Response to interpellation 2022/23:341 on popular education for all groups
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
L believes that adult education is an important force for personal development, participation, and democracy 1. L argues that the folk high schools give people a second chance in the labor market 1 2 and that they make large investments in education 3. L argues that it is logical that temporary funds from the pandemic cease 2 and that no savings occur in adult education 3. S believes that cuts are being made in adult education and that the government does not prioritize adult education 4 5. S argues that reduced appropriations lead to cancelled educations. S wants more people to enter the workforce via the folk high school 5 and wants a guarantee against future dismantling 6.
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)
Mr. Speaker! Annette Rydell has asked me what I intend to do to ensure that educational opportunities for all groups will continue to be covered within the framework of the right to education for all, particularly within adult education.
I have previously clarified that I and the government see folkbildning as an important force. The goal that the Riksdag has established for folkbildning is that it shall give everyone the opportunity, together with others, to increase their knowledge and education for personal development and participation in society.
Young people, refugees, persons with disabilities and persons who need to supplement their education or wish to pursue further education are examples of groups reached by the activities of adult education.
The Riksdag's decision on the budget bill for 2023 means, in accordance with the government's proposal, that approximately 4.6 billion kronor are allocated to adult education. The Adult Education Council then distributes a large part of this state grant to the folk high schools. During the pandemic, temporary extra funds were added to the folk high schools. It had been previously announced that these funds would cease at the end of 2022. In its priorities, the government assessed that the need for temporary reinforcements due to the pandemic did not remain, as we de facto have no pandemic.
Mr. Speaker! The Government considers that the folk high schools play an important role in the education system. We consider it important that, through folk high schools or other forms of education, people are given the opportunity to further their education and get a second chance and are given the opportunity for an education that enables them to enter the labor market or progress to studies at a higher level.
In the supplementary budget, the government has proposed significant reinforcements of adult education, this so that adults who lack the right education shall get access to education to quickly enter employment. The proposals mean that 400 million kronor are added to reinforce regional vocational adult education within municipal adult education, komvux, 70 million kronor are added to the university college and 247 million kronor are allocated for student support to individuals. The government also adds 100 million kronor in state grants to the municipalities to enable the municipalities to be able to offer municipal adult education in SFI, Swedish for immigrants, for persons with protection under the so-called mass flight directive. The target group in question is thus those who have fled the war in Ukraine.
Annette Rydell (S)
Mr. Speaker! I thank Minister for Education Mats Persson for the answer to the interpellation. I have understood from the answer that the Minister thinks that folkbildning is important. The Minister thinks it is important that young people, newly arrived people, people with disabilities and people who need to supplement their education or want to further their education are reached by the entire activities of folkbildning.
I do, however, feel that it seems to be going in a slightly different direction. What I do not understand is why a cut was made in the autumn budget if now the minister considers it so important that people far from the labor market and persons with disabilities should be given the opportunity for education and training. That the extra funds added to the folk high schools during the pandemic were removed, we understood. But we had some other initiatives on folk education. If the work principle is so important and the folk high schools as a school form largely contribute to people entering employment and obtaining self-sufficiency, why were they then not given any reinforcement in the supplementary budget?
The investments that are now being made in vocational upper secondary school and universities of applied sciences, and the funds provided to the municipalities so that they can offer municipal adult education in Swedish for immigrants who have received protection through the mass flight directive and so on, do not help the folk high schools, where, for example, Swedish from day one has been very effective but has now received drastically reduced grants. For example, Litorina, which previously had 55 participants in this course, only has the possibility of financing places for 5 people this year. Then the money is gone.
Money that could have gone to education within health and social care also disappeared. This has resulted in cancelled education for shortage occupations that we really need. Summer courses have had to be cancelled. Teachers and educators are being laid off. The negotiation submissions are rolling in regarding layoffs within the folk high schools.
I am an industrial worker and have been for 40 years. Now I sound very old, but I started working when I was 17 years old. I have made enormous use of the folk high schools and received great support from them. I have also had great support from ABF, which is a study association. And we see where I am today – it has led somewhere. All the people I have seen develop and who have worked within industry, within municipal activities, and within health and social care have benefited from the folk high schools and the study associations. It is absolutely fantastic. But this opportunity is now decreasing as the grants are partially disappearing.
I also request a consequence analysis of what will happen now with the new proposal, when the Riksdag is to make a decision on how much should go to partly the folk high schools, partly the study associations. I feel that someone is going to get hurt. I also have a feeling that there is some underlying reason why this division is being made now. Furthermore, I feel that the arm's length distance decreases when we are going to step in and poke at who should do what and how much should be allocated to the different operations.
I ask the minister again: What measures will the minister take so that those who now are not given the opportunity for education and learning can obtain employment and self-sufficiency and feel like a part of society through popular education?
Niklas Sigvardsson (S)
Mr. Speaker! I would first like to take the opportunity to thank Member Annette Rydell for the opportunity to debate this important issue.
I want to comment on something the Minister spoke about regarding the major investment in adult education with supplementary appropriations.
It should be reminded in the chamber and for those sitting at home that there are still cuts compared to previous year's levels across the entire sector for adult education, despite the patching and mending that comes in the year-end budget.
