percent of childcare workers have suffered hearing problems from their work and that the sick leave rates are higher than for other occupational groups.

The report also shows that 46 percent of the childcare workers experience that the staffing is so low that it poses a risk to the children daily or at least once a week. In 2021, the figure was 27 percent, so this has increased quite dramatically. In 2024, 60 percent experienced that the staffing is rarely or never sufficient. In 2021, the figure was 49 percent.

The proportion who never manage to take a break or rest has increased, as has the proportion who feel tired after the workday has ended. More are worried that they will not be able to endure until retirement age. In 2021, 24 percent worked part-time, and in 2024 that figure had risen to 33 percent. The primary reason cited is that one simply cannot endure working full workdays because the work is too demanding.

As I mentioned in the exchange with Joar Forssell, more children's groups exceed Skolverket's target for size than was the case in 2021. The development is therefore going in the wrong direction, and it is urgent to act. We need to legislate on the size of the children's groups and the staffing density in preschool. We in Vänsterpartiet, of course, have a proposal for this.

In addition, we must, of course, have well-educated staff in the preschool. Therefore, a childcare worker lift is needed. Those who work in the preschool shall be preschool teachers or childcare workers. Today, far too many work without relevant education in the preschool, and this needs to be addressed. We propose that a lift similar to the assistant nurse lift that has been implemented in elderly care shall be implemented in the preschool. We also want childcare worker to become a protected professional title.

Mr. Speaker! Today we have profit-making limited companies that are profiting at the expense of our children. They open preschools in order to be able to extract large profits. This must be stopped. Money for the preschool should stay in the preschool, not go into the shareholders' pockets.

We have received many different alarm reports during the autumn: Seven children have had to share a banana at a preschool, and at other preschools, they are cutting back on butter for the breakfast sandwich while the owners take out millions in profits. We have private preschools where children fall out through windows because there is not enough staff.

This must be stopped immediately. One must stop gambling with the children's and the taxpayers' money. The tax money should go to the preschool, nothing else, and the supervision of the private operators needs to increase. It has been the Wild West for far too long.

Mr. Speaker! The Government is fully responsible for the situation we are now seeing in the municipalities, where the children's groups are becoming larger and staff are being laid off. The Government has shifted the cost crisis onto the households and the municipalities. The state grants to the municipalities have not been increased in line with the cost increases. The Government is responsible for the fact that Linn and others who work in the preschool have had it worse.

A government is needed that takes responsibility for development and ensures that our children get the very best start in life. Children should be able to develop their language, hear a book being read aloud, practice how to be a good friend, and discover things in the forest or in the preschool yard. They should be allowed to grow into themselves.

If we give our children a secure start, so much is gained later in life. It gives children who are secure in themselves and ready for primary school and who can then move forward in life. It is an investment, and that investment we in Vänsterpartiet want to make by legislating for smaller child groups in preschool and increased staffing density. Of course, the state needs to provide funds for this.

Mr. Speaker! I move for approval of reservation 7.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Johanna Rantsi (M)

Mr. Speaker! Preschool is more than just play and care. It is a starting point for dreams, language, and learning. There, children get the opportunity to discover the world, meet new friends, and develop skills that carry them through their entire lives – and which give Sweden a strong future.

That is why preschool is so important. It is there that the foundation is laid for language, for curiosity, and for the child's continued learning. A strong preschool can give children both better prerequisites in school and better opportunities later in life. We Moderates also believe that it is of the utmost importance that parents should continue to be able to choose the preschool, possibly one with a special pedagogical orientation, that suits them best. After all, parents judge better than we politicians do.

The Swedish preschool has for a long time been something to be very proud of. It has given generations of children a secure start and made it possible for parents to combine family life and work. But the preschool is more than just a childcare service. It is a part of the education system and has a clear mission, namely to stimulate children's development, awaken a desire to learn, and prepare the children for the start of school. For many children, not least in areas where Swedish is not spoken at home, the preschool is the first contact with the Swedish language and the Swedish society. Therefore, the quality in the preschool must be high in our entire country.

