Special debate on the occasion of the results of the latest Pisa survey

Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)

Mr. Speaker! It is the Liberals who have requested this special debate by reason of the knowledge collapse that we see in the latest PISA survey. Never before has Sweden lost so much in a knowledge measurement. Now it is a quarter of the students who do not have what is described as basic knowledge in mathematics and reading comprehension.

School is society's great opportunity to give everyone a good foundation. We need to re-establish a strong knowledge school with a focus on factual knowledge and skills such as reading, writing, and arithmetic. Screen time must be replaced with reading time. School simply needs to go back to the basics.

Firstly, we need to deal with the growing insecurity and the lack of study. More and more children are being bullied in our schools and feel unsafe. And this does not only affect the students but also to a large extent the teachers and other school staff. Arbetsmiljöverket's statistics show that the number of reports of threats and violence in our schools has more than doubled between 2012 and 2022. It is clearly a completely unsustainable situation.

The government has a battery of measures to achieve a cultural change in schools. We need to establish a new order where it is clear that it is the teachers and the principals who decide - not the students or their parents. We want an order where it is clear that it is unacceptable for the classroom to be filled with death threats and sexual insults and where it is clear that teachers should be able to act without fear of being reported.

Secondly, we must get the basics in order. This means, among other things, more reading time and less screen time. Being able to see a text and understand it is the foundation for all knowledge acquisition. That is why it is so alarming that literacy is declining. If this trend continues, we risk abandoning a generation of functional illiterates.

The school needs to have the opportunity to focus more on reading and reading learning. Interventions during the first school years are particularly important, as that is when the foundation for learning is laid. Both the school's steering documents and teacher education need to be reformed, but above all, we must ensure that teachers are given better conditions to prepare, conduct, and follow up on their lessons. That is why the government is making major investments in, among other things, staffed school libraries, textbooks, fiction, smaller teaching groups, and more special education teachers, while simultaneously tightening the legislation.

More reforms must follow, and more must contribute. School is a mighty force when it functions at its best, but in order for us to address the literacy crisis, I believe all parts of society must contribute.

Thirdly, we must get the school system in order. As a liberal, I naturally burn for the school to be an equalizing force. All children and young people have the right to a good education regardless of where in the country one attends school. But unfortunately, that is not the case. We have major deficiencies in the school system, primarily created by the municipalization and the independent school system. It is a toxic cocktail that leads to enormous differences between different municipalities and between different school providers.

With more order in the school system, we lay the foundation for a more equal school across the entire country – a school that returns to the basics. Only then can we re-establish a strong knowledge school where students learn to read with real books, where factual knowledge is at the center, and where teachers can actually focus on their teaching.

(Applause)

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

Åsa Westlund (S)

Mr. Speaker! Sweden is and shall be a knowledge nation. It is a prerequisite if we want to maintain a high standard of living and high competitiveness. The foundation for this is a good school.

That is why we Social Democrats have high expectations and high ambitions for Swedish school. It should give students, regardless of background, the opportunity to develop as far as possible. That is not where we are today. If we compare ourselves with other OECD countries, we see that Swedish students admittedly perform better on average in the three subjects Pisa measures: reading comprehension, mathematics, and science. But that is not enough. For even though the pandemic contributed to lowering the results in Pisa for Sweden as well as for the rest of the OECD, it is evident that Swedish school suffers from structural problems. The deficiencies in equality are greater in Sweden than in the rest of the Nordic countries, and the gaps are increasing.

A major contributing cause to the fact that school has become increasingly less compensatory and thus increasingly worse at giving children the same chance in life is the marketization of Swedish school. The market school, with its pursuit of profit, creates negative spirals where the situation for students without parents with their own academic tradition receives an increasingly worse schooling. When schools are allowed to select the most profitable students, it becomes difficult to recruit educated and experienced teachers to schools with many students without parents with an academic background. This, together with missing peer effects, creates an increased exclusion of students – students who are needed on the Swedish labor market.

The SD-government is now trying to say that they are doing something about the problems that the market school creates. But after the government has prevented every reform for a long series of years, the increased control that they are now starting to talk about is also completely insufficient. More control will never be enough to address all the problems that the profit-seeking creates. On the other hand, it will lead to increased costs for administration. At the same time, the overcompensation to independent schools with 2 billion per year continues, even though it is possible to stop the flow of money here and now.

Mr. Speaker! Some of what the government is doing in the school area is actually good, even if it often involves correcting mistakes that the government itself has caused. Continuing the work to remove vagueness and ambiguities from Björklund's curriculum is an example of very important work. There is a need for greater focus on factual knowledge and requirements that are more age-appropriate regarding reflection and analysis. There is a need for more focus on reading, writing, and arithmetic in the early school years.

Mr. Speaker! But for more students to be able to receive intensive reading training with specially trained teachers, more resources are also required. And that, Mr. Speaker, this government is not capable of delivering.

(Applause)

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

Patrick Reslow (SD)

Mr. Speaker! It was in the spring of 2022 that this PISA survey was conducted. When the results were presented in December, they were, to say the least, disappointing. In the subject of mathematics, the 15-year-olds' results were 21 points worse compared to 2018, and in reading comprehension, they were 19 points worse. Most serious of all was perhaps that the knowledge levels fell back to the levels during the catastrophe of 2012.

This could lead to the interpretation that Swedish school is in free fall, but that is not quite correct. Instead, it is primarily about extremely large differences in results between students with Swedish or domestic backgrounds and students with foreign backgrounds. In other words, it is the effects of the wrecked and failed migration policy that we are seeing.

Education researcher Gabriel Heller Sahlgren at the Institute for Business Policy has, in his analysis of the PISA results, emphasized the importance of comparing like with like to make a correct assessment of where Swedish schools stand. Seen from that perspective, students with at least one parent born in Sweden perform very well. We still have top results, and Sweden also holds a top position compared to other countries. This is also supported by other international measurements.

It is worse among students where both parents are foreign-born. When this group is included, Sweden falls significantly in the ranking. Sweden's knowledge problem is therefore a migration problem.

But it is not only immigration that has contributed to Sweden's negative knowledge development, but also the consequences of the Social Democratic inability to create attractive learning environments. The head of PISA, Andreas Schleicher, has, for example, expressed his disappointment and spoken of Sweden's results as a setback. His clear message was that Swedish school lacks discipline, that there is a lack of order in the classrooms, and that Swedish school more resembles a service institution where the teachers' role and importance for knowledge development has been degraded. The teacher's role has had to give way to an extremely strong student influence. It has absolutely not benefited the students who need the teachers the most and the least—students with a foreign background.

This is how it has looked when interest in necessary reforms has been lukewarm and when the only focus from the Social Democrats has been operation and not much else.

The Sweden Democrats and the government have now taken the first steps to re-establish the knowledge school: more factual knowledge, emphasis on reading, writing, and arithmetic in early years, as well as more order and discipline in the classrooms. But the way there is long and requires drastic measures to strengthen the results, not least among students with a foreign background.

(Applause)

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

Josefin Malmqvist (M)

Mr. Speaker! It is where you are going that is most important, not where you come from. That is perhaps the school's most important mission: that everyone should be given opportunities and conditions to grow from their own circumstances and become what they themselves wish to become.

That is why the Pisa results we received shortly before Christmas are such a major failure, a gigantic failure: One in four ninth-graders cannot read and write properly. Take that in - one in four! It means that tens of thousands of young people will have difficulty finding a job in the future. They risk having difficulty establishing themselves and standing on their own feet in the future.

