(cont.) Response to interpellations 2024/25:42, 56 and 64 regarding students who lack eligibility for continued studies
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
C argues that the grading system is outdated and exclusionary, and that the government's policy erodes the municipalities' resources to protect students from being dropped out 1. C asks what the government is doing about dropouts in school, which they believe can lead to juvenile delinquency 2. SD argues that there is a genuine interest among their parties to handle the issues and that they have respect for one another in the cooperation 3. L argues that an investigation is underway to create a new grading system that stops grade inflation, where the threshold for passing becomes softer 4 5. L emphasizes that reading and system errors are important issues 4 5. S argues that the government avoids answering whether the F grade should be abolished 6 7.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Anders Ådahl (C)
Madam Speaker! When we in the Center Party look out over the school landscape and reflect on why so many students, such as 19,900, a terrible figure, are dropped out of Swedish school and cannot proceed to upper secondary school, we see two reasons. One is a grading system that is not modern and which, in a rather inhumane way, excludes people from moving forward. The other is the resources for Swedish school. There is currently a wave of closures and layoffs that exacerbates the large-scale dropouts, and even though the government invests a number of billions in school, increased demands are also placed on the school. At the same time as 2.9 billion is invested, targeted demands are placed on, for example, school libraries, which directly consume these billions. The Center Party therefore asserts that the government's policy erodes the municipalities' opportunity to perform quality work in school and the opportunities to protect students from dropping out.
Today, Swedish school is simply not a school for everyone. For students who come from homes with study habits, there is an opportunity to get help with homework at home. Perhaps one has a sibling who can help. But for those students who come from homes without study habits and attend resource-poor schools, the situation is more strained. What does the Minister for Education think about this? And what does the government's policy look like regarding the grade F, considering that the Liberal Party (L) went out in the Swedish daily press on September 22 and announced that they might no longer believe in today's grading system?
What is happening now in the chamber of the Riksdag is that the Sverigedemokraterna have sent Patrick Reslow here as a kind of watchdog to monitor and study how the school minister responds to the interpellations. I am therefore sincerely unsure as to whom I should direct my question. But I will try to direct it to Patrick Reslow instead, so we shall see if it is possible to get an answer there. How do the Sverigedemokraterna view the grade F? Should we keep it in Swedish schools, or should we, as the Liberal Party leader and the Liberal Party's school minister proposed in a debate article, remove it from Swedish schools and reform the grading system so that we do not have any dropouts?
Patrick Reslow (SD)
Madam Speaker! These are important issues. It concerns students who are met with administrative action and where 18,000 students remain in the process. For some of them, there is a lack of what I said in the own intervention, while others are close. There are many interventions, and the Minister has clearly accounted for which interventions are being made and which are proposed by the government base.
When I take an interest in these issues here in the chamber and rise in the debate as a representative for the large party Sverigedemokraterna, I am told that I am a watchdog, that I pull someone's ear and make a point. Is that really the opposition's way of pursuing serious school policy? Would we not consider that it is not a flaw in the system but in the individuals? No, there is a genuine interest from all the Tidö parties to handle this.
Linus Sköld says that I am taking the minister by the ear. I do not know what experience he has of cooperation, but it is unpleasant if that is the attitude prevailing within the Social Democrats when the Social Democrats are in power. In the Tidö parties, we have respect for one another, productive conversations and high ceilings, and we deliver. I think that is good, and that is what we intend to continue with.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! I have tried several times to explain what is happening in the issue of grades. We have commissioned an inquiry into the grading system, but that inquiry is not finished. The investigator has, however, stated roughly where he will land on this issue, and I think it seems to be a very interesting proposal. It means that not only will grade F be abolished, but also grades A-E. It will stop grade inflation, which was one of the most important reasons why the inquiry was commissioned. The limit for passing will be softer than today, but nevertheless, some students' knowledge will not be sufficient for them to be able to continue their studies in all of the upper secondary school programs.
It is, however, important to establish that it is not enough to change the grading system. There are many systemic errors in Swedish schools, and perhaps the most serious is that small children do not learn to read early enough. They do not learn to decode in such a way that they gradually gain a reading speed that allows them to acquire knowledge in other subjects as well. We must do something about this. Therefore, a curriculum investigation is underway. There is also a teacher training investigation, which will soon deliver proposals on how to strengthen teacher training in this area. There is also an investigation which, among other things, concerns how to ensure that students receive special support when they need it, and not as late as they receive it today. A further investigation looks at how students who need more time in school shall be entitled to it. All the different reform proposals in the various investigations are connected, and the grading system is an important piece of the puzzle in this.
