Response to interpellation 2022/23:292 on the folk high school as a second chance
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
L argues that popular education is an important force and that the government is investing in education for adults to secure the supply of skills 1. L emphasizes that the folk high schools give individuals a second chance and that the support is at a high level 1. L argues that the current economic situation requires tough priorities and that the government focuses on the education line. L argues that the folk high schools play an important role for the supply of skills and that individuals need a variety of educational forms 2. L believes that the focus should be on solving unemployment 3. S argues that the folk high schools are deprioritized and that the government's investments are not sufficient 4 5. S argues that the government has cut in educational forms and that the folk high schools are hit hard by the cost crisis 5 6. S believes that the government does not prioritize the folk high schools and that their policy leads to cuts that affect educational places 7 8 9. S argues that the government ignores the need for more educational places in a recession 7 8 9. S argues that the Sweden Democrats' influence creates concern for popular education 7 8 9 10. S emphasizes that the folk high school is important for people with functional variations to get a second chance at a job 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.
Utbildningsministern Mats Persson (L)
Madam Speaker! Niklas Sigvardsson has asked me what I intend to do so that the folk high schools can continue to give people a second chance and whether I will in any way act to give the folk high schools better conditions in the future.
Let me begin by emphasizing that popular education and the folk high schools are an important force and that the work of the folk high schools is valuable in many different ways. The goal that the Riksdag has established for popular education is very telling: Popular education shall give everyone the opportunity, together with others, to increase their knowledge and education for personal development and participation in society.
The Riksdag's decision on the budget bill for 2023 means, in accordance with the government's proposal, that approximately 4.6 billion kronor will be allocated to folkbildningen. During the pandemic, temporary extra funds were added to the folkhögskolorna. It had been previously announced that these funds would cease at the end of 2022, and the government assessed in its priorities that the need for temporary reinforcements due to the pandemic did not remain because we de facto have no pandemic.
Madam Speaker! The work of the folk high schools is, as has been said, valuable in many different ways. Through the folk high school, individuals who have not previously succeeded in other forms of education, among other things, are given a second chance to acquire, for example, a vocational education or eligibility for higher studies.
The Government is serious about the fact that we attach great importance to good educational opportunities. Ensuring the skill supply for the welfare sector and the private business sector is important for Sweden's competitiveness and the climate transition. The skill supply is important from both the individual's and the society's perspective.
Investments are therefore being made in education for adults. Already through the budget bill for 2023, investments were made, and in the upcoming spring revision budget for 2023, continued substantial investments are proposed, this in order that adults who lack the correct education shall be given access to education to quickly enter employment. The Government intends to propose in the spring revision budget that 400 million kronor be added to strengthen regional vocational adult education within municipal adult education, 70 million kronor be added to the university college, and 249 million kronor be allocated for student support.
This government is investing in education and skills supply. The folk high schools contribute an important piece of the puzzle in this. Therefore, the support for adult education, and thereby the folk high schools, remains at a high level.
Niklas Sigvardsson (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for Education for the answer and for the opportunity to debate this very important issue.
The reason I have submitted this interpellation is the concern and, to some extent, the despair that folkbildningen and the folk high schools feel across the country. I have encountered this concern during the winter when I have visited folk high schools and met representatives for various folk high schools. It is a concern that, unfortunately, is not at all alleviated by the answer that the Minister for Education has just read out here.
During one of the visits I made this winter to Södra Vätterbygdens folkhögskola in Jönköping, I met both participants and representatives - participants in several different groups who had drive and commitment. I got to accompany groups that had instruction in English history, social studies, and Swedish with both committed teachers and committed participants. The theme was freedom movements - something that I myself and, I believe, the Minister for Education has also spoken a lot about throughout history.
What struck me in these groups was the participants' varied ages and experience, something that the folk high school truly contributes to the school system. For me as a politician and as a person who is passionate about adult education, it was truly a visit that left me filled with energy.