The fact is that Sweden in this PISA measurement loses in terms of both the students who should perform at the top and the students who perform at the bottom. The largest drop is, however, among those students who do not speak Swedish at home, who are not born in Sweden, and who do not have two parents born in Sweden.

Unlike the previous Social Democratic government, we now choose not to exclude foreign-born students in this measurement, those students who are expected to perform at the bottom. Consequently, we also see that the results plummet.

This is a major homework assignment for Swedish schools. We see that the school must return to the basics. We want high expectations. We want language screening already at BVC and mandatory language preschool for those students who cannot speak Swedish. We want more time in primary school, an earlier school start, more time in math and Swedish, and a school holiday in the lower grades.

Now we are fundamentally changing Swedish school with more teaching time and higher expectations.

(Applause)

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

Daniel Riazat (V)

Mr. Speaker! I wish that my speech did not have to begin with these words, but I have no other choice but to say that the Swedish school system is in crisis.

Is the crisis only about PISA measurements? The answer is no. Is the solution about adapting school policy to PISA measurements? The answer is again no. But it is about establishing an equal and cohesive school system across the entire country, when we see measurement after measurement showing that knowledge levels are falling and that equality is decreasing.

Falling knowledge levels in international comparison and a growing group that does not manage a basic education constitute a betrayal of hundreds of thousands of children and young people and is a clear and long-term threat to the Swedish welfare society - or at least what remains of this after a parliamentary term with this right-wing nationalist cutback and division government.

In the previous PISA study from the OECD, the head of education issues stated very clearly that the main reason why both results and equality are declining in the Swedish school system is the marketized school system that has been allowed to grow like a weed. Also, a large majority of Sweden's school researchers usually point to this fact.

A settlement was needed regarding marketization, cuts, segregating school choice systems, and ill-considered decentralization of the school system. The pursuit of equality in school is not only a crucial democratic principle but also a concrete prerequisite for good knowledge transmission.

If we are to be able to reverse the development we see today, the free right of establishment for private schools must cease and the market school and its logic must be abolished fundamentally. The municipalization of schools has not created but contributed to deepening the problems. Therefore, the state should also take the primary responsibility for the Swedish school.

No, the PISA results are not the entire problem, but they are one of many indicators that have shown that thirty years of market experiments, of austerity requirements, and of school laws drafted by the Liberals lead to poorer knowledge and, ultimately, less equality.

(Applause)

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

Anders Ådahl (C)

Mr. Speaker! I would first like to thank the Liberals for the initiative to debate Swedish school. Otherwise, Swedish political debate is dominated by testosterone-heavy topics such as war, prisons, deportations, nuclear power, polarization, and generally tougher measures. It is good to now be able to speak about something fundamentally bright: our children and young people and their school, how we build our society strong from the bottom up, and how we strengthen Swedish school.

Unfortunately, we are in a situation where Swedish schools are losing ground. This is shown by PISA, even though much can certainly be traced back to pandemic effects. Knowledge results are falling, but unfortunately, the gaps and dropouts are increasing.

We fundamentally have three problems to solve: Generally, our knowledge results are too low across the board, those with special needs do not receive sufficient support, and those with extra talent do not receive sufficient stimulation either.

It is time to really seriously invest in Swedish school. It is time to consider what is most important. Is it cheaper snus, cheaper plastic bags and cheaper petrol, or is it to strengthen Swedish school?

The very boring answer we get is when we look out over the country and see how the government's austerity policy towards the municipalities leads to the dismissal of teachers and the closing of schools - in municipality after municipality.

But there is another way, a brighter way. We in Centerpartiet have chosen to place school and education very highly. In our budget for 2024, we are investing much more in this than other parties, precisely because the Swedish school is not doing well. With resignations and closures, we chose to urgently provide 5 billion kronor in a special sector support.

Mr. Speaker! I want to highlight two ingredients that strengthen Swedish schools and Swedish learning outcomes.

Number 1: Prioritize the school in the state budget, and stop messing around with targeted state grants and instead create stable, long-term conditions for the school's principals!

Research has shown that one of the most important and significant parameters for good school results is stability in the schools. Predictability, low headmaster turnover, and low teacher turnover yield results.

Number 2: Develop the management! That is the basis of trust in the profession. It is time to give our teachers and principals greater freedom and greater responsibility to deliver good school results. For example, it should not be Stockholm politicians who set detailed rules for how the environment in the classroom should be. See instead to it that teachers are given power and the opportunity to set requirements and to own their classrooms! Research has also shown that high expectations and requirements yield results.

(Applause)

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

Mathias Bengtsson (KD)

Mr. Speaker! There are many parts that we need to address in order to turn around the school results. One of them that worries me a bit extra is the growing mental ill-health among children and young people. The number of young people diagnosed with depression and anxiety is increasing. The proportion of children in Sweden with depression or sleep problems is among the highest in Europe. And suicide is one of the absolute most common causes of death among young people. It goes without saying that students who feel well learn better. If one is contemplating whether one even wants to continue living, it naturally becomes difficult to concentrate on the math lessons.

In the fight against mental ill-health, the school and student health services are a strategic and important frontline. The earlier one identifies the problems, the lower the risk that they take root and follow into adulthood. But at far too many schools, it is difficult to get in contact with student health services. I met a student who scoffed a little and said: "It feels like the school nurse is on site every other Thursday if it's a leap year and a full moon." So, naturally, that must not be the case.

The Christian Democrats believe that Sweden needs a student health guarantee which means that every student in school every day in all schools shall be able to come into contact with student health within a reasonable time. We want to give all students access to routine conversations with the school's counselor and give the regions a unified mandate for all child and youth healthcare, so that no student falls between the cracks in the handover between student health and BUP.

But an even more strategic frontline against the growing mental ill-health is secure families, Mr. Speaker. In families that function and have time, we are loved unconditionally. There, love is not measured in the number of likes, and love is not priced by the brand on the shirt. There, we are loved for who we are, not for what we perform or how we look. Secure families lay an important foundation for life, and that in turn lays an important foundation for the school.

(Applause)

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

Camilla Hansén (MP)

Mr. Speaker! Sweden's results in the PISA survey are falling when it comes to reading and mathematics. It is serious.

The survey was conducted during the spring of 2022. As you remember, it was after two years of pandemic. I do not think we should get stuck particularly much on the effects of the pandemic, but even though we had the schools open, perhaps more than any other country, the sickness absence among students and teachers was still high for a longer period. It affects the continuity and quality of the education. Our focus shall be the development of the Swedish school system moving forward.

In the wake of this Pisa result, all kinds of proposals for solutions are popping up. I had expected a fair amount of the government's major announcement the weekend after the Pisa result. Proposals came regarding mobile-free schools, which is already a fact. There is already a legal possibility to have it. The news in that proposal is rather political micro-management instead of the influence of principals, teachers, and students.

Studiero is important. It is supposedly to be created by giving teachers greater powers to discipline students, when what is needed is time to build good relationships and shared influence over everyday life.

Another reform that is intended to remedy the poor knowledge results is new curricula, which is a good way to implement development quite slowly. But what the school needs now is resources to do its job.

School must return to the basics by focusing on knowledge. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are important. They are included in our curricula. But introducing new curricula is what the Liberals do when they want to save the school. Is the underlying thought perhaps that politicians are better than teachers at pedagogy?

The school needs money, not lectures about screens or being told to its face that it is important to read, write, and count. Everyone in Swedish school, school research, and pedagogical research knows that. What is needed are the conditions to do the job. That is what, not micro-management, that the government should deliver. For Miljöpartiet, the goal is that a recession should never be noticeable within the school's walls.