Mr. Speaker! At the same time, we know that preschool is facing several challenges. In many places, the children's groups are large, which many have returned to here today. It can be difficult to recruit qualified preschool teachers. We also see that far too many children start school without having received the linguistic foundation they need. These are challenges that must be taken seriously. The Government is therefore implementing a number of reforms to strengthen the quality in preschool and give the staff better conditions for their important work.

A central part concerns competence in the operations. When qualified preschool teachers are near the children, the opportunities to work systematically with language, play, and learning increase. Therefore, the government is increasing the state grant for quality-enhancing measures in preschools by 500 million kronor for the year 2026. This gives municipalities better opportunities to employ more qualified preschool teachers and create better conditions in the preschool operations.

Municipalities and heads of organizations need to get better at daring to distribute work between different professional groups within preschool activities. It is not reasonable for qualified preschool teachers to spend their pedagogical planning time vacuuming a sofa because it is not included in the cleaning staff's duties. Qualified preschool teachers should do what they are best at: educate our children.

Mr. Speaker! In order to strengthen the profession, the preschool teacher education is being reformed. The admission requirements are raised, and the education is developed so that it focuses to a greater extent on children's learning, language development, and methods based on a scientific foundation. It shall be a qualified education that prepares for a qualified profession.

At the same time, we have also, in order to strengthen the preschool teacher profession and make it more attractive, introduced a national professional program. This makes it possible for preschool teachers to continue developing their professional role throughout their working lives. Skilled educators shall have the opportunity to deepen their competence and take new steps in their profession.

Mr. Speaker! The environment in preschool also plays a major role in children's development. Children learn through play, conversation, reading aloud, and creative exploration. It is in the encounter with books, stories, and language that the desire to read is awakened. Research simultaneously shows that extensive screen use at early ages can affect children's concentration and sleep and, above all, their mental well-being.

That is why the government has removed the requirement that preschools shall use digital learning tools. Instead, reading and language are prioritized. This is a prioritization that is necessary to lay the foundation for reading comprehension and interest in learning early on and to provide contact with longer texts at an early age. The government is implementing initiatives for more books in preschool, so that more children get the opportunity to encounter literature and develop their language already at an early age.

Mr. Speaker! Preschool should also be a safe place where all children are met with the same basic values. It should be characterized by equality, children's freedom and rights, and respect for all people's equal value. Children should not encounter oppression or gender segregation in preschool; instead, the education shall rest on democratic values and give the children a stable foundation to stand on in Swedish society. All forms of oppression shall be countered with force and in close cooperation with social services. This will become even clearer as the government now removes secrecy barriers between different agencies. All of this happens for the children's best interests.

Mr. Speaker! Preschool also has a great significance for integration. Children who are given the opportunity to develop the Swedish language early have better conditions to manage school, to participate in the teaching, and to later establish themselves in society. Therefore, we have decided that the municipalities shall work proactively and actively contact guardians of children who do not attend preschool. The municipalities shall also offer and reserve places for them. The purpose of this is clear: to reach the children who need preschool the most.

The government is also investigating mandatory language preschool for children who are not sufficiently exposed to Swedish at home and who show clear deficiencies in their language development. The investigation shall also submit proposals on the size of children's groups, staffing levels, and clearer language requirements for staff within the preschool. That the staff can speak relevant Swedish is the basis for the children also learning it.

Mr. Speaker! Preschool is an important part of everyday life for very many families. In order for women and men to be able to work on equal terms, childcare that works and is accessible is needed. We Moderates stand on the side of the hard-working people. Therefore, the government is lowering the fees in the preschool and the after-school center with a special focus on households with lower incomes. The state grant for the maximum fee is strengthened by 1 billion kronor in the current year, 2026. This means lower fees in the preschool and at the after-school center, especially for households with lower incomes. It makes it easier for more families to take part in the preschool's activities – again: for the children's sake.