Madam Speaker! I also received a number of comments and messages that moved me deeply. There were many different participants who highlighted a sense of frustration and worry and, to some extent, anger and sadness. They felt that it was a political climate that cast suspicion on their education. Why was their education worth less? Why should their choice to study at a folk high school be viewed with suspicion? Why should their right to a second chance – or another chance – be threatened?
And why were there no representatives for the government or members of parliament from the government parties who answered their concerns and their questions? It was an insight at the time of the election that one was afraid of the Sweden Democrats' view on folk high schools and popular education, and it was hoped that the Liberals and Christian Democrats would be able to counteract this. But after the election, one had seen none of this.
In the response that the Minister for Education has given here, large investments in the year-end budget are presented. It does not even reach half of the investments we Social Democrats put forward in our proposal for the autumn budget, and it also does not concern the folk high school, which we are debating here. Therefore, I am astonished. In a debate about the value of the folk high school and the possibility of a second chance, an investment is presented that admittedly reaches komvux – it is a very important activity – but does not contribute to the folk high school's possibility of being financed in the future.
Then one must begin to consider what the government's priorities are. The representatives of the folk high schools are currently sitting with budgets and worries, twisting and turning to make the money add up for the autumn and the future. Here they get absolutely no answers.
Therefore, I give the Minister for Education the opportunity once again to answer the questions I posed in my interpellation. What does the Minister intend to do so that the folk high schools can continue to give people a second chance, and will the Minister act so that the folk high schools are strengthened in the future?
Linus Sköld (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Mats Persson, for the opportunity to debate important education policy on such a reasonably early Friday morning!
Niklas Sigvardsson requested measures that can give hope to the folk high schools in difficult times, in times of cuts. Mats Persson provides an answer which implies that he will put back a little bit of the money that has been taken away from another form of education, komvux. It is a small consolation.
I would say it is on the verge of being mocking to answer in that way when the folk high schools are obviously deprioritized. There is an economic crisis imminent. The costs are increasing and the recession is knocking at the door.
In this year's budget, the government and Mats Persson still brought out the chainsaw and made major cuts in almost every form of education for adults. Komvux, the academy, the university college, the folk high school, and the labor market trainings all live in a shrinking existence when Mats Persson and the Liberals decide. It is incredibly poor timing.
And the 400 million that Mats Persson stated in his response that he is giving back to komvux is only one-third of the reduction that came in the autumn budget.
In January, Norr Media conducted a mapping of the consequences that the government's policy for the folk high schools has in my home county of Norrbotten.
Kalix folkhögskola loses 1.5 million and expects to be forced to pause its teacher assistant training and reduce the number of places in the general course. Tornedalens folkhögskola has been forced to shut down two started programs. Sunderby folkhögskola loses 3.6 million in funding and expects to completely stop with Swedish from day one and reduce the places in other courses. Framnäs folkhögskola loses 1.5 million and is reviewing its course offerings as a direct consequence of that. In my home municipality Älvsbyn, Älvsby folkhögskola loses approximately 2.5 million. This has the consequence that the places in the general course must be reduced by 20 percent.
At the same time, cost increases, inflation, and interest rate hikes are increasing the pressure on operations, and this is not corrected for in the folk education grant. The principal of Älvsby folkhögskola told Piteå-Tidningen in January: "There is no indexation on wage costs and everything else that has risen, such as electricity and fuel. Taken together, this is a serious situation."
In summary, we are in a situation where the demand for educational places can be expected to increase. Smart crisis policy would have been to invest in more places. Still, the government brought out the big saw, and then inflation took hold. Of course, it is incredibly concerning for participants, teachers, and principals at the folk high schools.
I believe that Folkbildningssverige felt it was pleasant that precisely a Liberal took responsibility for the folk education policy when the government took office. The Liberals have, throughout history, held the educational ideal high and been friends of folk education. Therefore, I wonder: What does the minister intend to do to live up to the Liberals' good reputation and to strengthen the folk high schools moving forward?
Johanna Haraldsson (S)
Madam Speaker! I would also like to start by thanking Niklas Sigvardsson for the opportunity to debate popular education and the folk high school's tough situation.