We can see the lack of development in equity. During our time in government, we introduced a state grant for equity and knowledge development. It needs to continue, it needs to be strengthened, and it needs to also include the preschools.

Swedish schools deserve politicians who give teachers the right conditions to do their job, more colleagues, good salaries, smaller classes, strong student health, skilled school leaders and continuous competence development. The students need a government that believes in the ability of young people and that invests in their future.

(Applause)

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

Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)

Mr. Speaker! I am pleased that the issue touches upon and evokes feelings and thoughts. I believe that we have a great common responsibility for this. But I am a little concerned about the opposition's lack of accountability. The students in the Pisau investigation have, after all, spent eight years in a school that has been run by Miljöpartiet and Socialdemokraterna.

No matter how you turn and twist the results from the 2022 PISA survey, it is nothing less than a knowledge collapse. Swedish students' knowledge has deteriorated in several areas. I think the decline in reading ability is particularly serious. It is no longer possible to deny that we have a reading crisis in Sweden. In many places, real books are under threat of extinction, and screen time has to an all too great extent replaced reading time.

The Social Democratic government was totally uninterested in replacing screens with books. The digitalization strategy we were handed was so strongly criticized by brain researchers, who had not been involved at all when it was developed, that we had to throw it in the trash. I mean that the school, especially at the younger ages, should be filled with paper, books and pens to facilitate reading.

There is no shortage of challenges to tackle. I want to point out specifically what the head of PISA said in an interview about the Swedish results: "What struck me most is the relatively poor discipline. You have a majority of students who say that they do not listen to what the teachers say. They are disengaged. It is noise and disorder. Many students are also distracted by their mobile phones."

These are issues that we must take most seriously. I am therefore happy and proud that we will now push through completely mobile-free days in school.

But of course, the school's challenges are greater than that. The school suffers, for example, from a misguided goodwill in that all students should sit in the same classroom, regardless of needs. We have extra adaptations instead of special support. There is an excessive trust in independent work instead of teacher-led lessons. We sometimes have knowledge requirements that are actually not made for small children's brains. We also teach the students very much about their rights but even less about obligations.

To reverse the development, the school must return to the basics. Therefore, the state ensures that the inequalities and deficiencies in the school system shall be rectified. Teachers will be given better conditions to have a reasonable working environment. And all students shall receive the support they need. No question can actually be more important.

(Applause)

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

Åsa Westlund (S)

Mr. Speaker! I take the opportunity because the Minister for Education does not participate so often in the debates here in the chamber.

The Minister for Education has admitted that the independent schools in Sweden are overcompensated. They are simply being paid for something they do not do. Nevertheless, the Minister for Education is not doing everything she can to stop the flow of money. Instead, she and the government have decided that the flow of billions to the independent schools shall continue. It is, as I have said earlier in this chamber, just as stupid as continuing to pay fake invoices to a company that does not do the job.

This is incredibly irresponsible towards today's students. They will not get their schooling back when they are affected by the savings that result from the rolling over of funds. It is also irresponsible towards the taxpayers. Are there other groups in society that the government also wants to receive compensation for things they do not do, or is the negligence towards private school owners due to the fact that the Minister for Education and the government seem to have very close ties to that specific group?

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Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)

Mr. Speaker! We have appointed two large inquiries. One of them concerns the national school funding norm, meaning that all children in Sweden - regardless of which school they attend and whether it is in a social democratically governed municipality or not - should have equal conditions. They do not. The inquiry will also concern the funding of independent schools. It is incredibly important, just as Åsa Westlund says, that what one is paid for is the work one actually does.

This debate is about the Pisa results. It would be interesting to hear the Social Democrats' view on why it has turned out this way, since the children in the Pisa study have primarily attended schools governed by Social Democrats.

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Åsa Westlund (S)

Mr. Speaker! I share the Minister for Education's view that the market school is a major part of the reason for the loss of knowledge. I also know that our previous, Social Democratic government submitted several proposals to the Riksdag to deal with the market school. Those proposals have been defeated by the Minister for Education's party. Otherwise, it would have been a different result, certainly also in the Pisau survey.

The Minister for Education said in her response that investigations have been commissioned. These investigations will take time. There is a finished proposal that, here and now, could stop the flow of money to the group of people who are being paid for something they do not do. Why does the Minister for Education not present that proposal? Why does she let the flow of money continue? It is about 2 billion per year for at least ten years ahead before this reaches an end. Why should just this group of people be paid for something they do not do?

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Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)

Mr. Speaker! It is obvious that independent schools, as well as municipal schools, should be paid for what they do. We need greater equity in Swedish schools. I note that Åsa Westlund does not say a word about the municipalization of Swedish schools in that respect.

We have a school system where there is a difference of 70,000 kronor per pupil per year in how much money the municipalities invest in their schools. It is a consequence of the system not being equitable. I believe that we must do something about the entire system, not just break away the friskolor but also ensure that we get a national school funding norm that applies in all the country's municipalities in order to increase equity.

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Daniel Riazat (V)

Mr. Speaker! Actually, no question needs to be asked; one could simply ask the Swedish people to look at the composition of the Ministry of Education to find out why the Swedish school system is where it is today. But I nevertheless choose to ask a question to the Minister for School Markets – or as the official title reads: the Minister for Education. It is a question to Lotta Edholm as a politician and not as the former person responsible within the corporate world for the market school system in the Tellus Group.

Given the decline in the Swedish school system and the fact that investments need to be made - something the Minister for Education himself confirms - why do the Liberals, Lotta Edholm and the government decide to go against what SKR and the unions say and implement the largest budget cut against the municipalities in modern times?

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

Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)

Mr. Speaker! The government is making the largest state investment in many, many years in schools. We are increasing what we now call the knowledge grant and making large investments in textbooks, more special education teachers, school social teams, and so on. But it is important to remember that school is a municipal responsibility. I am fully aware that Daniel Riazat does not think it is particularly good - he and I have quite similar views when it comes to the state's responsibility for schools. But it is also a municipal responsibility, and we must share that responsibility.

As Minister for Education, I am naturally prepared to make further investments in schools in next year's budget. I believe we can envision that, but we must also see that the municipalities have a responsibility.

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Daniel Riazat (V)

Mr. Speaker! It is very difficult for municipalities in times of inflation and economic crisis to also have a government that is not anywhere near providing the funds needed to manage today's situation. SKR demanded 28 billion to maintain today's quality within the welfare sector. The government chose to give only a fraction of that.

I mean that it is very serious that the Swedish government claims to want to invest while the teachers and principals out there know that it is a budget of cuts that has been presented. One can try to fudge the numbers and words, but the Minister for Education knows just as well as I do, all others in this chamber, and the Swedish people, that the government has presented a large budget of cuts. Then you still talk about why things go wrong in the Swedish school and why the knowledge measurements are going in the wrong direction. You are part of the responsibility for that! And it will get worse if your budget is allowed to continue.

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Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)

Mr. Speaker! It is naturally important to also make large state investments in schools. What I am trying to say is that schools are also a municipal responsibility and that there are very large differences between how much money the municipalities invest in their schools. One way to address that is some form of national school funding norm. We have now appointed an inquiry regarding that to achieve equal conditions in the country for both municipal and independent schools. It is also about equal conditions between the municipalities, precisely because it looks so different.

