Teachers and students

Fredrik Malm (L)

Madam Speaker! I would first like to move for the approval of the proposal in the report.

What happens in the classrooms today determines what Sweden will look like tomorrow and in the future. Therefore, it is catastrophic that Swedish schools are in such a serious situation. One in seven students does not pass primary school. Mathematics and reading skills are, according to the PISA measurements, down to the lowest levels of the 2000s. Violence and threats have unfortunately become everyday occurrences for many students and teachers.

Sweden once had a world-class school. We Liberals want to re-establish that school. We want to see a strong knowledge school with a focus on factual knowledge and abilities such as reading, writing, and arithmetic. We want a secure school that sets clear requirements and has high expectations for everyone, regardless of their background. The school must return to the basics. It would be good for everyone, especially for those children and young people who need the school the most.

The solution to the country's challenges regarding segregation, long-term growth, and much more lies in a high-quality education system. If children and young people become increasingly better in school, it would in the long run lead to better skill supply in the labor market and a stronger and more competitive Swedish economy.

But good education is not just an engine for growth, Madam Speaker. According to us Liberals, the absolute cornerstone of a prosperous and democratic society is that the school functions. Through schooling, the individual's power over their own life is strengthened. An equalizing effect is also created if everyone, regardless of what the home conditions are, gets to attend a tuition-free school.

More people must want to work in schools, and more people must want to become teachers. The government is currently implementing a number of important measures to manage the teacher shortage and strengthen the teaching profession. We are working on legislative proposals regarding increased requirements for teacher education. We have state grants for career positions, quality-enhancing measures, qualification-granting education, and so on. We have the knowledge grant so that more schools can retain their teachers. The municipal and independent school providers, however, have a significant responsibility when it comes to the conditions for school staff.

It is no secret, Madam Speaker, that we in the Liberals want to see a re-statification of the ownership of Swedish schools. It would be the single most effective way to guarantee equality across the country and ensure stable and uniform funding of the school system. Furthermore, it would contribute to raising the status of the teaching profession.

Teachers' working environment must improve, and teachers must be allowed to be teachers. Recently, an investigation was conducted on reducing the administrative burden for teachers, and I look forward to legislative proposals coming to the Riksdag on this. As little time as possible should be spent on administrative side tasks in schools.

Teachers in vulnerable areas have a particularly important mission, and therefore the Riksdag has decided to allocate 165 or 170 million – I believe it is – per year for a better working environment for teachers in schools with socioeconomic challenges.

Madam Speaker! Just over 30 years ago, very large changes were implemented in the Swedish school system. The responsibility for the schools was moved from the state to the municipalities. It was an enormous decentralization that has disrupted the entire equality in the Swedish school system. A few years later, the free school reform came, which gave private actors, both non-profit and for-profit, the opportunity to start and run schools with tax funding. With the free school system, municipalization, and a number of other changes, including the reduced regulation, it became so that some things that had previously been self-evident in Swedish schools, for example that there are dining halls, gymnasiums, school libraries and so on, were no longer as self-evident.

What we are doing now in the Liberals and the government is that we are re-regulating and that we are strengthening the foundations of Swedish school. This should have been done much earlier, but we are doing it now. We have worked extremely purposefully with this, Madam Speaker, since we received government power in 2022.

We are investing in more special education teachers, smaller teaching groups and staffed school libraries. We are enabling very large investments in real books in schools and in school libraries, both textbooks and fiction. We are reviewing curricula to increase the focus on facts and subject knowledge. Reading and learning to read are also things that are to be significantly upgraded.

Madam Speaker! We are now making the excellence classes and excellence educations in upper secondary school and upper secondary school permanent and opening up for more of them. The Riksdag hammered this out earlier, during the previous parliamentary session. This is very good. Previously, it was only a pilot project that we in the Liberals introduced 14–15 years ago. But now it is permanent and will provide opportunities for more truly talented high-performing youths. The young geniuses will thus have greater opportunities to study at a faster pace in school. These excellence classes are very important. For the first school year, applications have been submitted for 18 classes at the primary school level and 28 classes at the upper secondary school level in this form.

The core of this, Madam Speaker, is that there is a group of students in Swedish schools who are very gifted. They are high-performing and learn very quickly. They thrive in an environment where they are given greater challenges and can learn even more. But, Madam Speaker, this challenges the law of Jante, and when it challenges the law of Jante, it also challenges social democracy and the left in Sweden.

Madam Speaker! The Social Democrats have always had difficulty with people who stand out and people who think anew. The basic assumption from the left side in Swedish politics has been that if a student who is very talented is allowed to move faster, it jeopardizes the opportunities for the large student collective to develop in the school. I must say that I am completely against that entire basic assumption. My basic assumption is that every student must be met with as high expectations as possible in the Swedish school. The Liberals and this government see all young people and are determined to strengthen the advanced classes in the Swedish school.

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

Daniel Riazat (V)

Madam Speaker! This report concerns very many different issues. I begin with a question where Fredrik Malm really has no problem with Sweden standing out. The fact is that we are the world's only country that has this market system in schools; anyone can start a school at the expense of children, students, staff, and the like. This system is unparalleled and exists nowhere else. Is it being too "Jante" to say that one wants an equal school system? I raise my hand immediately and say that I believe in Jante.

I believe it is about general knowledge about how a school system should be. Fredrik Malm has always stood against school research. We have even had debates where researchers have said: No, this is what applies. Then Fredrik Malm has said: I have children myself, so I know that it is not true. But that is not how it works with knowledge, facts, and research.

A question concerning this concerns the exemption from the requirement for teacher qualification for teachers at certain privately owned independent schools. A system has been created where one can call itself an "international school" and thus does not need to have qualified teachers. Does Fredrik Malm think it is reasonable that we have a school system in Sweden where we even have legislation on teacher certification but where certain schools – in order to be able to make profits and pay lower wages etcetera – can simply choose not to have qualified teachers? In what way does it lead to students receiving better competence if their teachers are not qualified to be teachers?

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

Fredrik Malm (L)

Madam Speaker! Initially, I want to answer the question about what the left side calls the market school. What it is about is that we in Sweden have a school system where we allow free establishment for companies, foundations, associations, cooperatives, and so on. They can start schools and receive tax funding in the form of school fees to run the schools. Thus, the municipalities are not the principals for all schools in Sweden. I think fundamentally that it is perfectly reasonable that we have freedom of choice and that parents and students can choose a school. But we must have a system that has reasonable incentives, and the current system does not.

That is why we are now making very extensive reforms to tighten up the independent school sector in Sweden. I would have wished that the previous left-wing governments had done so during the eight years. But it was eight years when the independent school corporations reaped gold and profit with a carving knife, or how it is said now. The best years for the corporations were when Stefan Löfven was Prime Minister in Sweden.

We are now determined to do something about this. We have several inquiries. We have inquiries regarding the school fee system, and we have inquiries regarding the independent school system. We have inquiries to tackle grade inflation and much more.

Madam Speaker! I am the first to admit, and I believe I also said it in my speech, that this should of course have been done much earlier. But we are doing it now because it is absolutely necessary.

Work is being done on the second question. It has been a discussion for many years. At the same time, we want these trainings to also be bilingual. I assume that progress will also be made in that matter.

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

Daniel Riazat (V)

Madam Speaker! I do not quite understand what it means when it is said: I hope that progress is made in those issues. Fredrik Malm represents a government party and even the party that currently holds the Ministry of Education. Simply hoping that things move forward will not lead to anything happening.

