Response to interpellation 2022/23:234 on mother tongue instruction and the Tidö Agreement
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the role of mother tongue instruction and its connection to the Tidö Agreement. L argues that the instruction should be seen in relation to Swedish instruction 1 and cannot answer the specific content of the investigation 2. S emphasizes that mother tongue instruction is important for students' identity, learning, and second language learning 3, and argues that research shows its importance for conceptual development and literacy 4. S considers a review to be a concession to SD 5 and that SD wants to phase out mother tongue instruction 6 5. SD argues that mother tongue instruction is an expensive 1970s construction that can negatively affect Swedish instruction 7. SD wants to see an investigation that highlights problems with the activity 8 and considers the research to be deficient 8 9.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Speakers (13)
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! Linus Sköld has asked me how I intend to act to strengthen students' right to language development in their mother tongue and how I intend to act to strengthen the quality of and secure students' access to mother tongue instruction. Linus Sköld has also asked me if I intend to appoint an inquiry in fact and in meaning to phase out mother tongue instruction in the Swedish school.
In the Language Act, it is stated that those who have a mother tongue other than Swedish, one of the minority languages, or who use sign language shall be given the opportunity to develop and use this language, and that this is an obligation for the public sector. In the Education Act, it is stated that a student with a guardian who has a mother tongue other than Swedish shall be offered mother tongue instruction in this language if the language is the student's daily language of communication in the home and if the student has basic knowledge of the language if the student attends primary school and good knowledge if it is a student in upper secondary school.
The curriculum for mother tongue in primary school emphasizes that access to one's mother tongue facilitates language development and learning. At the same time, there are few studies of Swedish mother tongue instruction, and there is therefore a need for more knowledge in the area.
Mother tongue instruction covers many students and a large number of languages, and there are many different ways to organize it while the conditions for instruction vary. It is therefore important for the government to ensure that mother tongue instruction truly contributes to the students' language development.
The Tidö Agreement contains no proposals to phase out mother tongue instruction. However, it appears that a review of mother tongue instruction shall be conducted and that an inquiry shall be appointed with the task of reviewing mother tongue instruction for the purpose that it shall not negatively affect integration or the student's knowledge development in the Swedish language. The special status of the national minority languages in the law shall be taken into account. The matter is currently being prepared within the Government Offices.
Linus Sköld (S)
Madam Speaker! Language is a prerequisite for all learning. Those who have a rich language have rich opportunities to succeed in school. Linguistic proficiency is required to name things in one's surroundings, to abstract and reflect, to gain new insights, and to show others what one can do. Those who have the words have the opportunity. Those who lack them are hopelessly behind. Therefore, language development is incredibly important for students' learning outcomes.
Those who immigrate to Sweden during their schooling obviously face difficulties initially. The language of instruction must be mastered, and it is a relatively slow process. Therefore, there is a large difference between the academic results of newly immigrated students and those of Swedish-born students. But it is with immigrated students as it is with Swedish-born students: family background makes an impact. For students who have attended the Swedish school for four years or longer, the foreign background no longer has any significant significance for the results. Instead, the family's socioeconomics are noticeable.
Students with parents who have a long education perform better on average, regardless of whether they are Swedish-born or immigrated during their school years. A large part of the reason is the language. Someone who has a rich mother tongue finds it easier to acquire a rich second language. To borrow former State Secretary Erik Nilsson's allegory: Someone who has linguistic capital can with relative ease exchange it into different linguistic currencies.
Building linguistic capital is laborious and the most important thing. There are therefore good reasons to ensure that students who have another mother tongue are allowed to continue developing in it. It gives the student the opportunity to acquire subject content in their mother tongue, even though she does not yet have sufficiently good school Swedish. Furthermore, all research indicates that it supports language learning in the second language, in our case Swedish.
Language is also intimately associated with our identity. Knowing who I am and where I come from is a good basis for good self-esteem. Those who have good self-esteem have better prerequisites to feel secure in different life situations. And those who feel secure have greater opportunities to succeed in school or in life. There are therefore good reasons to support students' language development in their mother tongue as a means of supporting their understanding of themselves and the development of their own identity.
Ensuring that students in the Swedish school system are given the opportunity to develop in their mother tongue is therefore a good idea for students' identity formation, learning, and development in both subject content and second language learning.