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Anders Ådahl (C)

Mr. Speaker! Let us stay for a moment on the crowns and öres in the state budget, because ultimately we have a limited amount of money in our country, and when one gathers as a government or parliamentary parties, one needs to make priorities. When we in the Centerpartiet were going to present our budget and saw how it looks in Sweden, where regions and municipalities are sending out alarm signals that 24 or 28 billion are missing and where school results are falling, we said that if we are to build a strong Sweden, we must build from the ground up. We must invest in the school and prioritize it.

My question to the Minister is, naturally, how it is that the government does not make the same assessment when you meet. Why do you not prioritize Swedish school in the state budget? Good words here are one thing – black and white in a state budget is something else.

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Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)

Mr. Speaker! Of course we are investing in schools. We are making large targeted investments. We are making, among other things, a large investment in staffed school libraries and a very large investment in real teaching materials to move away from more and more children and young people being referred to screens for their reading, for example. We are also making large investments in special education teachers, who will help the children who have problems in school.

I do not share the view that we should put all this money in the bag, as the Center Party proposes. I believe it is important with targeted investments in schools so that they actually go to the schools and do not go to other purposes.

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Anders Ådahl (C)

Mr. Speaker! It is true that we make different assessments, Minister. We believe that general state grants that go to the school are a better way that creates less administration and becomes more accurate. Municipalities and principals in different places can themselves determine where the deficiencies are in their school or their municipality.

But let me dwell on this matter of screens. When digital tools are used integrated into learning, results improve, it says to read in the PISA report, and it is extra clear in Sweden compared to the average. One of the countries that ranks best in the PISA survey, Estonia, is at the same time perhaps also the country that is furthest ahead in digitalization with a state digitalization strategy that is deeply impressive.

My question to the Liberals is: Shall we step back into the past and only use pens, or shall we also be able to use digital tools in our classrooms?

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Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)

Mr. Speaker! It is naturally important that digital tools are introduced, but it must be done with consideration for age and where it is appropriate. All research shows that one learns to read better analogly and that one achieves better deep reading and manages to read for longer periods when reading in a book in comparison to a screen. There is much research in this area now, and I am fully prepared for the Swedish school to conclude that children need real textbooks. So it must be. Then it is clear that digital aids should be introduced according to age and according to how small children's brains develop.

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Camilla Hansén (MP)

Mr. Speaker! The Minister for Education believes there is a lack of accountability from the opposition parties. I understand that one may need to review teacher training and the curricula at regular intervals. It is reasonable to do so. But if one wants a rapid change, that is not what one does. Then one ensures that teachers get opportunities to do their jobs here and now. It takes many years before the new teachers who have attended the Liberals' new teacher training enter the workforce, and it takes many years before new curricula are implemented.

I am surprised by the slow measures, and I am surprised that the Liberals are fighting so much against providing the municipalities with the support they need when the municipalities are facing increased costs that are in no way caused by them themselves, but by war and pandemic. Why do the Liberals let the school take the hit?

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Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)

Mr. Speaker! I share Camilla's opinion that there are things that can be done quickly in Swedish schools, but also things that are of a slower nature. But one does not exclude the other. Today, for example, we have curricula where the goals, according to what many brain researchers say, are almost impossible to achieve for some students no matter how much they strive. It is clear that we must do something about that. It is clear that we must also do something about the teacher education that does not to a sufficient extent prepare the future teachers for what they encounter in the classroom. Then, it is of course so that we must also provide more money in the form of, for example, targeted state grants that go specifically to the school, but one does not exclude the other.

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Camilla Hansén (MP)

Mr. Speaker! It is still a somewhat encouraging answer that the Minister for Education provides. There have been slow reforms, which of course must be launched in time, but not fast ones, for example, money so that skilled teachers can have more time in the classroom together with their students. But then I imagine that we can see a future in which even the initiatives that give fast results will come.

I would also like to address this issue regarding the curricula and digitalization. We have curricula with a focus on knowledge. We have curricula that focus on learning to read and write, on early interventions, and on using digital learning tools when appropriate. As we have heard previously, the use of digital learning tools is designated as a success. How are we to get out of this black-and-white debate about digitalization and move forward in Swedish digital school development?

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Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)

Mr. Speaker! I don't actually think it is a particularly black-and-white debate. The truth is that there has hardly been any debate at all about this previously. We have had a large, ill-considered digitalization of the Swedish school system. Very many schools have hardly any textbooks today. Therefore, we must make major investments specifically in textbooks, and that is one of the rapid investments that Camilla Hansén is calling for. The major investments that we are making on textbooks now will reach the classrooms during the spring and autumn.

One does not exclude the other. We need to make major changes to teacher education, to the curricula and so on. But we must also make major investments in, for example, real textbooks, more special education teachers, more smaller teaching groups and so on.

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

Åsa Westlund (S)

Mr. Speaker! High expectations for all students and a belief that everyone can learn with the right interventions are important parts of achieving high knowledge results, educated teachers and school leaders who stay in their positions for a longer period, access to good teaching materials and, not least, a focus on early interventions so that everyone will learn to read, write and count as well.

But resources are also important. This is also known by the parties in the government base. Therefore, they are also trying, in this debate, to sound like they are investing in the school. But the truth is that the state funding of Swedish school today is sufficient for 3,000 fewer teaching positions than during the last year with the Social Democratic government. It is a deliberate choice of the SD-government. It has chosen not to compensate the school for inflation in order to instead compensate high-income earners with a tax cut equivalent to 12.5 billion. It is a prioritization that will hardly improve the Swedish results in Pisa.

We now see the results of this in reality, above all that the students who need extra support have been deprived of it now that this government's policy has begun to take effect across the country. In addition, there is the continued flow of money to the private school owners, who are overcompensated at the expense of the municipal schools. The government and Sverigedemokraterna are hereby failing the school in several ways. We also know that the entire market school system has led to increased segregation and a less equal school. To strengthen the knowledge results and increase equality in the school, the market school must therefore be abolished and more resources must go where they are needed most.

(Applause)

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

Patrick Reslow (SD)

Mr. Speaker! Åsa Westlund speaks of high expectations. I believe that during all my years in politics, I have heard Social Democrats speak of exactly high expectations. But then one can ask why it looks the way it does. Why does it look the way it does in the areas of exclusion? Why is there disorder in the classrooms? Why is there rowdiness? Why is there truancy? Why do they not care about school? Why do teachers not act?

It is about the fact that one has not had high expectations at all. One has had very low expectations, and especially in areas of exclusion, the Social Democrats have had extremely low expectations of students.

To talk about high expectations is one thing. But to implement reforms that lead to having high expectations is a completely different thing. I wonder therefore, Åsa Westlund: Is it now time for the Social Democrats to live up to what you talk about, namely to ensure that we have high expectations for all students?

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

Åsa Westlund (S)

Mr. Speaker! It is important to have high expectations for all students. But the negative spirals created by the Sweden Democrats' and Patrick Reslow's policy unfortunately often lead to lower expectations from the staff towards the student group they have.

We see that schools choose profitable students. They are the ones who perform well because they have good support from home. That leaves schools with a high proportion of students from families without such an academic background. There, one also has difficulty recruiting teachers who are qualified and who have more experience.

All of this combined creates an environment that breeds low expectations. That, Patrick Reslow, the Socialdemokraterna have tried to change for decades. It has constantly met resistance here in the Riksdag, among other things after some lunches with the business sector from the Sverigedemokraterna. We regret it, and we look forward to being able to stop the market school in the future.

(Applause)

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

Patrick Reslow (SD)

Mr. Speaker! We have not seen any proposals in that direction. That the Sweden Democrats' policy should be the basis for this, I have no words for it. It is the Social Democrats who have governed. Why have the Social Democrats not corrected the problems if they have now been so extensive? Because they have not had an interest in it.