I absolutely must tell Fredrik Malm and the Liberals that there has probably never been a government like the blue-brown one that exists right now that has commissioned more inquiries into matters that have already been investigated. Some of the inquiries have also come up with very good things. But if I remember correctly, there is not a single proposition right now where we can take a position on any of the proposals that the inquiries have suggested.

We can take regulated teaching time as an example. How will it be with that question, which is something the teachers long for? How will it be with the question of having limitations and restructuring the entire market school system? Where are the proposals? I have not seen them. Now, almost three years of the four years during a mandate period have passed, and it is hoped that things are moving forward, Fredrik Malm. So, politics cannot simply proceed.

When it comes to the market actors, one can play a bit with words and speak of foundations and non-profit actors, which Fredrik Malm was careful to point out. The majority of those actors have also been disadvantaged by the fact that we have an extremely unequal market system.

Our school minister in Sweden comes, for example, from one of these companies. There are simply revolving doors between the companies and politics. Fredrik Malm's party is, moreover, linked to a group called the Knäckebröd-och-vatten-koncernen. There, they gave crispbread to the children in the preschool in order to make larger profits and put them in their own pockets.

I come again to the question of teacher certification. Why should there be schools in Sweden where teachers do not need to be qualified? Why does this exception apply specifically to the profit-driven actors who call themselves international schools, but who are actually just out to make money?

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

Fredrik Malm (L)

Madam Speaker! There was very much here, white and broad and high and low.

Daniel Riazat's party and my party are different parties. The Liberals introduced universal suffrage in Sweden. It was approximately at the same time that the Left Party wanted to abolish the right to vote and introduce the dictatorship of the proletariat.

(Applause)

After that, the Left Party for 74 years was a supporter of a system where the politburo made decisions which were then implemented. I agree that it can go very fast. Then one can introduce something overnight.

Now, the situation is that we in Sweden have a different system. I can remind Daniel Riazat that the system we have in Sweden means that if the Chamber is to enact a law, that law must first have been investigated. We have a legal requirement that things must be investigated.

Daniel Riazat says that the government is only investigating a lot of things, but that no proposals will come. That is because they must first be investigated. I can also inform Daniel Riazat that after the investigation has submitted its report, it must be referred. After that, a referral to the Council of Legislation must be written, and that must also be referred. Then the proposals come to the Riksdag.

Madam Speaker! Daniel Riazat raises the issue of regulated teaching time. It is something we Liberals fight for. It is very good that the Left Party also does so. The problem is that the Left Party contributed to the school being municipalized in Sweden, which has become a misfortune for many teachers in the country with bad employers.

When will you settle the market school issue? asks Daniel Riazat. Now a large investigation is coming that proposes that the free school sector should be powerfully regulated. I look forward to that bill. I cannot say exactly when it will come, but it shall come during this parliamentary term. That is what we have agreed on.

(Applause)

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

Mats Wiking (S)

Madam Speaker! Today we are debating the report UbU11 which concerns students and teachers. I want to begin by moving for approval of reservation 1 which concerns the teacher shortage.

Madam Speaker! Swedish school has once been among the world's best. It was a place where children from different social classes met on equal terms. That is no longer the case.

Besides school segregation is an important contributing cause to the lack of qualified teachers. It has not always been so. Becoming a teacher was once sought after. There was fierce competition to the teacher training. What was it that happened?

Under decades of changes and savings, the teaching profession has lost status. Many have left the profession, especially from schools in vulnerable areas. We Social Democrats believe that the school must become more equal, and in that regard, an important factor is that we have more qualified teachers.

We want, among other things, that teacher education should become more flexible and that it should be possible to take shorter supplementary courses for those who already have another academic education. We also want to introduce a system with teacher candidates to facilitate for unqualified people who are already working in schools to educate themselves while working in parallel.

Madam Speaker! We know that every child who is dropped out of school is a failure for the entire society. But it is above all a personal failure for the child and for the family. There are many lost self-confidences. A feeling of not being good enough exists today among many of the fifteen percent who do not pass the requirements for upper secondary school. Therefore, the school needs to become a school for everyone and not just for those who achieve passing grades.

For school to be for everyone, proper investments are required, and of course, trained teachers. But above all, special support is needed for those students who need it most.

Madam Speaker! Approximately 10 percent of students today have a neuropsychiatric disability, NPF. Many of them fail in school. They do not do so because they cannot, but because the school is not adapted for them.

We have seen what works. When schools train all their staff on NPF and work with a common approach, safety and study conditions are created, not just for NPF students but for all students. Therefore, we Social Democrats are investing 200 million kronor in our budget for this year to improve schooling for students with NPF. We also want the National Agency for Education, together with schools, to develop the best methods and spread them across the entire country.

Madam Speaker! Mental ill-health among children and young people is increasing. Calls to Bris regarding pressure in school have increased by 34 percent. Children express that they feel anxiety and depression and have suicidal thoughts. This places new demands on school health services, BUP, and us as a society.

It also raises an important question: Why are more young people suffering? We Social Democrats therefore want to see a national investigation to find out what lies behind this. Even here, a collective knowledge base is needed to work preventatively and with high evidence.

Madam Speaker! We want to see a zero tolerance towards school absence. School is compulsory, and that must be reflected. Children should feel that someone expects them to come to school, even if they do not have support from home. We Social Democrats propose a national absence register. It should help schools to detect patterns early. Often it begins with sporadic absence and ends with the student becoming a stay-at-home student.

Madam Speaker! We Social Democrats want to, by strengthening the cooperation between the school and social services, catch young people on the slide early and implement the right interventions. This also reduces the risk of children and young people falling into crime. We know that children who succeed in school rarely commit crimes, and school is an important preventive measure. Furthermore, those schools that have the toughest conditions need to receive increased support. It must be possible to hire social workers who can contribute to creating safety and study environments and manage the contact between guardians, the school, and social services.

Madam Speaker! In order to strengthen the conditions for all students in general and for students with special needs in particular, we Social Democrats in our budgets in opposition since 2022 have allocated the resources that SKR itself says Sweden's municipalities need to avoid cutting staff and increasing the size of the children's groups.

To further strengthen the work for students with special needs, we Social Democrats, in addition to the initiative for NPF students, made an initiative of 3 billion specifically targeted at schools with the toughest challenges. This corresponds to an additional teacher or educator in every class in grade 1, which is intended to reduce noise in the classrooms and give every child the support and help they need. Resources are required to be able to give every student a good self-esteem and a good school result.

Madam Speaker! Providing our students with a good education, regardless of what support the student needs, must be of the highest priority.

(Applause)

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

Noria Manouchi (M)

Madam Speaker! There is no more important factor for a student's knowledge development than a skilled and engaged teacher. The teachers in our country make a difference – every day, in every classroom. It is a fact. Therefore, it is also absolutely crucial that we, as decision-makers, provide teachers with the right conditions.

The teaching profession should be a profession of the future, a profession that attracts students and that is highly valued by society. It is therefore pleasing that this government, unlike previous governments, is taking concrete steps to restore the teacher's role in Swedish schools.

We often talk about school results. But behind every good development of knowledge, there is a teacher with the right education, good support, and a secure working environment. Therefore, the government is making several important investments.

In 2024, the government decided on a new collective state grant for staffing reinforcements to strengthen the school's conditions to increase safety and studies, relieve teachers, improve student health, and better meet the students' needs for support.