We are both from Jönköping County, where we have no fewer than nine folk high schools that train healthcare assistants, nursing assistants, sawmill operators, social pedagogues, personal assistants, game developers, health coaches and authors - just to mention some of all the educations that are actually offered at folk high schools in our county.
The folk high schools play an immensely important role for the supply of skills and people's opportunity to grow throughout the country. Folk high schools are hit as hard as other operations and companies by the cost crisis - by increased energy prices, interest rates, and food costs. At the same time, the folk high schools received reduced appropriations when the government's budget for 2023 was passed. And just as it is in the rest of society, this risks affecting those who already have it toughest. It hits them the hardest of all.
At the folk high schools, there is a large proportion of participants who have some form of functional variation, for example, a neuropsychiatric disability or another mental disability.
Many who have had difficulty settling into the regular school system, who have not completed upper secondary school or who have been truant during large parts of their school years, are today studying at a folk high school in a general course or a vocational education where they receive better and more adapted support.
Folkhögskolan is an important alternative path to employment and further studies. More than one third of those who, according to the Folkbildningsrådet's statistics, became eligible for higher studies through studies in general courses 2018-2019 had some form of functional variation.
In order for the folk high schools to be able to continue offering good support to those with functional variations, there are special funds within the folk education grant, but it is far from enough for the measures that the folk high schools actually take so that the participants can complete their education.
This is part of what the folk high schools contribute and what they could do more of if they were given the conditions. If the government does not act, we now risk, in this strained economic situation, that fewer people will be able to take part in the support and the alternative path that the folk high school offers to those who need it the most.
I wonder, like my colleagues, what measures the Minister intends to take to secure the second path to work and further studies, such as the folk high schools, which today is for too many with functional variations, and to create a sense of future confidence among our folk high schools.
Utbildningsministern Mats Persson (L)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, the debaters and the interpellator, for very important contributions and very important speeches! It is a very tough economic situation for many households right now. It is a tough economic situation for our entire country. It is a tough economic situation for all those who go to work. It is a tough economic situation for those who today do not have a job to go to.
It is very tough times that require very hard priorities and which mean that we all feel the high inflation and the tough economic situation that exists. This naturally also applies to our educational providers - folk high schools and other actors. I understand that it is a hard economic time. It is something that we all must contend with. We must all act responsibly and take measures to manage the inflationary situation we have.
The Government's assessment is that in a situation with an upcoming recession, it is important that people have good educational opportunities. We believe that there is a great strength in educations that are close to the labor market's needs. It can be at folk high schools. It can be within what we call yrkesvux. It can be within qualified vocational training. Those parts together play a very important role when it comes to ensuring that people in this situation have the opportunity to educate themselves.
We can call it the education line. It is about the opportunity to learn Swedish. There are high expectations from the side of society that one should learn Swedish if one has a knack for it. The person who wants to study a qualification should have the opportunity to do so, and the person who wants to study a new qualification should have the opportunity to do so.
This is important, and it is something that we have a very great focus on in what we do from the government's side and which is also reflected in the healthcare reform budget that is presented in the Riksdag on Monday. We have already signaled that we will make improvements and reinforcements to improve and maintain the education line.
This is important for Sweden. This is important for all those Swedes who want to educate themselves, and it is important for all those who offer education, where the folk high schools are naturally a very important part.
Niklas Sigvardsson (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for your second contribution! It is gratifying to see that the government is actually listening to the opposition and, above all, the Social Democrats. We have debated the importance of educational initiatives countless times in this chamber following the government's far too passive and frankly poor budget in the autumn.
Now the Minister for Education is speaking about the education policy. It is pleasing to see that the government is actually listening to an opposition that conducts good politics and that invests in the entire education system, as we Social Democrats did in the budget motion last autumn. But it is a pity that one had to come half a year later when the operations had already had to replan and started converting educations, canceling educations and closing down education places, for it is very difficult to, after a spring amendment budget, find all these places again in a hux flux.
Now I want to go back to the folk high school, because I think the minister's answer had very little to do with the folk high school specifically, and that is what the debate here should be about.