If you want to create a school with high expectations, you create a school with high expectations. Then you cannot go around and say that there is disorder in the classrooms and that there is fighting on the schoolyards. Then you take action on the problems.

I am proud that we now have a government that realizes this and that has begun to tackle the problems. We are creating rules of order and ensuring that teachers are given more tools. I am certain that we will need to go even harder to create order, decency, and discipline in the classrooms.

Why is it so difficult for the Social Democrats to talk about order, decency and discipline and also uphold it and come up with reforms that press on this?

(Applause)

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

Åsa Westlund (S)

Mr. Speaker! I wonder a bit what Patrick Reslow has done during his time here in the Riksdag. As I recall, he has sat during several parliamentary terms when the Social Democrats have submitted proposals to change the market school. Has Patrick Reslow been sitting there with his eyes closed? I ask the question because, according to his own statement, he has not seen any proposals. I can tell you that he has voted down the proposals in the chamber of the Riksdag, or in any case his party has.

I see a great risk with Patrick Reslow's rhetoric, namely that one misses children and students from the Swedish working class. All the Sweden Democrat focus is about it being foreign students, or students with foreign-born parents, who have problems in Swedish school. It risks missing that also Swedish-born students with Swedish-born parents have very big problems in the market school that Patrick Reslow stands behind.

I do not want to see that development. I want to see increased equality where all children, regardless of background, academic or national affiliation, receive a good education in Sweden.

(Applause)

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

Josefin Malmqvist (M)

Mr. Speaker! The PISA results are distressing, to say the least. The results in the latest PISA measurement show that knowledge results are plummeting in Sweden. This is happening both among the students who should perform at the top and among the students who fall behind and who are absolutely weakest. Many of these students have spent eight years in a Social Democratic-led school, and the results are plummeting.

I am surprised that Åsa Westlund cannot in any way express any kind of humility, self-criticism, or introspection regarding what may have caused this great loss of knowledge. The only answer we get is that it is about independent schools. But the fact is that Finland, which has neither independent schools nor a school voucher system, is falling more than Sweden in this knowledge measurement. So it is completely obvious that it is not the answer to the question.

I would therefore like to give Åsa Westlund another chance to answer the question. Why is Sweden plummeting in this way in the latest Pisa measurement, in your opinion?

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

Åsa Westlund (S)

Mr. Speaker! Not only this measurement but several other surveys show that inequality in Swedish schools has increased since the market school was introduced. I and the Minister for Education see this as an important part of the explanation for the poorer PISA results.

Does Josefin Malmqvist not share the Minister for Education's analysis that the market school is still an important part of the explanation for the lost results in Swedish schools in the Pisaundersökningen?

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

Josefin Malmqvist (M)

Mr. Speaker! We see that Swedish school is in great need of reforms. We need to re-establish the knowledge school and reform teacher education, and we need new curricula. In area after area, we are now implementing substantial reforms, and so also when it comes to deviations within the independent school sector. We are correcting the problems that have existed for years and that the previous Social Democratic government has not been able to do anything about. Now we are taking action on it.

I stand by my question. It is so obvious that Åsa Westlund completely turns a blind eye to all the problems we have in Swedish schools. Several school researchers, for example Gabriel Heller Sahlgren, have commented on the Pisa results. They have noted, area by area, that there is no evidence that Sweden's drop in the Pisa measurement had anything to do with the free school system.

That is why I ask Åsa Westlund again: Do you have any analysis of what the loss is due to? Do you have any self-criticism in light of the fact that these students have attended a Social Democratic school throughout their entire schooling?

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

Åsa Westlund (S)

Mr. Speaker! It is actually quite fascinating that the largest party in the government does not share the Minister for Education's analysis of what has gone wrong in Swedish schools. When the Minister for Education was asked how the results in the PISA survey could drop so much, the Minister for Education himself mentioned the commercialization of the independent schools at the press conference. But the Moderaterna do not seem to share that analysis.

What I think the Social Democrats could have done differently is the work that I have criticized the government for, namely to proceed with reforming Björklund's curriculum. It was too vague. There was too much focus on reflection and analysis. I welcome that the government is now taking that work further to more quickly address the problems it has created for Swedish schools.

(Applause)

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

Mathias Bengtsson (KD)

Mr. Speaker! We have a school where students cannot acquire enough knowledge, partly because they are disturbed during lessons. They are not only disturbed by friends but also by screens, mobiles, computers, and tablets. Mobiles also cause disturbances during breaks and create insecurity, and they give bullying a completely new playing field.

Physical teaching materials are simultaneously decreasing in schools. Learning is hindered when one has to read on a screen instead of paper, and one does not get the entire instruction gathered in a single textbook. This digitalization hysteria, if I may use that word, has proceeded uncontrollably for far too long. This applies not least during the last eight years when the Social Democrats have governed Sweden.

I wanted to ask if Member Åsa Westlund can give her view on that and if she is self-critical that the development was allowed to proceed. I also want to give the Member the chance to comment on the government's proposal for a mobile phone ban during the entire school day. Will the Social Democrats stand behind it?

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

Åsa Westlund (S)

Mr. Speaker! Now I have sat for one mandate period longer than Mathias Bengtsson in the Riksdag. I therefore know how much criticism the Social Democratic government received, among other things from Mathias Bengtsson's party, about the fact that the digitalization of Swedish schools was proceeding too slowly. It was to be accelerated. iPads and computers were to be distributed faster in the classroom. That was during my first mandate period in the Riksdag from 2014 until 2018.

We perhaps listened too much to Mathias Bengtsson's party and accelerated the development. But above all, it was the Liberals who we cooperated with during the following mandate period who pushed forward on these issues. Our position has at all times been that it is something that teachers and principals should be able to take greater responsibility for.

Of course, we must also incorporate the new research that exists. Perhaps none of us have been fast enough in actually internalizing that children's and young people's brains need more calm and quiet in order to be able to focus properly on learning to read, count, and write.

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

Mathias Bengtsson (KD)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Åsa Westlund, for the answer!

As I understand it, the answer is that the member is self-critical of the policy that the previous government pursued regarding digitalization and the uncontrolled introduction of screens in the classrooms and corridors. Given that self-criticism, I naturally wonder what policy the Social Democrats are pursuing to reverse the development, so that the screens will be used less and no longer be misused.

I also wonder how the Social Democrats view the government's proposal for a mobile phone ban during the entire school day to increase concentration and safety and to reduce misuse. Will the Social Democrats stand behind that mobile phone ban?

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

Åsa Westlund (S)

Mr. Speaker! I think that a large part of the self-criticism should be about the fact that the policy should not run ahead but actually ensure that school policy rests on research and proven experience. That is the important thing. The policy had no support from either research or proven experience when it came to the digitalization being implemented quickly. On the contrary, we had experience of a school that actually functioned reasonably well.

We do not need to go into everything, but there was, therefore, no reason to actually believe that digitalization would lead to something that was much better. Now, I see a risk that the development risks swinging the other way and that politics once again takes on the responsibility to run ahead, even though there is insufficient research or scientific evidence for various things.

Exactly how we will position ourselves in votes in the Riksdag can be seen when the Chamber handles the proposals and when we have seen what the proposals look like. But I personally think it is very good when principals and teachers agree on clear regulations to avoid mobiles during school time.

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

Patrick Reslow (SD)

Mr. Speaker! Sweden's stated objective must be to top every international school measurement, including PISA. Today's debate shows, however, that the opposition is standing and treading in the same place as they have for the last ten years. It does not lead us forward.