By this autumn, a national professional program for teachers and preschool teachers will be introduced. Through the program, teachers will be given the opportunity for clearer career development and continuous competence development without having to leave teaching. It strengthens both the attractiveness of the profession and the quality in the classroom.

Earlier during the parliamentary term, we appointed an inquiry into developing teacher and preschool teacher education with a mandate to propose measures aimed at raising the quality of the educations and the status of the professions. The inquiry has presented proposals for changed admission requirements, more educational pathways, and a strengthening and development of the content.

We Moderates want to ensure that more teachers receive a qualitative education with more practical experience and a clearer focus on knowledge, and I look forward to deciding on a proposition that establishes this.

Right now, the inquiry into reducing teachers' administrative burden is out for consultation. A central starting point for the inquiry has been that preschool teachers' and teachers' opportunities to focus on the teaching assignment are crucial for children's and students' opportunities to learn and develop. We know that many teachers devote an unreasonable amount of time to documentation specifically. Therefore, we will simplify and reduce the burden, so that teachers get time to be just teachers.

Principals and school leaders have a key role for both teachers' and students' work environment. Therefore, the government has appointed an inquiry that examines the principals' conditions to carry out their mandate. The goal is, of course, to strengthen the principals' opportunities for competence development. It is also about reduced administrative burden and reinforced powers to improve the work environment.

Madam Speaker! Teaching is one of society's most demanding and most crucial missions. It is the teachers who constitute the glue in the Swedish school system. Without them – no school. But it is we here in the Riksdag who must build the structures around it. The prerequisites for good teaching must be in place. With the Moderaterna, this is now possible. We trust the profession, but we do not leave the teachers in the lurch.

This is good school policy, and it is long-term nation-building. For every student who meets a knowledgeable and secure teacher, the chances of success increase. For every teacher who receives support to develop, reduce their administrative burden, and see their professional role strengthened, the possibility increases that they stay in the profession and that more colleagues are gained.

We need more teachers, but we also need a policy that makes it possible. We have that now.

(Applause)

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

Kent Kumpula (SD)

Madam Speaker! For the sake of time, I move for approval only of reservation 9, but we Sverigedemokrater naturally stand behind all our reservations.

Sweden once had a world-class school, Madam Speaker, and it is truly sad that it has to go so far around the bend with pretty much everything before the great majority of politicians want to and dare to lift their heads above the sand and see reality. It is sad that it has to go so far before more and more finally dare to open their eyes and see what the problems are, for if one does not even dare to see the problems, one will never ever be able to see any solutions.

The Sweden Democrats have seen the Swedish school results fall year after year, and for us, there has never been any uncertainty regarding what it is due to. It is clear to everyone who chooses to open their eyes what the problems in the Swedish school are due to by an absolute overwhelming majority.

Madam Speaker! I believe that many parties fully consciously chose to continue to turn a blind eye to reality for many years because it was so embarrassing to have been one of those who destroyed Sweden. It was simply easier to continue to turn a blind eye than to choose to see what enormous damage was caused during several decades of irresponsible mass immigration, through a constant dilution of the authority of Swedish teachers, and through an increasingly more chaotic and insecure everyday life in the Swedish school.

Madam Speaker! This is the recipe that sabotaged the Swedish school system. It is about everything that the Social Democrats and the entire left wing hoped for: that profit that was supposed to come a little further ahead. Just a little further ahead, the rain of competence was supposed to start falling, and Sweden would get a super-economy.

Mass immigration in combination with a discipline that has blown away and an unprecedented flumexperiment – that is what the Swedish school was subjected to, and it went completely to hell.

Madam Speaker! We are talking about the working environment for both teachers and all the students who are going to try to perform and obtain an education for life. I remember how astonished I was when, for the first time during a school visit, I saw a long row of hearing protection hanging on the wall in the classroom. What are the hearing protectors for? I wondered. It was a perfectly ordinary classroom and not some craft room where machines with high noise levels were used. Hearing protection in ordinary classrooms was not something one had during the time I went to school.

The hearing protection was for the students, I was explained, because it was so noisy in the classrooms and the sound level was so high that students could not concentrate. The students who wanted to try to escape the noise and the shouting and study and learn something were thus forced to do so with hearing protection on their small heads. It is completely nonsensical and entirely backward.

This solution, Madam Speaker, is also quite symptomatic of how previous governments, both red and blue, have acted issue by issue. Instead of solving a problem, they have turned a blind eye to the problem and only polished the surface and tried to buff the symptoms. If one distributes hearing protection instead of demanding and ensuring that it is quiet in the classroom so that the students can study, one turns a blind eye to the noise. One also turns a blind eye to the real problem.

I went to primary and middle school at Stenhammarskolan in Gottsunda in Uppsala quite a few years ago now, and later upper secondary school at the old Gottsundaskolan, the one that was later burned down. When I went to Stenhammarskolan, the majority of all the students were of Swedish origin. In every class, there were a number of students with slightly different backgrounds – someone from some country in Africa, a few Finnish children, someone from England or Ireland, and so on.

I myself was not Swedish at that time, not in the slightest. I was a Finnish child who even attended a Finnish primary school class, where we were taught everything one is supposed to learn in primary school while we also learned the Swedish language. I could not speak a single word of Swedish when I was about to start primary school.

Until middle school, we Finnish kids were grouped together with all the other students, and then we went together with the rest of the students for the remainder of the school time. Since the majority of all the students were of Swedish origin, we others were automatically "Swedified" through schooling – bit by bit, year by year. It is nothing that happens in a heartbeat, I can say. But the more years that passed, the more Swedified I became.

I usually say that I belong to the last generation for whom it was still sensible to grow up in Gottsunda. The majority were still people of Swedish origin throughout the area and in the school, and practically everyone, or at least most, simply became automatically Swedishized through upbringing and schooling.

A number of years later, one of my cousins attended the exact same school, Stenhammarskolan, and already then the roles were completely reversed. There was some single student of Swedish origin per class, and then there was a myriad of different nationalities and origins. The students did not understand each other, they did not understand the teachers, and the teachers did not understand the majority of the students. It was complete chaos and of course completely impossible for the teachers to conduct any good teaching.

If I remember correctly, my cousin was eventually forced to change schools in order to have any chance at all of learning anything.

A number of years later, the school changed its name from Stenhammarskolan to Manar Al-Houda svensk-arabiska skolan.

Is there anyone here who believes that the automatic Swedish-ification of children that I experienced when I myself attended Stenhammarskolan functioned in the same way in the Arabic Manar Al-Houda school? I do not believe so.

A number of years later, the School Inspectorate revoked Manar Al-Houda's permit to operate a school. I guess that is the answer to the question of how well that school functioned.

We must restore discipline and the teachers' authority in school, and we must restore calm and peace and safety in school. By that, I do not mean authority in the form of any kind of corporal punishment or terror from the teacher's side, but simply order and tidiness, that the teacher's word counts – common sense.

Disruptive and threatening students must be moved out of the classroom, away from the regular school, to ensure a calm and safe study environment for the well-behaved students, while the disruptive students receive more attention, higher teacher density, and specially trained staff who can help them with their challenges.

This is completely fundamental, Madam Speaker. If we do not succeed in creating a safe school environment with discipline and focus in our schools, we will never succeed in recreating a world-class school. A world-class school is not a vague, loose school where students can freely choose whether they will obey the teacher or not.