Mr. Speaker! A strong preschool is an investment in the future. When children get to meet engaged educators, develop their language, and grow in a safe environment, it lays the foundation for better school results and greater opportunities even later in life. The Moderate-led government chooses to strengthen the quality of preschool. We choose to protect the profession and to put the children's learning at the center. Ultimately, it is about every child in Sweden getting a good start in life.

Mr. Speaker! I vote in favor of the committee's proposal.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Anna Lasses (C)

Mr. Speaker! I must actually begin by saying that I am genuinely pleased to hear our new chair of the Education Committee say that preschool is part of the school. Thank you! It was about time, I must say – not specifically because it came from the Liberals, but generally. Finally! More of that! I truly look forward to future discussions where we see preschool as part of the school, because it is about children's education – so I have said that.

I want to tell you a little about a visit I made a few weeks ago to Regnbågens preschool in the Tureberg area, which is on the police's list of vulnerable areas in Stockholm County. People live crowded here, often in small apartments where many people live in sublets. Most do not speak Swedish in their daily lives. Of the 60 children at the preschool, almost all have an ethnic background other than Swedish.

At Regnbågens preschool, work is done to ensure that children have a secure foundation to stand on. Language is at the center, but also the relationships with the children's parents. It becomes clear why the preschool is a crucial key to successful integration and to a good start for the children in life. It is in the preschool that the whole family is involved. To school – that is, the next step in school – the children then go by themselves. Then it is more difficult to have this natural contact with the parents.

The preschool's role is crucial not only for children's education but also as a preventive activity. This applies not only to the preschool but to the entire school. When I speak of prevention, I am not only referring to preventing young people from falling into exclusion or crime.

It is about children with special needs receiving the right support and opportunities. It is about children affected by mental ill-health, about children living in vulnerability and violence at home, or about children who simply do not have a language.

Mr. Speaker! We all know how important preschool is. We know that no time is so crucial for how the rest of life develops as when one is just there between one and five years old.

We also know what is needed: Enough and qualified educators and sufficiently small children's groups. When that is fulfilled, quite a lot of other things can be resolved. Premises are also good, especially in a country with alternating weather like Sweden.

We have excellent guidelines today based on research and evidence. Groups of children aged 1–3 years should not consist of more than 12 children. For slightly older children, 4–5-year-olds, a group of approximately 15 usually works well.

The groups may sometimes need to be a bit smaller if there are children with special needs or a lack of language. Sometimes it can be somewhat larger, if that works.

The group is recommended to be led by at least three adults, of which at least one is a qualified preschool teacher and up to two are qualified childcare workers. Actually, it is quite simple, isn't it?

Why is it then not like this, and why is it so quiet about preschool in the political debate? The simple answer is money – and here, no party is exempt.

No matter how we twist and turn it, no matter how we streamline and flexibilize, the conclusion is always the same. It costs money, and apparently it costs more than we are prepared to pay. Otherwise, we would not be sitting today with children's groups that, in their respective cases, have 23–24 children per department.

It doesn't matter if groups are divided at certain times of the day, because the number of educators is still three and the number of relationships the children have is more than what is recommended.

What would it then cost? A rough estimate according to the Riksdag's investigation service says that the sum for all the country's municipalities would land at just over 17 billion in addition to what is spent on preschool today. It is calculated based on 2024 figures. It is calculated on three staff members per group, of which one is a qualified preschool teacher.

Then it naturally looks different in different municipalities. For example, Malmö would need to spend almost an additional 1 billion on top of the 3.6 billion that were spent in 2024. Nordmaling would need to spend 8 million on top of the 50 million that was spent in 2024. 17 billion is a lot of money. But think what an investment it is in our children's future!

At the same time as money is the biggest nut to crack—where the money comes from, who is to pay, and what the plan should look like—we are currently in a momentum. It is now that the number of children is decreasing. It is now that there is a golden opportunity to "automagically" reduce the size of the children's groups and increase the staffing density. Instead, we see that preschool after preschool is being closed down due to, as it is at least said, the municipalities' strained finances.