Expectations for students in Swedish schools must be high. This applies also to students in marginalized areas, and it also applies to students with a foreign background. Rules of order with clear consequences are essential to create good conditions for knowledge.

In the USA and the UK, there is a concept called "no excuses," which is characterized by strong teacher-led instruction, discipline, hard work, school uniforms, special education, small groups, and very high expectations of the students. The results are very good. This is a concept that Sweden should consider adopting. To those who demand research and proven experience, I can say that this is an area that has indeed been researched. That can be accessed. But this is not enough.

A major problem is also that we have had a disproportionate student influence over Swedish schools. This must clearly be reduced. The strong student influence is devastating for weak students in marginalized areas. As the School Inspectorate has become increasingly activist, the statutory student influence has also entailed negative consequences for the educational mission. It is the teacher and no one else who shall steer and ensure that the students are well prepared for the future.

(Applause)

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

Daniel Riazat (V)

Mr. Speaker! I have a couple of questions for the Sweden Democrats' Patrick Reslow. One of them concerns the alleged statement from the rostrum earlier that the decline in the PISA results would be about students with a foreign background. I want to remind the member that we had the Swedish Schools Inspectorate with us in the Education Committee just before Christmas. They confirmed time and again that that is not the case and that the Sweden Democrats are wrong. The Sweden Democrats tried to ask the question in 17 different ways at the committee meeting, I believe, but they received the same answer time and again: No, the decrease is not about students with a foreign background. I wonder why Patrick Reslow continues to spread this lie.

As a second question, I also wonder how the Swedish school system is to become better with cuts amounting to many billions. How does it become better when teachers are laid off in municipality after municipality?

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

Patrick Reslow (SD)

Mr. Speaker! Daniel Riazat did not quite listen to what I said. I said nothing about the decline compared to 2018, and it was this that Skolverket answered when we asked questions. 2022 was compared with 2018, but that is not what I am doing.

I say that the development we have seen in the country is due to migration and that we do not have as good knowledge levels among students who are foreign-born as we do among those who are native-born. My purpose in saying this is that we must push to have high expectations for all students, even those students who live in areas of exclusion and even those students who do not have at least one parent who is born in Sweden. I do not know if Daniel Riazat is of a different opinion. It would be interesting to hear.

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

Daniel Riazat (V)

Mr. Speaker! Everyone can stand behind the talk of high expectations, so perhaps we can leave that?

What we are discussing now is the fact that we have a market school system that has deteriorated Swedish schools. We have had a policy of cuts for several years, including during the last two years, where your budget has prevailed and led to fewer resources in schools. Then the Sweden Democrats do what they always do and place the blame on people with a foreign background.

Patrick Reslow can compare with figures, not just from 2018. You are surely already down to 1930 and comparing those figures. But that is not what is relevant here.

What is relevant is that the School Inspectorate has been very clear: The decline regarding Pisa is not about the results for students with a foreign background having fallen. On the contrary, it is about the fact that we have an unequal school system, and this is what OECD says time and again. Do the Sweden Democrats know better than the School Inspectorate and OECD combined?

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

Patrick Reslow (SD)

Mr. Speaker! I agree on one thing: we can leave the talk about high expectations behind us. Now we leave the talk and move to the workshop. But I note that Daniel Riazat continues to talk.

Mr. Speaker, you, just like me, have surely owned vinyl records at one time. Sometimes it happened that the pickup got stuck between the grooves. Then it became what was called a skip in the record.

What we always hear from the rostrum from Daniel Riazat is a broken record: Everything is the independent schools' fault. There is never any reflection on what Daniel Riazat as a school politician has been able to do, what he has been able to present or support for proposals, but everything is the independent schools' fault.

If it had been that simple, we would not be facing the problems we are now discussing. But when 15 percent of the students attend independent schools and the rest of the students, 85 percent, attend municipal schools, it is not the independent schools' fault that it looks the way it does, it is about something else. Daniel Riazat must soon also understand this.

(Applause)

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

Anders Ådahl (C)

Mr. Speaker! I thought I would take on the somewhat difficult task of stepping into the world of the Sweden Democrats and reflect a little on the theme "everything is the fault of immigration."

The chairman explained from the rostrum that the low results in Pisa are due to how it looks in areas with high concentrations of immigrants in Sweden. Yes, it is true that the low results are largely found there. At the same time, it is not so strange. I am not surprised in the least. If I had moved to France and were to be judged in French reading comprehension, it would not have gone so well. It would have taken a few years before I was up to speed.

Out of pure curiosity, I would like to ask the member about another fact. It is the case that children of foreign-born parents proceed to higher education to a greater extent than children of Swedish-born parents. What does the member think about this fact?

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

Patrick Reslow (SD)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you for the question, Anders Ådahl! It is true. If one looks at it purely proportionally, that is how it is. That is precisely because the group of students with a foreign background is very dispersed. It is, therefore, a very extensive group. Also, the Pisar report says that there are very large shifts in just that group.

But it does not remove the responsibility from those who have created this situation. We have had a migration policy that has resulted in a very high immigration to the schools. And one has then not succeeded in having the expectations for the students that are required and the measures that are required for them to be able to take part in the Swedish school generally. This we must ensure to have. We cannot just leave everything to chance.

When it comes to the member being judged differently in France, I can say: Yes, that is also the case in Sweden. Students with a foreign background have lower knowledge levels than students with a domestic background.

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

Anders Ådahl (C)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you for the answer, Patrick Reslow! I will continue on the same theme. I managed to come across a copy of the Finnish magazine Läraren, where it states: The downhill slope in Pisa is becoming steeper for Finland. It also states that Finland is plummeting in the Pisa 2022 survey and that the fall is historic.

At the same time, we know that Finland is a country that has received far fewer migrants than Sweden and which has much lower immigration than Sweden.

Now Finland and Sweden are at the same level in the Pisa study. The member's starting point is that everything is the fault of immigration. How does the member then reason specifically regarding Finland's result vis-à-vis Sweden's?

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

Patrick Reslow (SD)

Mr. Speaker! There are similarities with Sweden. I think it is important that one compares like with like. Sweden is doing better than Finland in 2022 – that is seen if one compares like with like. Swedish students with a domestic background, therefore, perform better than Finnish students. Why is that? Yes, it is so because Finland has turned its back on the school policy that was so successful for very many years. This is not something that has happened between 2018 and 2022, but this has perhaps taken place over a ten-year period. They have dismantled the strong authority for teachers and the discipline in the classrooms. They have imitated Sweden quite a lot.

I can agree with Anders Ådahl's views quite a bit and think he is right in many analyses. Therefore, it is troublesome that Anders Ådahl chooses to belong to the left-wing group instead of coming over to our side in politics and ensuring that the conditions are created for Swedish students.

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

Josefin Malmqvist (M)

Mr. Speaker! The latest PISA survey confirms what previous measurements have shown. Knowledge levels are falling in Swedish schools - both among the students who should perform at the top and among the students who have it toughest. At the same time, grades in Swedish schools are rising. This shows something about the extent of the problems that we need to tackle in order to get Swedish schools back in order.

The investigation shows that the Social Democratic school policy has failed. That policy must now come to an end. It is a policy that aims for everyone to fit into the same mold. We shall not have resource schools or extra classes for those students who risk falling behind. Nor shall we have elite classes for those who need additional support and stimulation to move faster forward. Everyone is to be squeezed into the same mold.