Just take this example of a teacher who grabs a disruptive student by the upper arm and moves the student out of the classroom because the student is disturbing the lesson and refuses to follow the rules of order. A teacher who does that should receive a medal, not be fired and lose their job, which is how it works in Sweden today. The balance of power between teachers and students is completely insanely hair-raisingly wrong today. It is completely backwards.

There are many good investigations and reports on the way – regarding improved student health, regarding more teaching time for those students who need it, regarding better conditions for safety and study in school and so on.

The Tidö government, together with the Sweden Democrats, has done a tremendous job. No government in modern times has done anywhere near as much for schools and for teachers as the Tidö government with the reforms it has now set in motion.

Now it is a matter of all of us together holding on and ensuring that we implement all the good proposals and improvements that are on the way in the best possible way. We all reasonably want the same thing: that the children should have a calm and secure school experience and that all students should be able to reach as far as they can, completely regardless of whether their choices lead to a theoretical higher education or to a more practical job with their feet on the ground.

It also feels appropriate to remind the other parties that "everything for everyone" does not work. I am thinking, among other things, of the billions that are spent every year on mother-tongue instruction. Those tax dollars cannot be used for any other instruction than instruction in Arabic, Somali, Finnish, and so on. It is that simple. You can only spend 1 billion kronor once; then that money is gone. We in Sverigedemokraterna believe that these are significantly better spent billions if they are spent on something else in the Swedish school than on teaching children in Sweden Arabic, Somali, and so on.

Unlike most in the committee, I myself received mother tongue instruction throughout primary school, for nine years. I can say straight out that it was completely wasted. I live in Sweden. I went to a Swedish school. I entered a Swedish labor market later, and I have run companies in Sweden, in Swedish, for over 30 years now.

For none of this have I needed any knowledge of Finnish grammar. I learned Finnish at home from my parents, and to the extent that I needed practice in Finnish grammar, my parents actually could have paid for that education if they had thought it was useful.

There is no reason for the public to spend several billion annually on teaching Arabic, Somali, and so on to children who grow up in Sweden and who are to enter a Swedish labor market. If these billions were instead used to strengthen the children's knowledge in Swedish or mathematics, it would be of enormously greater benefit both for the children and for Sweden.

Or why not use those billions to improve safety and the studies in school so that students get a calm and safe schooling and so that both teachers and students get a good working environment? That would be much better spent billions than the billions that are spent on teaching Somali to children in Sweden who are going to attend a Swedish school and enter a Swedish labor market.

(Applause)

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

Mats Wiking (S)

Madam Speaker! Student health was mentioned in the speech. In reservation 12, the Sweden Democrats write that the student health's care mandate should be strengthened to treat students who are mentally unwell. That sounds appealing, of course, but it also raises serious questions.

The Education Act is clear today that student health should primarily be preventive and health-promoting. Now, SD proposes a direction that goes directly against the mandate that the legislature has established. If one looks at what the profession has stated, one can see that they are afraid that such a change could complicate the principal's mandate and break down the cooperation that prevents young people from falling off track.

I therefore ask Kent Kumpula the following: How do you ensure that schools do not become a parallel care facility, while at the same time you do not propose any new resources – despite the fact that there is currently a great shortage of school psychologists and counselors?

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

Kent Kumpula (SD)

Madam Speaker! Mental health is going just as much to hell as much else in society. There is an enormous need for better mental health.

The queues to see a psychologist are far too long in many parts of the country. If we can in some way remedy this and give the children help earlier, we are absolutely open to that. Through the school can be one way. Through significantly shortened queues in regular care can be another way. Both possibilities can be an even more effective way to cut the queues.

The sooner the children get help, the faster they can manage their challenges and the faster the children can become healthy and feel well again. I do not quite see the problem with offering the children help if they need it. Are the Social Democrats against us helping children with mental ill-health?

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

Mats Wiking (S)

Madam Speaker! Children should, of course, receive help from the correct authorities. It is clear that the school shall work preventatively and health-promoting, as it states in the Education Act. I perceive that the Sweden Democrats are prepared to change the legislation.

Professionals within healthcare, BUP, and similar bodies should handle the treatment work. Is it not important that one strengthens BUP and healthcare, instead of taking resources from the school, and works more treatingly given that there is a shortage of counselors and psychologists in the school? Are the Sweden Democrats prepared to provide the funds needed to strengthen counselors, psychologists, and the healthcare facility at the school?

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

Kent Kumpula (SD)

Madam Speaker! We are absolutely open to allocating more financial resources if needed. A very large pot of money to dig into is, for example, mother tongue instruction, which I mentioned earlier. It is several billion every year that is spent on teaching Somali and Arabic to children who live in Sweden and are to enter a Swedish labor market. Perhaps it would be better spent money to take from them to improve student health so that the queues are shortened.

If we can help children with mental illness in school, the BUP clinics will be relieved. I see only benefits in helping children with mental illness.

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

Mathias Bengtsson (KD)

Madam Speaker! Today we shall debate teachers and students. I would like to begin in Dalarna and with a story that a teacher, Birger, has told. He worked in Gagnef municipality for over 30 years, from the 60s onwards.

Birger told me how one day in his profession he received a telephone call from the Konsum merchant down in the village. The merchant told him that some student from the school had shoplifted in the store. Birger went back to the classroom and stood in front of the class. He told the students that it had come to his knowledge that someone had taken something from Konsum without paying. He did not know who it was, but those who had done it could raise their hands. Consequently, it happens that some students raise their hands. They receive the instruction to go home, tell their parents, take the parents to the Konsum merchant, apologize, and pay back what they had taken.

So it was. The day after, the boys came to the store together with their parents, apologized and made amends.

Teacher Birger then told that many years later, long after the teacher and the merchant had put their professional lives behind them, they met again. They talked about old times, as people do. The merchant told that he had recently had an electrician at his home. In the middle of the work that the electrician was performing at the old merchant's home, the electrician had stopped, looked him in the eye and said that he did not know if the merchant recognized him, but he recognized the merchant. It was thanks to the merchant and the teacher that he had a job today. He was one of those who snatched, and if the merchant and the teacher had not intervened in this, he would not be where he is. He did not know how it could have turned out for him. It was there he learned to be honest.

There is much to say about the old but true story. Not least, it says something about the trust the teacher had with the students, when he could ask them to openly admit in front of the class what they had done and get the students to voluntarily go home to their parents and get the parents to come along and set things right. It says something about the teacher's leadership. But that story also shows how great a difference a teacher can make for an individual student's life.

I am also thinking of Lasse, who one could read about in Svenska Dagbladet a few weeks ago. Lasse was a teacher who worked at the same school in Gothenburg for 40 years. In 1979, Lasse received his first special class. In Lasse's class ended up the rowdiest kids that the municipal school had to handle. It was an entire classroom full of lost and outgoing teenagers, all of whom had different school failures behind them.

Lasse saw them, not just with eyes that read the lines in a textbook, but he had a gaze that read between the lines. He set boundaries, he created a culture of respect, and he had the energy to care even after the school day ended. It was actually not uncommon for Lasse himself to call home to the students who had overslept. Sometimes he even came by and knocked to make sure they got up and made their way to school. In Lasse's class, you arrived at the classroom when the schedule began – and that was that.

Parents stood in line to have their children placed in the special class.

Jonas, one of Lasse's students, tells in the report that when he came to Lasse's classroom, he had never previously met an adult man who believed in him. He had failed in seven subjects when he started ninth grade, and everyone knew that it was hopeless for him to get into upper secondary school. And as Jonas tells himself: When adults say that you will not make it, it leaves a mark for the whole life.