Preschool is, as has been said, a school. Just as in what is called the regular school, it means that it should be a matter of course that those who work in the school have an adequate education, that is to say, education as preschool teachers and childcare workers.

The childcare workers need to be many, many more. Today, 40 percent of all those employed as childcare workers lack this very education. Therefore, childcare worker must become a protected professional title. It is a workplace environment issue, and it raises the status of the profession. It is completely crazy that it is not already that way.

Preschool plays a key role in children's language development, and that role is more important than ever. Today, 24 percent of all children enrolled in preschool have two parents who were born abroad. Therefore, it is crucial that the educators speak good Swedish. Today, that is not the case. Therefore, we want to introduce a language requirement for everyone who works with the children in our preschools.

Mr. Speaker! I have spoken about the importance of language requirements for those who work in our preschools, the size of the children's groups, staffing levels, and that childcare worker should be a protected professional title. But in addition to these basic prerequisites for the preschool to function, the leadership and the principal's role are crucial for the preschool's quality.

Now I hope that the investigation currently underway will be comprehensive enough that all those matters will be discussed and that we will receive proposals on how to be able to solve the challenges that exist precisely in this area. We will have to see if that is sufficient or if it needs to be supplemented further.

With this said, I can state that although the size of the children's groups is increasing at the current time, the proportion of qualified educators and childcare workers is decreasing and the need for support is increasing, not much has happened during the parliamentary term.

On the contrary, it is frighteningly silent from a government that constantly speaks about the problems with exclusion without ensuring that one of the most important institutions for breaking exclusion and laying the foundation for children's learning functions as it should.

I move for the approval of our reservation number 15 regarding a protected professional title for childcare workers.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Mathias Bengtsson (KD)

Mr. Speaker! For the Christian Democrats, preschool and childcare are about perhaps the most important thing we have, namely our children. A secure start in life is a prerequisite for children to be able to grow up into secure, responsible, and well-adjusted adults. The love, affirmation, and care that we give our children today, we receive back tomorrow in the form of a stronger and more cohesive society.

Mr. Speaker! That is why it is obvious for the Christian Democrats that parents themselves should be allowed to decide on their childcare. Families should not be pressed into a single mold. Children are unique, and what suits one child does not necessarily suit another child.

Therefore, there must be a broad palette of alternatives – municipal and private preschools, pedagogical care, and even the possibility of staying at home with one's children. It is the parents' choice – not the politicians'.

Diversity provides choice, and choice provides security. To this diversity, family-run daycare centers contribute in no small measure, which I want to highlight, where small-scale operations, home-like proximity, and high continuity among the staff create a secure environment for the children. They are small groups but big opportunities. Family-run daycare centers are an invaluable complement to preschool. They must be protected and developed, not disappear in municipal savings.

A key in childcare is time for the children. Time for the children gives safer children, and safe children create a better society. But for that to be possible, we must address one of the biggest challenges, namely the large child groups.

The research here is crystal clear: large groups of children lead, among other things, to stress, concentration difficulties, and impaired learning. If a group of children becomes too large, it loses its purpose. What is intended to be a safe and stimulating environment can instead be that which creates insecurity and stress.

No two-year-old should have to feel anonymous in their preschool group. Anonymity breeds uncertainty, and uncertainty breeds problems. A child should not have to shout to be heard. A child should not have to wait for an embrace to crawl into.

That is why the Swedish National Agency for Education's recommendations state that there should be 6–12 children per group for 1–3-year-olds and a maximum of 15 children for 4–5-year-olds. But the reality unfortunately looks different, as we have touched upon in this debate. Many preschool teachers work in groups that are significantly larger than that.

Let me take an example from a municipality near me, Falu municipality. There, a preschool teacher tells in the local newspaper about groups that are far above Skolverket's guidelines. In a group for the older children, there are 21 children, which is 6 more than the guideline of 15 children. For the younger children, the guidelines are exceeded by 3 children. Last year, 75 percent of all children's groups in Falu municipality exceeded these guidelines.

This shows how closely the guidelines are followed in the different municipalities, and Falu municipality is far from unique.