In his answer here today, the Minister says that the Tidö Agreement does not contain any proposals to phase out mother tongue instruction. But to give an inquiry a mandate to review mother tongue instruction for the purpose that it should not negatively affect integration or knowledge development in the Swedish language is based on an assumption that mother tongue instruction today has a negative impact on students' second language learning.
Therefore, I have two very simple questions for the minister. She can actually only answer yes or no to them. Does the minister mean that mother tongue instruction today counteracts integration? Does the minister mean that mother tongue instruction today has a negative impact on students' knowledge development in the Swedish language? Yes or no?
Patrick Reslow (SD)
Madam Speaker! Let me first and foremost thank the Minister for the answer she just gave to Linus Sköld's interpellation. I also want to thank Linus Sköld for raising this important issue and for clarifying the need to investigate mother-tongue instruction more closely through the interpellation. Even if it may not have been Linus Sköld's purpose, the question itself has contributed to many new conceivable points of entry for a future investigation.
Let us put the question in a historical context. When mother tongue instruction was introduced in the 70s, the primary purpose was to facilitate the return to the old country. According to the bill, the students were to be given real conditions to maintain their own language, to engage in cultural activities, and to maintain contact with the country of origin.
Then, in 1975, approximately 5 percent of the population had a foreign background. Today, 20 percent of the population were born abroad, and more than that have a foreign background. Of today's school pupils, 300,000 are entitled to mother tongue instruction. That is nearly one third of all pupils. It is completely different from how it was in the mid-70s.
Furthermore, the mother tongue instruction costs a lot of money. Even though one cannot get an exact figure, it has been estimated at 1.5 billion based on the fact that of 300,000 eligible people, 180,000 follow the mother tongue instruction. If everyone who is eligible were to utilize the opportunity, it would cost 2 billion. That is more than we invest in teacher training.
Furthermore, today's mother tongue instruction is also not in line with the development we see in other parts of society, such as stricter requirements for knowledge in the Swedish language, stricter asylum and immigration policy, increased requirements for citizenship and so on. In that situation, holding onto a 70s construction that safeguards multiculturalism rather than integration feels strange.
Despite this, we have not had a serious political review of the mother tongue instruction and its effects, but the activity has only been expanded and allowed to continue.
The Sweden Democrats have no views on people learning their mother tongue. But it is reasonable to ask whether it should take place through a tax-funded form organized by the school or if, in line with what applies in most other countries, it is something that the parents or the family otherwise should arrange. Fundamentally, it is a question of whether the statutory obligation to organize mother tongue instruction might instead have a negative impact on the development of knowledge in the Swedish language.
We also consider that mother tongue instruction must be put in relation to increased instruction in the Swedish language as an alternative. We look forward to having this highlighted.
Robert Stenkvist (SD)
Madam Speaker! An investigation of mother tongue instruction is needed. According to the Tidö Agreement, it shall be a prerequisite-free investigation. But a prerequisite-free investigation must be able to land on what it concludes, even if it is that mother tongue instruction shall be phased out. Otherwise, it is not prerequisite-free.
Unfortunately, the investigation will not be able to rest on any scientific basis, as far as I can see. Yesterday, I again read a lot of reports on what has been researched regarding mother tongue instruction. Contrary to what many say, there is no real scientific basis regarding the effects of mother tongue instruction. There is a general perception, a discourse, that it is very good and promotes the Swedish language and possibly integration. But there is actually no research in the field that really shows that. It is some general goodwill that lies behind it.
It is good with mother tongue instruction from certain perspectives. It is not wrong. It is absolutely great that students, children, learn their mother tongue. But we must ask ourselves what are the state's and the municipalities' tasks and what they are capable of. In the marginalized areas, we already have big problems today. We also have problems with language skills, which has effects on the grades.
Yesterday, as I said, I looked at various reports. I shall clarify what I found. In one report, Mother Tongue Instruction - a research overview by Veli Tuomela, it says on page 40: "I have not been able to find a single study that compares the development of mother tongue skills in students in Swedish classes who on the one hand participate in mother tongue instruction, and on the other hand do not participate in this instruction." If one is to conduct a proper research investigation, it must be done in that manner.