In Lasse's class, Jonas was elevated. He entered high school and became a carpenter. Today, Jonas runs his own company in the construction industry. In his free time, he teaches Muay Thai, and in the ring, he continues to live by Lasse's motto of seeing every individual.

Madam Speaker! I am trying to demonstrate how great a difference a teacher can make for a student's life and future. It is the skilled teachers who build the school strong. It is teachers with a warm heart and a firm hand, who speak about what is right and wrong and how one treats others. It is they who create a school where knowledge can take center stage. It is they who create a school that students long to attend. Sweden's future is entirely dependent on the skilled teachers staying in the profession and more people wanting to become teachers.

We need to increase the attractiveness of the teaching profession. We need to raise the eligibility requirements for teacher training programs in order to thereby raise the status of the profession. We need to get more academics to switch tracks to become teachers and develop the career path reform so that skilled teachers can take new steps within the profession.

We also need to relieve teachers in various ways, not least by reducing administration and having special mentors so that the teaching teachers can focus on the teaching itself. Furthermore, reinforcements of special education teachers and student health can be made so that the teachers can focus on the teaching.

If the best teachers are to choose to stay in the profession, we must also once and for all deal with the disciplinary problems that we unfortunately see in Swedish schools today. It is important for the teachers' working environment and so that they can focus on teaching instead of managing conflicts.

Teachers' powers need to be clear, and disciplinary measures such as confiscating items, removing students from the classroom, detention, temporary relocation, or in the worst case, suspending students must be able to be used to a greater extent. It is about showing that we have high expectations that students can show respect for one another and for the teachers.

The skilled teachers in Sweden make an enormous contribution to society. They do not just build people, they also build the whole of Sweden as a country.

Madam Speaker! I vote in favor of the proposal in the report.

(Applause)

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

Niels Paarup-Petersen (C)

Madam Speaker! I would like to thank Mathias Bengtsson for a very good story about how teachers can make an enormous difference. Lasseklassen is a great example, and such examples exist all around the country. At the same time, the example shows how important it is to have good teachers and that we ensure they are there. The story also highlights some of the problems that have existed and still exist.

Mathias Bengtsson told about Jonas, who had received seven Fs and who said that when adults say that you won't manage it, it leaves a mark, and it does. It leaves very large marks. Until December 23, 2024, the Christian Democrats thought that such marks should be set. They want to keep the system that sets marks and that ensures that one can receive an F. That is how it has been and is.

The grading system we have is completely insane. It leaves marks and causes students to get an F instead of being told that they are making an effort and that the effort they are making is good and should be rewarded. If one had learned a little bit, in the past one could get a one or a two, but now you only get an F. This grading system is insane and undermines the students' self-confidence and harms them.

I have perceived that the Christian Democrats have turned now, which is very good. I really hope that the government will move forward and make a change to the grading system. But we still do not quite know how it will be. Therefore, I would like to hear from Mathias Bengtsson whether the grading system will be changed and when, in that case, we can expect it to be different. When will we stop such tracks being set across the whole country? Every year, 20,000 pupils leave school without the eligibility to continue their studies. This happens in today's school system. When will we get a better grading system that does not lead to these insane effects?

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

Mathias Bengtsson (KD)

Madam Speaker! The most important thing to avoid school failure is early interventions. We need to identify students early and, already in primary school, implement interventions with special education teachers so that students can be taught in a special group or receive extra help to manage school in the future. One problem I see with today's grading system is that it has unfortunately had the effect that interventions are implemented far too late.

The intention when the grading system was introduced was that it should ensure that measures and interventions were implemented earlier. That has not happened. In that case, one must be able to see the reality and be prepared to reconsider the issue.

It is, however, important that we have a grading system that measures knowledge, which can assess where a student stands and which can help the student see progression and be encouraged toward improvement. It is also important to have some requirement to be able to enter upper secondary school. To get into upper secondary school, one needs to bring with them a certain amount of knowledge to manage the upper secondary education.

If we were to let any students pass from primary school to upper secondary school just because we want to be kind and not impose a failure on them, pushing the failure up to upper secondary school. That could also result in a double school failure. I believe one needs to be a bit clever and balance things against each other when designing the school system so that it drives towards early interventions. No one should have to experience a school failure.

I fear that when the Centerpartiet wants to let more and more students through to upper secondary school, there is a risk that it will become another failure for students who enter upper secondary school with insufficient knowledge. I must pose that as a counter-question to the Centerpartiet.

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

Niels Paarup-Petersen (C)

Madam Speaker! In Sweden, around 16 percent of students do not proceed. In our neighboring countries and the rest of Europe, it lies at 2–4 percent. If they manage to give 95–96 percent of students the opportunity to proceed, I believe that we too should be able to reach similar figures. We are at 84 percent. That figure stands out. No country in Europe or in the OECD is even remotely close to the dropout rates that we see in Sweden.

We see that more could enter and that they could enter in different ways. We do not believe that everyone could enter today's upper secondary education, and we have never suggested that. But we absolutely believe that more than today could do so. That is also what the investigations say.

Then we believe it is good that other tracks are being created, which the government is also looking into. We hope for that, but we still know nothing about it either.

Lasse apparently also had time. Lasse had time to call, and obviously he had time to go home to the students. Great! It might have been planning time. It could be a thing that one regulates the teachers' time so that they have time left over. It is just something to do.

Those who make a difference are those who have the time to see the students. It is not those who have 30–35 students in the class, far too many teaching hours and a lot of administration and furthermore are supposed to participate in a lot of development projects and further education that do not have an effect on their actual ability. Then perhaps it can become better, and then perhaps more teachers have time to call as Lasse did in the past.

This is also what we would like. That is why we have proposed that teachers' time should be regulated. The government has also proposed this, but here either we do not know if it will happen.

Time and again, the government has said things that should be done and which are included in the Tidö Agreement, but which then do not happen. Others have also pointed out that the government has indeed started many good things. And it is also acknowledged that one has said that one will start certain things but now will not do so. But when will we see the actual effects, the things that make a real difference?

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

Mathias Bengtsson (KD)

Madam Speaker! Thank you, Niels Paarup-Petersen, for the questions and the contribution!

I completely agree that it is important that teachers get time. That is exactly why the government is reducing the administrative burden on teachers. We are investing in support staff, such as special education teachers, who will be able to teach in smaller classes so that, at the very least, noise is reduced and more order and structure is created in the Swedish school. Then teachers can engage in what they have been trained for, namely teaching, and not have to handle conflicts.

The investments that the government is making in special education teachers and student health have an effect here and now. The investments we are making in physical books instead of digital aids create a peaceful working environment and build knowledge here and now. Now, the government's investments will have an effect immediately when they come into force!

It is important that we in Swedish schools have high expectations of the students. One must behave, treat others with respect, and not disturb during lessons. But we must also have high expectations that they should achieve a lot in terms of knowledge. I believe that the grading system needs to drive towards high expectations. It needs to be part of setting the culture that we want Swedish students to succeed and go really far in terms of acquiring knowledge.

In order for this to happen, we need to reduce the dropout rate, and we need to do that by having different levels for different upper secondary school programs. For a simpler vocational education, which can even be two years long, the eligibility level can be different than for a higher education-preparing theoretical upper secondary school program. Different levels for different programs will reduce the dropout rate, I believe. The most important thing is that we let the right person through to the right track.

The Center Party's rhetoric and proposals risk creating a culture that makes demands decrease and thereby reduces expectations for Swedish schools. It is an order that I want to move away from, not return to.