In the opening remarks, the Minister for Education just highlighted the importance of skills supply. The folk high schools play a very important role there. They have, both before and during the pandemic, adapted and truly started providing direct vocational training that leads to jobs.
The Minister spoke warmly about how we must solve the skills shortage within the public and private sectors, and therefore I want to give a concrete example of how the government's autumn budget hit operations all around the country. I spoke with representatives from Grimslövs folkhögskola, which is run by Region Kronoberg and is located in Kronoberg County. There, they made conscious investments in training for assistant nurse, nursing assistant, and hotel and conference hostess, something that the industry in Kronoberg was screaming for. The private business sector and the public sector truly wanted these trainings to be carried out.
Now places are disappearing. Every fifth place at Grimslöv's folk high school is disappearing completely, and some of these courses, such as for nursing assistant, healthcare assistant, and hotel and conference host, which the industry is actually crying out for, are proposed to be discontinued, this in a situation where the minister talks about skyrocketing inflation and a beginning recession.
It becomes very strange, and this is just a single example. My colleague Linus Sköld spoke about how it looks in Norrbotten County, and if you look up a local newspaper anywhere in the country, you can probably see folk high school after folk high school that has shown how the savings have hit.
That is why we were heading into a recession, [name]. All those signs we already saw in the autumn. That was what we stood in the chamber and said: We need more educational places. In a recession, education is a very important way in to secure skills and to secure the skill supply in the future. To then allocate so extremely little money as the government chose to do is not good, and the fiscal policy cocktail that becomes the result does not taste particularly good.
I still do not think, Madam Speaker, that I have received an answer as to what the Minister intends to do to strengthen the folk high school's opportunities to carry out its activities in the future, so I will give the Minister the chance once more to answer on just this.
Linus Sköld (S)
Madam Speaker! A tough economic situation, says Mats Persson. And it is true. It is a tough economic situation.
When it is a tough economic situation, the Social Democrats know what to do. We showed that last time. When layoffs and redundancies occurred in large numbers here in the country, we invested heavily in training places. Now that layoffs are occurring, the government is cutting back because it is not a pandemic. That is what Mats Persson says: The appropriations are decreasing because it is not a pandemic. That it is a tough economic situation, that layoffs are increasing, and that we can expect that more training places are needed, he ignores totally.
Mats Persson also says that it is important that people have the opportunity to study and to learn Swedish. Swedish studies are primarily conducted at SFI, that is, komvux, which the government saved 1.2 billion on in the autumn budget and is now putting some money back into, or part of, Swedish from day one for those who have not yet received their residence permit. The government also halved that in the autumn budget.
Mats Persson continues to assert that the government considers folk education to be important, but the fact remains: The consequences of the government's policy mean that many folk high schools are now facing millions in cuts.
I think that Mats Persson should answer the question about whether he wants credibility in the claim that folkbildning is important, a force, I even believe he said in his answer. How is he going to strengthen the folk high schools going forward?
Johanna Haraldsson (S)
Madam Speaker! Good opportunities for education are important, says the Minister. But when he then speaks about priorities, he omits the folk high schools. That just means one thing – that one does not prioritize the folk high schools and all those who actually are at our folk high schools.
I intended to return to my initial point in the matter. We know that both the employment rate is lower and unemployment is significantly higher among those who have a disability that entails reduced work capacity. At the same time, we know that many find another possible path to jobs and studies through precisely the folk high school.
To then not want to see what a strained situation these schools have or, even worse, to see the situation but do nothing about it is for me incomprehensible and risks, as I have previously said, that fewer people receive support and the opportunity for another path to jobs and further studies.
The concern for the future is great among the actors in folk education and those who participate in the activities, especially when it became clear that the government would be completely dependent on SD to be able to govern the country. The biggest critics of folk education, who wanted to investigate the possibility of closing all folk high schools and limiting the possibility of taking out student loans for studies at a folk high school, can now largely dictate the government's policy.
That concern is always there and was reinforced when the budget cut the appropriations for folkbildningen.