This result confirms that the policy is not working. There must now be an end to fluff, unclear knowledge requirements, disorder, and a lack of study environments. Now we are settling accounts with the failed policy.

In the Moderates' school, all students are important. Each one should be given the opportunity to grow based on their own circumstances. Therefore, we are now happy that we can shift the policy and get a completely new direction. This is based on what several of us have touched upon in the debate: high expectations. That must be the starting point. It is about high expectations that truly mean that we expect each and every person to be given the opportunity to grow based on their own circumstances.

We are now reworking area by area to meet this. It is about, as the Minister for Education has pointed out, more textbooks and more teaching time in the lower grades. It is about reforming teacher education and a new view of knowledge in the curricula. And we are dealing with grade inflation so that we will once again have a real measure of knowledge in Sweden.

With this, Mr. Speaker, I thank you for the floor. I look forward to continuing to push through real reforms to get order in Swedish schools again.

(Applause)

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

Åsa Westlund (S)

Mr. Speaker! In 2015, Josefin Malmqvist's predecessor as the education policy spokesperson for the Moderaterna, Camilla Waltersson Grönvall, was very upset. Together with the other Alliance parties, Waltersson Grönvall demanded that the digitalization of Swedish schools should proceed much faster. Through a national strategy, computers and tablets would be spread and used in classrooms more quickly, and there was a great sense of urgency. Otherwise, Sweden would fall behind.

I did not hear Josefin Malmqvist say anything about how harmful screens are in schools - the Minister for Education usually includes that in her speeches. Therefore, I want to ask Josefin Malmqvist: Does Malmqvist and the Moderaterna share Malmqvist's representative's view - that more and faster digitalization is needed in Swedish schools? Or does Josefin Malmqvist share the government's and the Minister for Education's view, and if so, was it lucky that the Moderaterna did not get their policy through in 2015?

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

Josefin Malmqvist (M)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Åsa Westlund, for the question! Unlike Åsa Westlund and the Socialdemokraterna, we from the Moderaterna side are prepared to reconsider the policy. When it comes to digitalization in Swedish schools, we are clear that we believe it is the profession that should decide. It is not politics that should micro-manage how the teaching should take place in the classroom. But it should take place based on evidence and proven experience. That is the basis for our policy. It is also what is the basis in the decisions that the government is now taking jointly. We have thrown the Socialdemokraterna's previous digitalization strategy in the bin because we believe that it should be research, evidence, and proven experience that should form the basis for the policy.

Now that I have the chance, I want to take the opportunity to once again ask Åsa Westlund how it is that Åsa Westlund still cannot exercise any kind of self-criticism, even though the Pisa results, which we are discussing here today, are a result of Social Democratic school policy. Can Åsa Westlund not in any way see that the Social Democrats have a responsibility for the results we now see in Swedish schools?

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

Åsa Westlund (S)

Mr. Speaker! I have already said earlier in this debate that I could think we should have moved even faster with settling Jan Björklund's curriculum. There was too much vagueness. There was too much relativizing and too little factual knowledge. This I have already said.

What I cannot apologize for is that we have pursued the politics we stand for - we need to settle the score with the market school. It is Josefin Malmqvist's party that year after year has prevented every reform in that area and which still stands behind that the priority should be some few private school owners' opportunity to make a profit over what is best for students and teachers. I cannot take responsibility for that, but Josefin Malmqvist must do that herself.

I think it has been interesting today. We have seen several examples of differences between the Moderates' and the Liberals' expressions regarding the school. But I want to ask the decisive question: In what way, according to Josefin Malmqvist, does the school become better by the state reducing its responsibility by a corresponding 3,000 teaching positions in the state funding? In what way does it strengthen Swedish school? In what way does it improve the PISA results?

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

Josefin Malmqvist (M)

Mr. Speaker! It is distressing that Åsa Westlund, despite several chances here, continues in the same old rut. We hear nothing about the Social Democrats' responsibility even though these students over the last eight years have attended Swedish school under the leadership of the Social Democrats. I really wonder what these students and their parents think about the Social Democrats' lack of accountability. I must say that it is astonishing.

If we are to engage in a bit of history writing, which seems to be Åsa Westlund's favorite subject here today, it was actually a Social Democratic and not a Moderate-led government that made the decision to raise the school fee so that independent schools and municipal schools received an equal school fee. But fundamentally, I think it is about Åsa Westlund, and I as a representative for the Moderates, having to take responsibility for the policy that we are driving here today, and then the question remains.

I see a lack of accountability and a lack of real reforms from the Social Democrats' side. Instead of actually taking responsibility, it is said that everything is someone else's fault. It is astonishing.

(Applause)

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

Daniel Riazat (V)

Mr. Speaker! Let me read some media quotes from recent years.

"Friskola in Åkersberga closes - with a few weeks' notice"

"Friskola in Söderköping is being closed - 'Deeply saddened and upset'"

"The Chaos School is being closed: Fines hung over the operations"

"Question marks as another independent school is closed"

"Friskola loses its permit - is closed down"

"Friskola closes with short notice - children are relocated"

This is only a selection of hundreds or thousands of catastrophe headlines from different municipalities, linked to private schools.

Who is then responsible for cleaning up the private schools' problems when they close their schools after the owners have taken out their multi-million profits? The answer is the municipalities, that is to say, the taxpayers. However, they receive no compensation for it.

Then one might imagine that the Swedish government should support proposals or develop laws that provide a larger share of resources to the municipal school, which has a greater obligation and responsibility. But the answer is no.

Then one might imagine that the Swedish government will provide larger general state grants to the municipalities. But the answer is again no.

According to this government, the results of the PISA measurements shall be improved through lowered taxes for the rich. Literacy shall be improved through longer prison sentences and racist reporting laws. According to this government, math skills shall increase by thousands of teachers being shuffled around the municipalities.

This is not how the Swedish school can be governed. It is not worthy of the Swedish people. It is not worthy of the children and the students. At the next election, the Swedish market school as well as the Swedish market government must go!

(Applause)

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

Anders Ådahl (C)

Mr. Speaker! We need to prioritize the school. We need to prioritize in the state budget and not cut back. The PISA results give us in black and white: Prioritize the school!

We need to create stability in schools, not fuss and tinker with targeted state grants and detailed management that creates more administration than benefit. We need instead to develop the governance, where the foundation is trust in the profession, in our teachers and principals. Decentralization is to give the teacher power and opportunities. We need to give teachers and principals the conditions to set requirements in the school and shape an environment that leads to study focus and good learning outcomes.

But all of this is not enough. There is a girl who is in the eighth grade. She has a grade of F in some subjects. She is failing. Her self-image is that she is unwanted, worthless, and meaningless. She compares herself with others, and the pressure resting on the girl's shoulders is immeasurable: She is worthless.

This girl, who is only a child, is stuck in a grading system where 15 percent is a fail. The school's role is to build knowledge and skills, but the grading system instead leads to crashed young girls and boys. On the other side of the lectern stands a teacher who sees the girl and who knows what kind of knockout it leads to if one gives an F.

The teacher's dilemma is unreasonable. We cannot have such a grading system. Abstract grading criteria and a sharp boundary do not work together. Knowledge and requirements - yes. Elimination - no.

Mr. Speaker! It is in school that our society begins. There we must not create problems for the future. Prioritize the school! That is what we do.

(Applause)

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Patrick Reslow (SD)

Mr. Speaker! Now I became a bit confused, because in Anders Ådahl's first speech he spoke a lot about high expectations and that high expectations yield results. But now Anders Ådahl stands and says that there is some girl who has received the grade F and feels unwanted and worthless. In that case, I think one has the wrong starting point regarding high expectations.