(Applause)

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

Daniel Riazat (V)

Thank you for the floor! When I was elected to this chamber in 2014, we had very harsh ideological debates regarding school policy. In the same way as now, we came from different parties with different ideological leanings and different political positions. But there was a difference then compared to now. The difference was that we all stayed at a level of facts and competence, even if we drew different conclusions. There was a difference in that when certain representatives displayed a repulsive view of humanity, it was more than one person in the chamber who took a stand against repulsive statements. We rarely had to be afraid that such a view of humanity would be encouraged in silence or with applause in the chamber.

The year is, however, 2025. While I speak of this tragic fact, members are once again sitting with a smile on their lips. They first speak in a clearly racist manner from the rostrum about children and students, and then just sit silently with a smile on their lips when this is pointed out. I think it is shameful that we are in such a time.

This is why I changed the introduction to my speech. I also want to talk about the year 2000 when we fled from Iran and I came to Sweden. I came to a small town – not huge small, but for me it was a small town then, because I came from Iran's capital Tehran. The town was Falun, where thousands of people welcomed us with open arms. They helped us during the four years that we had deportation orders and were refugees. When we were hidden, an entire town stood up for us and saw – with teachers at the forefront – to that they backed us up in a very difficult situation.

This can therefore be started as the story of a person who has also come here and read the mother tongue instruction, understood its importance and understood that if I can the grammar in Persian it will help me to also learn the grammar in Swedish. This does not however seem to have happened in another member's childhood or upbringing in this country, which is a pity.

Mother tongue researchers also speak about how it becomes much easier to learn a new language if one can master one's own mother tongue well. But again, facts are not the strongest suit for a certain party in this chamber, and therefore one can spew out just about anything from the rostrum. As long as I am in this chamber and in this Riksdag, however, I will point out when I hear incompetence and falsehoods from the rostrum.

The history of Swedish school is not just about failed cases where children with foreign backgrounds have taken over and where nothing works anymore. That is not how it looks. About two months ago, I made school visits in Gottsunda, which the member spoke about here earlier. Teachers and principals stood proudly for their school. They spoke proudly about the fantastic stories and about the development with students with backgrounds from all corners of the world. I never want to see that type of falsehood from the rostrum go unchallenged.

I would like to move for approval of reservation 8. It is the Left Party's reservation concerning exemptions from teacher certification.

This debate concerns various issues from the so-called general motion period, and it is so broad that I choose to focus on a couple of areas. It concerns, among other things, the teachers' working environment. We believe that the working environment must be improved.

School is perhaps Sweden's largest workplace, but at the same time it is one of the worse when it comes to specifically the work environment. Some of the things that are part of everyday life for the teachers, the students, and the school staff are large amounts of administration, too few colleagues, too large classes, a lack of regulated teaching time, and in many cases, non-adapted premises.

Vänsterpartiet wants to give the school more resources. We also want to see a systematic change beyond market logic and new public management. It is important to improve the working conditions for teachers and all school staff in order to be able to counter the shortage of teachers and other professional categories in the school.

The work environment and the work situation are the most common reasons why teachers choose to work with something other than school. To improve teachers' work environment, teachers need to get more colleagues who, among other things, have competencies other than being a teacher. A better functioning student health service is also needed. If children are unwell, it is important that they receive professional treatment from staff who are trained for it. Today, this responsibility falls all too often on already overburdened teachers.

Many qualified teachers and preschool teachers work in other professions today. The figure is approximately 50,000 individuals. With a better working environment, many qualified teachers could be lured back to work within the school again. Many teachers also testify that the working time is not sufficient to perform the work one is required to do. They have not been given enough time to be able to do a sufficiently good job.

The more teaching time teachers have, the more burdensome they experience their workload to be. The amount of teaching time also varies greatly between teachers and municipalities. But one thing is certain: Since the 1990s, the amount of teaching time has increased significantly. Vänsterpartiet views this development with concern. Teachers need to have good conditions to do a good job.

When the school was state-run, the teaching time was fixed in collective agreements through the so-called USK, which meant a regulation of the amount of teaching that teachers were obliged to carry out. Vänsterpartiet can state that the development in the Swedish school has gone in the wrong direction since the teaching time ceased to be regulated. We therefore welcome the state inquiries that have proposed reduced administrative burden for preschool teachers and teachers, as well as that the teaching time for teachers shall be regulated.

Another issue I must speak about concerns the abolition of the exemptions from the requirement for a teacher's license. Students' right to education presupposes that the school is accessible to everyone and that there are well-educated teachers as well as other forms of resources needed to provide the education of the highest quality.

In all schools, competent teachers are needed who can meet each student according to their needs and in their teaching, as well as participate actively in pedagogical development. As I have said before, there is currently a shortage of teachers and educators in Swedish preschools, schools, and after-school centers. The shortage of qualified staff means that, in practice, it is possible for an unqualified person to work year after year at the same school or preschool.

Vänsterpartiet is convinced that those who choose to continue working as, for example, substitute teachers for several years also have the capacity to obtain a teaching degree. The same applies to educators in preschools and after-school centers. Today, however, there is a lack of sufficient incentives from many employers to support their substitutes and their unqualified staff in studying to obtain that specific qualification.

It can also be stated as a fact that many privately owned school groups have fewer qualified teachers and that this has been systematized because it is cheaper to employ specifically unqualified substitute teachers. In this way, the profit-driven groups can expand their profit margins and increase the companies' value for future sale.

Furthermore, certain private school groups receive exemptions regarding the requirement for teacher certification because they have a so-called international orientation where they teach in, for example, English. We simply mean that this exemption must be removed. If we are to have an equivalent school system, all independent schools must also follow the curriculum that applies to all other schools in Sweden. They shall not be allowed to make exceptions from the requirement for teacher certification.

The last thing I want to talk about concerns market failure. It is not possible to talk about teachers and students without talking about the market failure in the Swedish school system. It is not possible to talk about the teachers' work environment and the students' well-being without speaking about the world's most extreme school system. There are revolving doors between the political rooms where the decisions on marketization and privatizations are made and the greedy villainous companies that have benefited from this privatization and marketization.

Next year is the election. I would like to call it a fateful choice for the Swedish school system. The market failure must not continue for another four years. These 35 years have been 35 years too many.

We know that this blue-brown government has no interest in this system being the foundation. But I must also say that I am a bit worried about where the Center Party is heading on the issue. The party, which for a longer period, thank goodness, has approached us regarding the view on the market school and its components, has now received a new party leader who implies things that make me worried about this issue. I think it is important that we can stand united on the issue of the market school, because we know that this has been – and is – a failed system.

I want to ask the Center Party: Are you now going back to the neoliberal view of the school, or do you continue to approach your own voters on the issue – voters who, just like we and the majority of the population think, must stop the market school once and for all?

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

ANDRE VICE TALMANNEN

I would first like to inform the members that the speaking time was exceeded by over 50 percent. I would also like to remind those who have the floor to direct their remarks to the Speaker.

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Niels Paarup-Petersen (C)

Madam Speaker! The Centre Party's policy remains firm.

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Daniel Riazat (V)

It was so fast that I couldn't keep up. This was the funniest exchange of lines I have had.

I must say that I have been positively surprised over the last few years. I have seen the Centerpartiet, a party that in the Riksdag stood furthest to the right when it comes to the question of the failure of the market school, begin to listen to its voters, to research, and to its members. It has been very good to be able to cooperate with the Centerpartiet, even if it has not occurred officially in the form of any negotiation or so – I say this to calm Niels Paarup-Petersen and his party – because one follows facts and research when it comes to these issues.