Åsa Westlund (S)
Madam Speaker! There are, of course, many issues to discuss in the school area and much that needs to be improved. The purpose of my interpellation was to get clarity on what the government actually thinks about the grade F. Since statements were made about this in the media, it would have been interesting to hear here in the chamber of the Riksdag what the actual position is. We have not received that, and we will not receive it.
That is why I tried to ask a slightly easier question. The Liberals call it completely unreasonable that Sweden today fails the most students in the entire EU despite the fact that we do not have a larger group of low-performing students. We simply fail very many students who in other countries would have received passing grades. Nor when it comes to this completely unreasonable system, which the Liberals also call completely unreasonable, do we get clear messages on whether it should be abolished or not.
I just want to remind that one does not have to cooperate with parties that do not want to abolish completely unreasonable politics. One can cooperate with other parties in the Swedish Riksdag that want a more reasonable politics.
Linus Sköld (S)
Madam Speaker! To begin with, I would like to turn to Patrick Reslow regarding my assertion that he is here to monitor the debate so that deviations from what was agreed upon in the Tidö Agreement are not made. We have seen it before, for example, in connection with interpellations I have raised regarding mother tongue instruction, an issue where I know these two parties disagree. It has concerned folk education, it has concerned reporting legislation, and now it apparently also concerns the grade F. These are issues where Patrick Reslow feels there is reason to be in the chamber to check that the minister does not exceed what was agreed upon in the Tidö Agreement.
The Minister says that there are many systemic errors in Swedish schools. She speaks so extensively about them that the only thing she manages to say about the grading system is that it is an important piece of the puzzle in this.
The question has been asked to the minister before. First, it was asked by Sveriges Lärare. Then she answered that she will never contribute to the F grade being removed. Then it was asked by DN. Then she said that she was prepared to abolish the F grade. Then it has been asked by Tomas Eneroth, and in her answer on 4 September, she avoided answering the question. Then it has been asked by Camilla Hansén, and in her answer on 25 September, she avoided answering the question. Now it has been asked by Åsa Westlund and several members participating in this debate, and she again avoids answering the question.
The question is: What is the government's position on the failing grade? Should there be a failing grade in the future grading system or not? The question is very simple. I agree that there are many systemic errors; we can devote other debates to those. Today, the question is about the grade F we are posing. Give an answer in your closing remarks, please Lotta Edholm!
Anders Ådahl (C)
Madam Speaker! There is often a misconception about setting requirements in school where one believes that this must be part of the grading system: One must have a grading system with a failing function, because then requirements have been set. The reality for teachers is that they meet the students every day. They can set high requirements in the classroom and have follow-up conversations. They know their students perfectly well. Let us therefore not confuse the discussion about requirements with the discussion about grades, for they are completely different things.
What the Center Party is calling for in this debate is an answer to what the government is doing about the dropout rate in schools. We have seen that as many as 20,000 students do not have the opportunity to continue their studies in upper secondary school. The reality they refer to is many times the reality of the parallel society, where gangs can early on pick up individuals who are struggling in school, who receive their Fs and who cannot move forward in society's regular structures.
That is what makes us in Centerpartiet so terribly worried. We are nurturing a youth crime that becomes an adult crime that becomes shootings and misery. If we are to work preventatively, we should direct enormous attention to the marginalization that occurs in school.
My question is therefore: What is the government doing about the exclusion in Swedish schools?
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! I have tried to explain the government's position regarding the grading system, and I can do it again: We have appointed an inquiry, the inquiry's proposals will arrive in February, and I am truly looking forward to seeing what the investigator proposes.
I will, of course, not suggest that the F grade simply be removed just like that. We need to get a completely new grading system in place that, for example, does something about grade inflation. It is incredibly important, because it is a matter of legal certainty that one receives grades based on the knowledge one actually possesses.
Let us therefore await this very important investigation. It is only a few months left anyway. Then we will see what is proposed.
When talking about the dropouts in Swedish school, it is also important to point out that it is not solely the fault of the grading system. There are a number of other systemic errors, which I have pointed out, and there are also measures in both the long and short term.
In the long term, I have described the investigations that will now be presented as a string of pearls over the coming months. In the short term, it is about, for example, investing in school social teams and in emergency schools for students who behave in such a way that they create such problems in the classrooms that children cannot concentrate. Swedish school is more disorderly than schools in very many other countries.
But as I said, it is also about reading. That is why I become a little concerned when Anders Ådahl says that school libraries are eating up resources. I believe it is exactly the opposite. Investing in real textbooks, investing in fiction, and investing in school libraries will strengthen reading, and thus it will also benefit very many children who today have great problems.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.