The preschool teacher Emilia in Falun describes how this affects the children's sense of security and stress levels and their opportunities for learning. She says that you can almost feel in the air when several children are absent how the calm arrives, how there is suddenly space to see all the children and how the conflicts decrease. She tells about children's brains being exposed to more relationships and more impressions than they can handle and about how the inner security that is supposed to be built up during the preschool years risks being lost. She describes days when the staff have to work miracles and where neither educators nor principals have real opportunities to influence the group size.

Mr. Speaker! We simply cannot accept that Skolverket's guidelines become empty words; the work of reducing the size of children's groups must be given the highest priority. Therefore, my and the Kristdemokraternas conclusion is that national legislation is needed in this area.

The Christian Democrats have pushed for a maximum size for children's groups since 2014, and now this government is taking important steps to make it a reality. Parents should be able to feel secure that their children receive time and attention. Preschool teachers should be able to feel secure that they have reasonable working conditions and a chance to see every child. And most importantly: The children should feel secure, seen and affirmed every day.

We need more books and fewer screens in the Swedish preschool. We need more read-alouds, more imagination, and more play. It is not the preschool's task to teach two-year-olds to swipe on a screen, but it is the preschool's task to give them security and a stimulating start in life.

Children need movement, community, and creativity. Too many screens risk instead making children sedentary and reducing free play. We know that the first years are crucial for children's development, and in that regard, it is worrying that screens and tablets are introduced at such an early age in many children's lives. Preschool needs to be a counterweight to this. Digital competence can wait, but childhood cannot.

That is why this government ensures that we break with the screen addiction. We are removing the requirement for digital tools in preschool. It is a clear message: Children need time with adults, with books, and with each other – not more hours in front of a screen.

Mr. Speaker! The Christian Democrats' childcare policy aims for more children to be seen and affirmed and to be able to feel safe in preschool. It lays the foundation for life and reduces the risk of mental ill-health later in life. Secure children are what seriously lay the foundation for a secure society and a safer Sweden.

I vote in favor of the committee's proposal in the report.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Camilla Hansén (MP)

Mr. Speaker! It was almost as if one didn't believe that this moment would come tonight, but now she finally stands here – not in the pulpit but in the speaker's chair!

Mr. Speaker! Yesterday, Kommunal released a report on preschools which shows that the staffing levels are dangerously low. The report focuses particularly on childcare workers, who we all know is an important and society-sustaining profession. It also focuses on how their situation can be strengthened. Here, Isabell Mixter has exemplary accounted for a good deal of statistics. I will therefore skip that part so that we have time for a bit more debate here tonight.

The report matches very well with a report from Sveriges Lärare that arrived last year. There, eight out of ten state that they work in an excessively large children's group. That makes it difficult to detect children who have special needs, and it makes it difficult to work with children's linguistic, cognitive, social, and emotional development. Sveriges Lärare proposes legislation regarding the size of children's groups in accordance with the general guidelines and makes the point that there needs to be a ceiling and a measure for teacher density.

As we all remember from the pandemic, general recommendations are not just an entry in the debate but an instruction to be followed. But we see that it is not happening, and therefore Miljöpartiet has also taken a stand that this needs to be legislated.

It brings us to the Swedish National Audit Office report included in the committee report we are now debating. It shows that Skolverket's support does not reach all preschools, especially not the smaller ones. It is difficult to know how it works because the supervision and follow-up are deficient.

The Government is urged by the Swedish National Audit Office to ensure that, during permit reviews and supervision, the necessary conditions are in place to do its job. It mentions, for example, that the School Inspectorate could take over the supervision of the preschool, but the government dismisses this by stating that it would be too expensive.

Quite a few investigations have been released regarding preschool recently, and in the autumn, the Talis investigation was released. It also shows that the stress level is too high and that there are too many children in the groups. Many believe that they will have left the preschool profession within five years. But over 90 percent of the employees in preschool are satisfied with their profession. Let this sink in for a little while together with everything I have just told you and the examples we have heard from other members in the debate!