Since then, I have listened to the new party leader, who has a background in some bodies that have pushed for the free school market to continue as usual. I have heard some worrying statements. Does Niels Paarup-Petersen want to say anything more clarifying about whether the Swedish people and the Center Party's voters have anything to worry about or not?

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

Niels Paarup-Petersen (C)

Madam Speaker! I can give a somewhat longer answer.

The voters of the Center Party and the Swedish people can always worry that the Left Party gains power. It is a classic concern.

To stand far to the right is not bad. It is usually based on facts. That is the reason why we stand where we stand.

But there was a time when the Center Party and other parties – some parties are still there – unfortunately did not want to address the problems that existed in the independent school system just because it concerned independent schools. It was easy to address problems in municipal schools, but it was difficult to address problems that concerned independent schools.

The left wing often had difficulty identifying problems in municipal schools and found it easier to identify problems in independent schools. The Centre Party belongs to those who had more difficulty identifying problems in independent schools, but I would say that we are now one of the few parties that see problems on both sides, both in independent schools and in municipal schools.

I hope that we can agree on seeing the problems where they are, regardless of who is the head of the school. That is the basis for the Center Party's policy. It is fundamentally indifferent who performs things and matters as long as they do them well. There are parties that only want municipal schools. There are those who see independent schools as the only thing that is good and that municipal schools are bad.

One cannot simply base it on the grades students receive to call a school bad. It is as incompetent as it can be. We see certain government representatives doing exactly this. But it is also student numbers and such that determine this.

So there are both bad and good schools on both sides. Daniel Riazat and I will probably, just like our party leaders, always have different views on how the boundaries around this should be drawn. But independent schools should not be paid for things they do not do, they shall be regulated and they shall be covered by the principle of public access. All of this is absolutely crucial.

We must make systemic changes. Small controls are not enough, as the Prime Minister sometimes seems to believe. Daniel Riazat and I agree that systemic changes must occur. We just do not completely agree on which ones.

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

Daniel Riazat (V)

This makes me a bit calmer. I do not, of course, assume that the Center Party will completely abandon its economic policy and its catastrophic view on the market and the like, but it is good as long as we agree that changes need to be made within this system which for 35 years now has disadvantaged both the children and the country.

We want citizens who learn things. We also want to know that they have actually learned what is said they have learned.

Then I want to remind everyone that it is possible to have a right-left debate without entering into racist mud and the like. I would like to thank Niels Paarup-Petersen for that. The Center Party and the Left Party can have ideological right-left debates without even needing to consider values and other basics. I would like to direct a thank you to Niels for this.

The Left Party will make this issue of the market school a campaign issue. Right now, we also see that public opinion is in favor of those parties, the red-green parties, which have also been clear on that issue for a longer period of time.

When it comes to the government question, the Center Party also needs to take a stand. Either you will need to cooperate with a bloc that has a far-right party in it with roots in Nazism, or you will need to cooperate with parties that fight for higher child allowances and higher pensions and for getting rid of the market school. That is where the choice for the Center Party stands, and I think the choice is quite simple.

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

Niels Paarup-Petersen (C)

Madam Speaker! I would like to begin by moving for approval of reservation 26.

What a pleasant little gathering we have here today! It is not always that one is invited to participate in two different governments. One must probably be thankful for that. We have exciting years ahead of us. We are not always so easy to deal with, which both sides also know.

Today we are discussing a report titled Teachers and students. I think it is very reasonable to start with the students, because it is them that it is all about. That is not always heard in the debates. It is about the students – you know, those children who go to school every day and whom we hand over to the teachers and so on. It is them it is about and not about all the other possible things that are discussed.

This is truly about the students' everyday lives. School is the place where, for many years, they spend the most waking hours. Unfortunately, it is also a crime scene, the largest one. It is also a place that for many primarily means defeat. As Mathias Bengtsson from Kristdemokraterna so perfectly described, it is where they are told, year after year, that they are not good enough. It is not a school that I am satisfied with.

My impression is nevertheless that we all see that there is a need for change, and that is good.

There is today a marginalization in Swedish school and in Swedish society that is completely unacceptable. We see that it is geographically based. It is first and foremost about one's zip code and where one was born.

In the marginalized areas of Malmö, we have had schools where only one-third of the students have had the opportunity to proceed to upper secondary school. It has become a bit better, but it is far from good enough.

In Haparanda, only half of the students proceed to upper secondary school. The rest are given no future – yes, they have a future, but it offers, with much greater probability, unemployment, crime and illness.

We have a school system that is fundamentally geographically unfair. It knocks out students. It creates conditions for some but not for others. It cannot continue to be so. The geographical injustices in Swedish schools must be eradicated, and the knockouts must be stopped. It is absolutely crucial.

Madam Speaker! There are many parts to this. The grading system is one of them. For many years to come, we – because the government is lagging behind – will retain a system that deliberately, actively, and deliberately knocks out students who, in all other European countries, would be allowed to proceed to an education. It is as absurd as it can be.

Every year, there are 20,000 students in Sweden who are not allowed to move forward. We often have school classes sitting up here in the stands. If you imagine a typical high school class, there are five or six students who were not allowed to move forward to that class when they finished primary school. Of those who come to high school, there are also many who do not move forward because they do not pass the education. This is one of the biggest problems in Swedish schools, if not the biggest, and it is decided, as said, very much by where you live.

The grading system today means that if you have it easy in school, you are judged on your overall performance. Every single effort counts. If you are a bit worse at something and a bit better at something else, that's fine; you might be valued at an average grade, C. Great! But if you are below E on any single, small thing, you shall receive an F. You are judged on your worst quality. It is completely insane.

This is the system that we still have and that the government really, really must speed up in changing. Unfortunately, it is the case that most government parties realized this and changed their minds only half a year ago, so I don't really know how much speed they have.

It is one part. Then we know that what is decisive for actually completing school if one is struggling is whether one receives support, Madam Speaker. And no, one does not. Very many receive no support. That is why the Center Party wants a student law that secures and guarantees that one receives the support one is entitled to. In the current situation, there are no consequences for the schools that do not give the students the support they are entitled to. There are no consequences.

We see time and again that it is on the support that the schools cut back. That is what they choose not to do. At some point in ninth grade, when it is seen that the student receives a poor grade, perhaps something extra is put in – some summer courses – so that the statistics look good. But the student has not received any support for the last eight years, so the basic prerequisites and basic knowledge are not there. That is the system we have today, and it is completely worthless. Therefore, Centerpartiet wants a student law that guarantees the support.

Then we must also see other parts here. Yes, the language is a challenge for very many. If you do not have the Swedish language with you from home, the probability that you manage Swedish school is much lower. There are people who say that it is too damn [difficult] – I believe another word, which perhaps does not quite fit in the chamber, was used earlier – that there are so many who do not have the language with them from home. The reality is that there are parties that are angry that those students are here, and then there are other parties that want to help the students manage.

This is the difference, Madam Speaker: Is one angry that these children are in the country, or is one angry that they do not receive the help they need to enter and become an integrated part of the country? It is an enormous difference in the view of these children. When you see a child in school who has difficulty with the Swedish language and whose parents were not born in Sweden, do you then think that it is bad that this child attends a Swedish school? Or do you think that it is bad that the child does not receive support to manage Swedish school? That is the difference, Madam Speaker. It is a huge difference that we actually must hold onto.