High expectations cannot also be unreasonable demands but must be precisely expectations, and the teacher's role is to lead a student to the right place. But to abolish the grade F and thereby say that we should not have any minimum level that guarantees certain knowledge is quite drastic. How does this relate to having high expectations for students?

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

Anders Ådahl (C)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you for the question, Patrick Reslow! Perhaps it is so that Member Reslow has not met any boy or girl who sits there with a grade of F and cannot manage to go to school in the morning, because their self-image is that they are worthless and unwanted by society.

I said that we should have expectations and demands. But at the same time, we must ensure that we do not cause exclusion. What happens with a student who receives the grade F, who is excluded and whom society actually says no to, is that the gangs are standing on the other side and saying "Come to us instead!"

Knocking out young boys and girls so that the gangs can pick them up instead can surely not be something that the Sweden Democrats think is a good solution. In that case, it is probably better that we have a grading system that can actually manage to both set high demands and create expectations in the classroom and not knock out our young people.

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Patrick Reslow (SD)

Mr. Speaker! Now, perhaps the Riksdag is not a place where one stands and talks about one's own experiences, but I have myself had students who have found themselves on the F-border, so I know very well what this is about.

It is not that the grade F comes like a bolt from a clear blue sky, but this is something that one works on continuously along the way. It is also not the case that the grade F means that one cannot proceed in studies, so that the alternative would be to end up in some criminal gang is about something completely different. It is a personal choice that one makes in that case, and it has nothing to do with the grade F.

What will happen if you have the grade F in the wrong subjects is that you might go to the high school's individual program and there make up what you have lost. I think we send the wrong signals if we say that the grade F locks the students for all time. I have heard many say it; I think it is wrong.

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Anders Ådahl (C)

Mr. Speaker! When I listen to the member and the questions he asks here, it becomes apparent that we are making different assessments of the situation in the classroom and of how these young boys and girls experience their situation.

I have spoken with incredibly many teachers and read reports describing how mental ill-health is increasing. When 15 percent of our students actually do not pass and society says they are not welcome and are left standing outside, then I think we have created a grading system that is not good.

We cannot have a grading system that leads to young people feeling so poorly and suffering from mental ill-health. Instead, we can reform the grades E and F and review them so that we can manage to set requirements and have high expectations without burning out students. That is our proposal.

(Applause)

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Mathias Bengtsson (KD)

Mr. Speaker! Technology has brought many great advances and opportunities, but several of the causes of children's and young people's health problems actually seem to begin and end with the constant flow of screens. Children's access to screens at all hours of the day has coincided with increased worry, anxiety, stress, and self-harming behavior. One third of Sweden's 14-year-olds spend over five hours a day outside of school time sitting still in front of a screen. It leads to a lack of sleep, movement, relationships, and meaning. And the negative digital effects of the screens are many.

How does this affect school results, considering that it is school we are debating? The spinning TikTok brain, which is constantly searching for new and quick kicks, chooses to opt out of reading longer texts, and it prioritizes away more difficult tasks.

Students find it increasingly difficult to do their homework when the boring drudgery competes with all the world's entertainment within arm's reach. Only one in five children does their homework without digital distraction.

Furthermore, we have forced screens into preschool and school - because we are modern. There has been a digitalization fever in school, where everything digital in the name of modernity has been considered good - regardless of content. But, Mr. Speaker, that time is over.

Schools need fewer screens and more physical teaching materials, fewer distractions and more mobile phone bans, fewer quick kicks and more boring drudgery.

Screens used for the wrong things simply do not belong in Swedish schools. For the very youngest students, screens should only occur in exceptional cases at all. The focus should be on arithmetic, writing, and being able to read longer texts. Students need to lift their eyes and learn the basics without screens.

(Applause)

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Camilla Hansén (MP)

Mr. Speaker! What is it that needs to be done now?

If one wants to create rapid changes in Swedish schools, there is a single fundamental prerequisite, namely that skilled teachers need enough time for their students. Then we need to stop the cuts in schools, leave the market school behind us, and ensure that all students receive the education they have a right to.

The rebel principal in Ragunda, as she is called, refuses to give up the extra resources that her students need. For this, she has received a reprimand from the employer. She stands for giving her students the education they need, which is proportionally judged to be the education they need. She stands up for the Education Act, and above all, she stands up for her students' right to education. But she receives a reprimand for not doing her job. So, we cannot have that.

Why does the government seem surprised by the worsened results regarding reading, writing, and arithmetic? This is a concern that has existed for a long time, and we have made efforts to curb the concern. This is serious, and I believe that everyone here takes the issue with the utmost seriousness. There is now a reading-writing-arithmetic guarantee, which came into force a few years ago. The problem is that when the teachers use the mapping material and say where early interventions were needed, they are told no because the money is not there. We here have already decided that early interventions shall be made, but there is no money.

Let me summarize: The cuts in schools must be stopped. No, it is not the municipalities that are prioritizing incorrectly when the government chooses not to compensate for increased costs.

The market school must be abolished. It is tearing apart the Swedish education system. We need to focus on the students' right to education.

(Applause)

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Patrick Reslow (SD)

Mr. Speaker! I have a short and simple question for Camilla Hansén: Can Camilla Hansén and Miljöpartiet imagine supporting state ownership for the school?

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Camilla Hansén (MP)

Mr. Speaker! Miljöpartiet wants the state to take greater responsibility for the financing of the school, but not to nationalize the school.

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Patrick Reslow (SD)

Mr. Speaker! Then we received the answer in black and white; one complains about cuts, but one does not address that the municipalities make different prioritizations and have different budgets and that the school costs differ enormously from municipality to municipality. One is not prepared to say that it should be a state ownership; that is to say, one does not see the forest for all the trees.

Does Miljöpartiet mean business when they say that money is important? I do not believe that money is always the most important thing. There are many examples, not least in my home municipality, where money is put into the school, but it does not lead to any result. If there is no follow-up on the requirements for what the money is to be used for, there will be no result.

I cannot understand how one cannot see the forest for all the trees and only complain about the cuts, and at the same time, one does not believe that the state should take primary responsibility but claims that the state is doing wrong.

(Applause)

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Camilla Hansén (MP)

Mr. Speaker! I said that the state should take a greater responsibility for the school's funding. That means, for example, something that is simple and relevant now, namely that when an entire society is hit by increased costs due to pandemic and war, a state that has quite a good amount of money in its pocket sees to it that the school is not affected. That is what a state should do.

In addition to this, we shall use what was formerly called state grants for equality and knowledge, but the government has now deleted the term equality. This shall be used to expand a sector grant so that it becomes a secure funding from the state to the school.

It should not be the case that more principals are faced with either breaking the law or – if they claim that the laws should apply – losing their jobs. It is completely unreasonable.

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Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)

Mr. Speaker! I thank you for the debate.

I am completely convinced that all parties in the chamber actually must engage in some self-reflection on the issue. The PISA results are a result of eight years of Social Democratic and Green Party school policy. Nevertheless, I am of course prepared to admit that there are problems in the school that my predecessors have created.

We must do something about the grading system and the curricula. We must increase state governance, and we must reduce the administrative burden on teachers. We must put a stop to an ill-considered digitalization, and we must create a national school funding norm. We must change the problems with the free school system.

But this requires that all parties in the chamber are prepared to take some responsibility for what they have been responsible for over the past eight years.

(Applause)

The special debate was hereby concluded.

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