I come from Botkyrka, a municipality with a very high proportion of immigrants and people with a foreign background. When I go to Ica, I hear that most children there speak their mother tongue fluently. They learn it at home. At the same time, perhaps many of them speak halting Swedish. It is Swedish instruction that is needed. Children at that age learn their mother tongue automatically by virtue of it being spoken in the home.
Is it then worth the money it costs for one hour of teaching per week? Let the investigation show that. My question to the Minister is what she considers regarding this. If one replaces the mother tongue instruction with, for example, Swedish instruction, which is most readily available, it might perhaps have a better effect when it comes to schooling and Swedish language skills and, in the long run, grades.
Anna Wallentheim (S)
Madam Speaker! For most of us, words can be put into context. When we hear words like "angry", "sad", "happy" and "love", we do not only understand their true meaning but also feel what they imply. We can understand how one feels and what facial expressions the words would be embodied by. Thanks to that understanding, these expressions can be understood even in other languages. When we hear the words "angry", "sad", "happy" or "love" in English, it is not only the words' true meaning that we understand, but we also have the opportunity to put them into context.
You cannot take for granted that all children always have this understanding. Let me give an example. Before I became a member of the Riksdag in 2014, I worked as a teacher in my home municipality, Hässleholm. In one of the classes, I had a student who spoke fluent Swedish. In fact, most of us often forgot that this student spoke another language at home.
It changed when we, from the school's side, due to repeated incidents were forced to call the student's parents to a meeting where it turned out an interpreter was needed because neither the mother nor the father had sufficient knowledge of Swedish. It was only during that meeting that I understood that the student did not have the ability to express emotions, neither in Swedish nor in their native language. The words were there linguistically, but the student could not put them into a context or understand their meaning.
Mother tongue instruction in Sweden serves a much higher purpose than just giving children and young people tools to communicate in a purely linguistic sense. The instruction is of great importance for both the individual, the school, and society.
Madam Speaker! Through the National Centre for Swedish as a Second Language, it is possible to access research showing that one who only speaks one language at home does not automatically develop skills in the language, acquire the culture, or gain an understanding of the mother tongue. Furthermore, the research shows that literacy skills are developed in mother tongue instruction despite the limited teaching time for the mother tongue subject, which indicates that further learning could be enabled with an expanded space for the subject.
The Institute for Language and Folklore also clearly points to research showing the great importance mother tongue instruction has for the development of a child's identity, conceptual development, and language. Thus, it is also shown that even if children, for example, can describe what they see in a room or concrete events, they can have difficulty explaining abstract phenomena or experiences outside of everyday life.
From the Minister's response, I understand that the government means, among other things, that there are too few studies of Swedish mother tongue instruction and that there is a need for more knowledge. So be it, Madam Speaker, but there is actually international research that clearly shows how important mother tongue instruction is for other educational results. That should be sufficient.
Against this background, I would like to ask the Minister the following questions: How does the Minister view mother tongue instruction in general? If the investigation indicates a greater need for mother tongue instruction, is the government prepared to look into it?
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! This is a large and important discussion, and I think it is good that it can be conducted in this chamber. The purpose of the investigation is to obtain some answers to the questions being asked here.
There are many international studies, which several speakers have highlighted here today, which show that mother tongue instruction can be good and strengthen knowledge in even the language spoken in the country where the studies are conducted. But there are quite few studies of how it works with Swedish. Sweden has a system for mother tongue instruction that differs from many other countries. Therefore, it is important to see this from that perspective as well.
It is also interesting, as Anna Wallentheim pointed out, that this issue does not only concern the mother tongue itself but also Swedish language teaching and the opportunities to learn the Swedish language in a good way.
I look forward to the investigation. I believe it will be very important in this context, and I also look forward to this discussion continuing, among other places, here in the chamber.
Linus Sköld (S)
Madam Speaker! I asked two yes or no questions to Lotta Edholm, which she ignored. Does Lotta Edholm mean that mother tongue instruction today has a negative impact on students' knowledge development in the Swedish language? It would have been interesting to know what the Minister thinks about that matter.
I would welcome a review of mother tongue instruction if it aimed to ensure quality, equity, teacher supply, and access to learning materials. But that is not what the Sweden Democrats want. That is not what this paragraph means.