We know that students fare better if they receive support. It becomes much less rowdy. We know, in fact, that the children who are the rowdiest are those who receive the least support; this is also completely clear in the research. If one wants to do something about all these things, get a better indication and less rowdiness in the classrooms, one should ensure that the children receive early support. One should clarify what language they have with them from home and what that looks like. One should step in and demand that they receive support. Perhaps one should expand the possibility of attending preschool earlier, etcetera – not force, as some parties want, but increase the possibilities.

These are things we can do that actually make a difference, instead of just pointing fingers as some parties continue to do.

It was the students. Then we have the teachers as well. We have problems with that there is low qualification. We know that qualification makes a huge difference for whether the students succeed or not. We have requirements for qualification in theory, but a third of the teachers are not qualified.

The Center Party wants those who are qualified to receive better pay, Madam Speaker, and we want unqualified teachers to actually be forced to educate themselves so that they become qualified. Then, the students will receive better instruction; that is known. We also want to regulate working hours so that teachers have time for the students instead of doing something else. If they have time to plan the instruction, it will also result in better instruction. These things are very important.

Money was also needed. Yes, money was needed, and we are investing 5 billion more than the government. It makes a difference. This is what it is about out there: Are you going to save away teachers, or are you going to hire teachers? It makes a difference for the students, and it is them it is about.

Madam Speaker! I want to conclude by saying that the Liberals have once again had a very high tail-wagging in this debate. Unfortunately, the Liberals have as low a delivery in reality as they have high tail-wagging in the debate.

Centerpartiet wants the school that employs more qualified teachers to receive better pay. Today, it is simply far too easy to reduce quality in order to make a profit. The Liberals say no.

The Center Party wants a common and mandatory school choice. The Liberals say no. Or, they say it won't happen – even though it is actually in the Tidö Agreement.

Centerpartiet wants the principle of public access to cover independent schools and has pressured the government to investigate it. An investigation has been on the Liberals' desk for a year now, and we still do not know what is happening.

Centerpartiet wants a school fee that differs between independent schools and municipal schools, just as the responsibility differs. The Liberals have not delivered that either.

The Center Party proposes, as stated, that 5 billion kronor be added to the school. The Liberals say no again.

The Liberals are talking about regulating teachers' working hours while a collective bargaining movement is underway. But do they want to pay? No, they do not want to.

The Liberals' school policy in reality, where it makes a difference, is non-existent. Words do not provide more teachers, not more resources and not more passing students, Madam Speaker. It is real politics that does.

The fact is that every curriculum since 1980 has been launched by the Liberals. The Liberals were involved in developing the friskola reform together with the Center Party. The Liberals defended, until this past winter, a grading system that unnecessarily knocked out hundreds of thousands of students in this country and which contributes to both teachers' and students' poor well-being. Furthermore, we do not know if it will actually become different and, if so, when. We do not know that.

The Liberals have, during the latest parliamentary term, been involved in obstructing every single reform of the free school system. They thus guaranteed that it was possible to carve gold, as Fredrik Malm himself said from the rostrum. To claim anything else from the rostrum of the Riksdag is not becoming. That is not it. The Centre Party has also been there, but I am saying that it is so. I admit it, and we have made changes. The Liberals have also made changes, but to claim anything else is not becoming.

It would, however, be fitting if this contributed to a bit more humility among the Liberals, Madam Speaker, and an awareness of their own responsibility for how the world looks today.

(Applause)

I hope for a more fact-based political discussion in the future, with respect for the students regardless of where they originally come from, and for a political culture of cooperation where we can actually build a stronger school for teachers, students, and everyone else in the Swedish school system.

(Applause)

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

Camilla Hansén (MP)

Madam Speaker! As has been evident, today's debate is about teachers and students, and therefore it feels a bit sad that there are no students sitting in the gallery right now.

I still want to start by putting the spotlight on the students. It is the students who are at the center of the Green Party's school policy. We want every student to have enough time with skilled teachers. If we solve that – just that – and ensure that it actually happens, we are there. Then we will truly have the world's best school.

That school should have a focus on engagement in how one, in all ways, creates a school to long for, where every student and every teacher exists in a good and strengthening context. And you know, one should also have fun when going to school! That is my firm opinion.

School is the arena where students develop into engaged and responsible members of society. I particularly want to highlight the democratic schooling that only school can provide. I am sure that there are some people sitting in the seats here in the chamber who at some point have sat on a student council or been active in their student union. School does not only provide education and cultivation, but one also learns – the way of working shall be that one in practice learns – to navigate in society. One learns to take advantage of one's rights.

To be honest, Madam Speaker: Every time I am in a school and meet students, I am filled with hope for the future. But I am also worried about how hard school is for far too many students and about far too many not receiving the education they have a right to. I think it is a sorrow to see the school's, or actually society's, failure.

I want you to take me at my word: The failure is ours. It is never the student's. Nor is it the responsibility of the individual teachers, those who stand in the classroom together with the student. It is our responsibility that the school gives every student the opportunities and the education that they have a right to. This is something we can do. Sweden still has one of the world's strongest education systems. We can do this.

School should fundamentally be an activity that strengthens the student every day. But when more support is needed, either as a student or as a teacher teaching these children, a strong student health service is also needed. No children should have to be afraid of or feel unwell about going to school. For everyone to manage their schooling in the best possible way, support must be available when it is needed. This is no mystery. All students need extra support from student health at some points during their school years. Some need it more and in a systematic way, but everyone needs a strong student health service.

Student health is a central part of the preventive and health-promoting work, and I really want to focus on the health-promoting and preventive, precisely from the perspective that it should actually be a good thing for people to go to school. One should become stronger every time one goes there. A functioning and accessible student health is an important part of improving young people's health and well-being; we know that far too many young people are affected by mental ill-health. This is a trend that must be reversed. We also have the knowledge to do this, but we must ensure that we provide the conditions and are clear about what we want to be done.

Students who have enough time together with skilled teachers and teachers who have enough time for their students – it is that simple. And, obviously, that difficult.

Now I want to shine a light on the teachers. To be a teacher is to have the most important profession in every country. It is also Sweden's most important profession. It is time that we start to see that. I want more people to dream of becoming teachers. Many already do – this is one of the largest vocational educations within higher education, so you must not fall for the myth that no one wants to become a teacher. Very many want to, but more truly need to have teacher as their dream profession.

This still awakens some concern. We have a teacher shortage, but among several of the reforms the government wants to implement, it is included to raise the admission requirements for teacher education. It is therefore the only higher education where one needs to raise the admission requirements, the government thinks. This leads to that some educational institutions will lose approximately 40 percent of their students. It is going to be tough, because we also want to make other important interventions for the school. We want more people to receive competence development, we want the classes to be smaller and we want teachers to have time to research and further their education. I am concerned about how this is going to fit together.

Now I have spoken about the students and then about the teachers, but it is in the meeting between student and teacher that the magic itself happens. The quality of education in the classroom needs to be central when it comes to education policy. It is we politicians who must provide the conditions so that teachers and principals can create the best educational environment in the classroom, where knowledge, motivation, desire to learn, engagement, experimentation, and innovation are matters of course, and where people, both teachers and students, continue to grow.

Madam Speaker! I vote in favor of reservation 14 on strengthened student health for the students' sake.

(Applause)

The deliberation was hereby concluded.

(Decisions were made under § 14.)

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