This is also reflected in the conversations that Amanda Lind and I had with Förskoleupproret a few weeks ago. Förskoleupproret was founded in Örebro about 15 years ago and has championed the issues of group sizes and professional roles throughout this entire time.

We need to give some thought to this. We know how it looks in preschool. I have listened to each and every one of you, and I hear that none of you want it to look like this in preschool. Those who are now paying the price for our high ambitions, when we do not provide the conditions for preschool to deliver on the mandate we want to give, are childcare workers and preschool teachers who love their jobs but are not given the conditions to perform them.

Do you remember the film The Unbearable? It has been shown in cinemas and on TV, and it was also shown here in the Riksdag last autumn. After the film was shown here, stories were sent to all members of the Riksdag from people who had seen the film. They were first asked to write what they felt after having seen the film, and then they were allowed to send messages to members of the Riksdag.

A comment about preschool sounded like this: Many of us are leaving the profession we love because you politicians do not give us the right conditions to do our work. You contribute to our spark fading out. So wrote Therese, a preschool teacher.

Hugo, who is a childcare worker, wrote as follows: Should we have to burn ourselves out because we have chosen to work with people? Every day, it is colleagues who cannot manage to perform because of high numbers of children and everything else that needs to be done in the operation. I have only worked for almost four years. But how am I going to be able to manage to work until retirement if our conditions are so terribly bad? I should not have to feel bad from a job that I think is fantastic and completely wonderful. But then the preschool must be prioritized better than it is.

Another preschool teacher wanted to send this to us members of parliament: Today, one of my colleagues was sick. We have a substitute shortage, and therefore 2 staff members worked with 15 children aged 1 to 3 years. There are also children in the group who need extra support. We give everything we have and more, but it doesn't even come close. And soon we will burn out. Abolish the preschool curriculum if these are the conditions we are to have! It is nothing but a mockery.

What does this boil down to? Well, we know that a good preschool lays the foundation for lifelong learning and contributes to better school results. This is particularly important for children in difficult and socially disadvantaged contexts. We also know that Swedish preschool is no longer a flagship in the world.

Measures are needed here and now: legislation on group sizes and staffing, clarification of childcare workers' education and mandate with a protected professional title, as well as long-term sustainable funding. This is what we need to be able to deliver. I do not believe, however, that anyone here is prepared to throw out the preschool curriculum.

More people must again dream of getting to work with children in preschool. Otherwise, people will not apply for education to become preschool teachers or childcare workers. For this, everyone who currently works in preschool must be able to honestly and sincerely recommend their profession to young people who are wondering what to do with their professional lives. Then we need to put more money on the table, partly by, as Miljöpartiet does, raising and indexing the state grants for welfare.

In the longer term, a consolidation and a national strategy for preschool is needed. That the government, in its letter to the National Audit Office, chooses not to act more forcefully against the deficiencies that the National Audit Office points out is noteworthy. To refer to a number of ongoing investigations that look at different parts of preschool is not sufficient. I believe that the government should act immediately and forcefully in the areas that the National Audit Office has highlighted by appointing a preschool commission – for the children's sake, for the preschool's equality, and for the future's equal society.

The new commission should be given a broad and long-term mandate to analyze segregation, dismantle the market school, propose sustainable structures for funding and governance, review the preschool's role in society, establish a long-term common vision for the future of preschool, and contribute to equality, knowledge, and quality in the preschool of the future. The commission should have a broad composition with experts from the profession, research, and civil society, as well as broad parliamentary representation.

We need to show that we hear the voices from Förskoleupproret, from those who have seen the film Det omätbara, and that we incorporate those voices into the political craftsmanship and together lay the foundation for a preschool that holds in the long run, for the present and for the future.

Mr. Speaker! I move for approval of reservation 5, which concerns the appointment of a preschool commission.

(Applause)

In this speech, Katarina Luhr (MP) agreed.

The deliberation was hereby concluded.

(A decision was to be taken on March 12.)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)