In the budget debate in this chamber in December, Fredrik Malm said the following: "Fundamentally, my and the Liberals' view is that it is better the more languages people learn." He also said that "if we have children and young people who meet the requirements that exist today to be given mother tongue instruction, which means that one should have a certain knowledge of the language from the start, it is obvious that they should be able to have it" - that was verbatim what Fredrik Malm said here in December 2022.
I interpret it as that the Liberals stand for the right to mother tongue instruction remaining unchanged. At the Liberals' national convention in 2021, motions regarding mother tongue instruction were also addressed. One advocated that mother tongue instruction should become a prioritized issue in the party's integration policy. The other had the opposite line, which is quite similar to Patrick Reslow's and Robert Stenkvist's, namely to abolish mother tongue instruction. The Liberals' party board then stood behind the first line and argued strongly for rejecting the motion to abolish mother tongue instruction.
At the same time in the autumn, the Sweden Democrats – as we have also heard in the chamber today – wrote in their committee motion how they interpret the wording in the Tidö Agreement, namely: "In the Tidö Agreement, it is established that an investigation shall be appointed with the task of reviewing mother tongue instruction in order that it shall not negatively affect integration or the student's knowledge development in the Swedish language. - - - The Government should, in its work for a better school, consider an update of the curriculum where mother tongue instruction, with the exception of the national minority languages, is phased out."
It is the Sweden Democrat interpretation of what would need to be done. Furthermore, in municipalities where the Sweden Democrats gained power during the last mandate period, they have done what they could to stay ahead of events. In Bromölla, Sölvesborg, and Hörby, they have minimized mother tongue instruction by all available means. The Sweden Democrats are ideologically convinced that mother tongue instruction, just as people from other countries, is out of place. It is the Sweden Democrats' view.
It is, therefore, very clear that the smallest party in the government basis, which staffs the Ministry of Education, and the largest party in the government basis, which often seems to be the one that actually decides, have diametrically opposite views on what the wording in the Tidö Agreement means.
The question now is what the minister will do. Will the minister secure students' right to learning in their mother tongue, as it is according to her party a prioritized issue for integration, or will she abolish mother-tongue instruction so that SD will let her remain?
Patrick Reslow (SD)
Madam Speaker! An investigation shall be appointed. I am certain that Linus Sköld himself knows that the minister cannot answer his questions directly.
It is, however, always just as interesting to listen to Linus Sköld and his rhapsodic summaries of what other parties think and feel. But the most important thing here is still to make clear to him that we have a new government and that it is not his party that is in power. We want to see a paradigm shift, something that is very clear in the Tidö Agreement. This happens, among other things, through an investigation that, for example, shall highlight the problems with mother tongue instruction but also the advantages, if such should exist.
The Sweden Democrats and the government parties agree to review mother tongue instruction. We think that is good, and it is very good that we have come this far. We may have different starting points, but fundamentally it is about looking at this for once and with impartial eyes to see how it affects the acquisition of Swedish language skills, which is the absolute most important thing for Swedish school.
People often refer to research, but just as my colleague Robert Stenkvist said, the research is very deficient. One does not have the reference groups required for a scientific basis. As long as one does not have two groups with exactly the same background and exactly the same socioeconomic conditions where one group has followed the mother tongue instruction and the other has not, one cannot claim that the research is scientific.
Instead, the debate is about defending the current system. For us Sverigedemokrater, there are no sacred cows. There is every reason to review how mother tongue instruction affects both integration and knowledge development in the Swedish language. Such a review must, of course, also include a critical review of scope, age groups, results, alternative solutions, as well as cost-effectiveness. We therefore look forward to the upcoming investigation.
Robert Stenkvist (SD)
Madam Speaker! Let me say it again: I have not seen the research that is referred to and constantly spoken about. I have looked everywhere for it.
A survey was conducted in Denmark quite a few years ago. The conclusion was that they discontinued mother tongue instruction there.
Reference is made to the fact that students who attend mother tongue instruction have higher grade points. I took note of that and thought that there might be some scientific basis for the mother tongue instruction there. Let me therefore read from Skolverket's report number 321 and page 19 where it states about higher grade points for those who have participated in mother tongue instruction: "Looking at the extent of the instruction, it is however not much more than one lesson per week. In this perspective, the markedly higher average grade point for students who have participated in mother tongue instruction appears almost strange. - - - The high grade point for this group of students could be about . motivation."