My question remains: Will the minister do anything to ensure that especially persons with functional variations can also in the future be given another chance through folk education and studies at folk high schools, or is it the case that SD's opposition to folk education prevents the government from acting?
Utbildningsministern Mats Persson (L)
Madam Speaker! Thank you for very good speeches, and thank you for a very good debate!
In interpellation debates, there is always a tendency that one does not really listen to what the other is saying. I will therefore try to be extra clear this time, because I perceive that what I say is not quite understood by and transformed in the recipient. I will therefore try to be clear and hope that my Scanian accent will not stand in the way of my clarity. We shall see.
The government believes that the folk high schools play a very important role in the education system. We believe that it is important that people have the opportunity to get a second chance. We believe that it is important that one, for example via folk high school but also through other forms of education, gets the opportunity to further their education, get a second chance and an opportunity to receive an education that enables one to enter the labor market or progress to studies at a higher level.
It is important for the welfare, and it is important for the business sector, that we now ensure we have high competence in our population and a competence supply that functions. My and the government's view is that it is important to listen to a large extent to both the public and private employers' needs for competence. This concerns the importance of people in elderly care but also the importance of locksmiths, train drivers, and other competences.
Some of this can be ensured within the framework of the folk high school's activities, while some other parts can be ensured through other forms of education. For the government, the most important thing is that we have a broad palette of different types of education, because individuals have different prerequisites and are attracted by different types of educational forms. It is important to have a diversity of different types of education. There, the folk high school plays a very important role, and it is important to emphasize this.
Lastly, I want to say something about people with functional variations, where I believe the folk high school can play a very important role in ensuring that one of the groups that has it extra tough to enter the labor market can get increased opportunities by participating in the folk high school's initiatives.
Niklas Sigvardsson (S)
Madam Speaker! I have truly listened to the Minister for Education, and I shall respond to what he has said.
It is interesting that he chooses to highlight skills supply in issues regarding sheet metal workers whose funding for their vocational schools disappears in the government's policy, or truck drivers where there are almost 1,500 applicants for 36 places. We have only been able to follow this over the last 24 hours on Twitter by a party leader to the minister in question. There is little else to wish for.
The Minister for Education speaks about what the government thinks. The concern in Folkhögskolesverige is that the government thinks one thing, and it is pleasing that the government parties think that the folk high school is important, but the problem is that those who govern the government's policy are the Sverigedemokraterna. And we know their view on folk high schools; we have heard this in my colleagues' speeches.
The Sweden Democrats have a clear view that the folk high school is not a good system. It was the concern that the participants I met at Södra Vätterbygdens folkhögskola truly expressed. They were worried about the Sweden Democrats' view on the issue and that they now govern the government's policy, and they were disappointed by the Liberals' and Christian Democrats' somewhat hesitant approach to folk education policy. During previous parliamentary periods, they had seen that the folk high school meant something to liberal and Christian Democratic representatives, but now they saw that unfortunately it is not what the government parties think that is decisive, but what the Sweden Democrats think. It is sad that this has become the case with the government's folk high school policy.
Utbildningsministern Mats Persson (L)
Madam Speaker! It is symptomatic that a Member of Parliament from the Social Democrats is more worried during the nights for the Liberals, the Christian Democrats, and other parties in the Riksdag than for how even more people shall get jobs and education in the country. I find it difficult to see that people who, in this situation, are worried about inflation, who want to get a second chance through folk high schools or get better educational opportunities, lie awake at night wondering about different parties' handling of different issues. So I do not think that is the reality.
Our focus is to start from people's everyday lives and to solve the problems we can see in Sweden. There is a major problem in society: that many people are unemployed. During eight years with the Social Democrats in power, a requirement-free benefit policy has been pursued, which means that people can live on benefits year after year despite both companies and municipalities crying out for competent labor. At the same time, there are hundreds of thousands of people who do not support themselves and have passively lived on benefits year after year. There have been no requirements for counter-performance or to take the available jobs that exist. It is a major problem, and it is a "fat" problem that needs to be addressed.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.