I actually think that this is what the higher merit value is about.
When I started school once in a while 25-30 years ago - it is probably even more - it was fashionable to talk about the spinal cord reflex, Madam Speaker. Boys could not sit still at a certain age because of a spinal cord reflex. It was a very big thing. A large center was to be built in Småland for it. After a few years, a researcher stepped forward and said that there was no scientific basis for all of this, whereupon the whole thing died out. I wonder if this with mother tongue teaching is a similar phenomenon.
Anna Wallentheim (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer. However, both in the interpellation answer itself and now here in the debate, I miss the Minister's answer on whether she is prepared to strengthen students' right to language development in their mother tongue. I hope that is the case and that the Minister, in that case, is prepared to clarify that in her next contribution.
Madam Speaker! As a teacher, mother, and person from Scania, the discussion creates a sense of unease in me, as the Sweden Democrats apparently have a completely different view on mother tongue instruction than I do, and they are today involved in governing many Scanian municipalities. But they also have access to the government and the Government Offices.
Member of the Board Stenkvist said that he had not found any research. In that case, I can refer him to the National Centre for Swedish as a Second Language or the Institute for Languages and Folklore, which can quite easily refer him to the research that exists.
That the government parties, together with the Sweden Democrats, through the Tidö Agreement have chosen to have an inquiry appointed with the task of reviewing mother tongue instruction in order that it should not negatively affect integration or students' knowledge development in the Swedish language, is for me an entry point that is rather about undermining mother tongue instruction than strengthening it.
In my home municipality of Hässleholm and in several other Scanian municipalities, the Sweden Democrats have tried to push the issue of a new policy for mother tongue instruction. It is a policy that neither strengthens the individual nor has the best interests of society in focus. It is rather about minimizing mother tongue instruction and making it more difficult for children to access it.
My final question to the Minister is therefore: Can the Minister promise today that the government does not have as a starting point for the upcoming investigation to either reduce or worsen mother-tongue instruction in Sweden?
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! There are many questions in the discussion that I cannot answer. That is because the investigation has not even been commissioned and has not yet received any directives. Linus Sköld is, of course, well aware that as a minister, one cannot answer questions where we have not even reached conclusions on what the directives to the investigation should look like.
I therefore request to be allowed to return - naturally first when the directives have been written and then when the unconditional investigation has been initiated.
Linus Sköld (S)
Madam Speaker! I did not ask what the investigation should contain or even what the directives should look like. I asked if the Minister meant that mother tongue instruction today has a negative impact on students' knowledge development in the Swedish language. She categorically refuses to answer the question. I note that.
Robert Stenkvist has searched everywhere for a scientific basis for mother tongue instruction. I will put him on the right track. Start searching at Skolverket or in the latest of the state's public inquiries on this from 2019! He can also search in the media. Then he will find references in these documents and be able to search further. It will be great. I promise that he will find it.
Let me make a brief summary. Language development in the mother tongue supports language development in the second language. Developing in one's mother tongue strengthens one's own identity. Multilingualism is an asset for society and the individual. There are therefore good motives for high-quality mother tongue instruction in the Swedish school.
I would have backed a review aimed at strengthening quality every day of the week. I would have gladly seen a review to strengthen equity. I would have gladly seen a reforming of the regulations to ensure that principals cannot act on ideological grounds to phase out mother tongue instruction for students who would be served by it. But a review of mother tongue instruction to ensure that it does not negatively affect integration and knowledge in the Swedish language is nothing other than a concession to the Sverigedemokraternas view of mother tongue instruction. In their opinion, it should be phased out.
What Lotta Edholm is now going to do is still shrouded in mystery. Will she ensure students' access to a qualitative mother tongue education, or will she yield to SD's demands to phase it out?
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! Linus Sköld considers that this is shrouded in obscurity. Yes, one could say that it is to some extent because the directives are not written and the investigation has not been commissioned. It is actually normal in Sweden that one does not answer questions of that nature when one does not yet know what the directives will look like.
With that said, I would like to thank you for the discussion. I guess that we will eventually return to it.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.