In other respects, the question of popular education and especially the folk high schools, which I will focus on specifically in this debate, is incredibly important for our society. It is a part of the soul of society. The power of popular education is incredibly strong.
It is the power of being able to feel seen. It is the power of being able to feel that one is developing. It is the power of being able to achieve more today than one did yesterday. It is the power of being able to feel that one develops together. It is the power of being able to see others develop with the help of oneself.
It is this power that I have had the opportunity to take part of on several occasions here during the spring, and twice just during the last few weeks. It has been during my meetings with participants at Litorina folkhögskola in Karlskrona or at June folkhögskola in Jönköping.
There are two places in our elongated country with different participants but with the same drive to see people grow. One gets to talk and discuss with newcomers who are learning the language and who feel that they are approaching Swedish society day by day.
One has to sit and listen to exciting dreams of starting to study and perhaps taking the teacher assistant training, starting to study at the university, or being able to take that job one has dreamed of after having toiled in the school bench for months.
Being out there, meeting and discussing with these participants makes one very hopeful about society. One sees that the drive exists among all the people out there.
But it is also tough to sit and listen to the school leaders, the heads of the folk high schools and the teachers, when they talk about the future. They agonize over: Will the operations be viable? Will we be able to start another educational cycle?
It is not only the households that are struggling in the right-wing Sweden. It is also folk education and our folk high schools. That the Minister for Education here then does not come with any proposals on what should be done to strengthen exactly the folk high schools and folk education, but instead comes with proposals that do not hit that sector at all, is disheartening and bordering on disrespectful.
The Minister gave me here a largely identical answer to the one we had in an interpellation debate in February. Despite that, we see that nothing has happened during these months. The Right will not prioritize the education of the people in this country.
I will continue to pursue the issue and ask questions to the Minister. What does the Minister intend to do to strengthen the folk high schools' important work in making people grow?
Utbildningsministern Mats Persson (L)
Mr. Speaker! Thanks to the interpellator and the co-debater!
The government has very high ambitions when it comes to popular education and folk high schools. It is an important part, not least so that people can be given a second chance. If one has failed in their education, one should be given an opportunity to attend a folk high school and in that way improve their grades, find a new direction, or come back into society. The folk high schools play a very important role for the entire Swedish education system.
A couple of years ago, in March 2020, the world and Sweden noted that we had a global pandemic. It affected us all in a very brutal way. It took a very long time before we as a society and several other societies got through the pandemic. But a few months ago, it was noted that we no longer have a pandemic, which many of us have felt for quite a long time.
In a situation where we as a country, together with other countries, are no longer living in a pandemic, it is quite logical that the temporary funds that were allocated during the pandemic are no longer being allocated. It would be strange if one did it in any other way.
Everyone has worked and known that the premise is that it is temporary money that has played an important role during the pandemic. But when the pandemic is no longer there, they no longer have the same role.
It is at the same time important to say that the folk high schools play an important role in the education system we have, and they will play a very important role moving forward.
It gives people the opportunity to get a second chance. It gives people the opportunity to grow. It gives people the opportunity to find educations that they cannot find anywhere else. They play an important role in the flora of different educations that exist in Sweden.
Annette Rydell (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answer!
I have been out and visited folk high schools. I have been to Valjeviken, where they have participants with disabilities. The activities they run there have been absolutely fantastic.
I said in my speech yesterday that one gets goosebumps when seeing the participants develop. You feel it in your whole body that it is an extremely important form of schooling for people who do not fit into the usual norm.
But look at the development of them. They have gone from being confined, not speaking or being able to socialize in public gatherings, to standing and speaking in front of people, receiving an education, undergoing a training program and completing it. They have been able to enter employment, get a job, and have been able to feel a great sense of participation in society. It is something incredibly important to me.
We went and spoke with Litorina and students from almost all over the world. It is a school where they only speak Swedish. They learn from each other, and they collaborate. They gain a sense of security in knowing that they feel a very large sense of community.
Some have been there for a month, some for six months and some for three months. Still, they form together. They get an opportunity to get out and move forward in the labor market in order to be able to shape their own lives.
I myself have children who, for example, did not fit into the high school system and who have attended folk high school. That has also provided something. One of my daughters said that it was the best thing she had ever done in her entire life to go to folk high school and feel the sense of community that one felt there.
I have a small question and a small feeling regarding study associations. We know that the Sweden Democrats have motions about, for example, Ibn Rushd. They press that it has criminal activity. We have those discussions, and they speak about ABF's existence because of irregularities and cheating that have occurred. They are actually sweeping everyone over the same broad brush.
Since they specifically point out the two study associations, I wonder. The cuts being made have a reason from this. I am completely convinced of that. But it affects all other study associations. It will also affect the folk high schools.
The separation of the folkhögskolor from the studieförbunden creates a wedge. They have had a very good cooperation before. Now it is seen that the money bag is being lifted over to the folkhögskolorna and drawn from the studieförbunden.
I do not think the appropriations will become larger. But the money is being moved from the study associations to the folk high schools. The cooperation between them has been a foundation for many. They have, for example, attended education at study associations to learn something in order to then be able to proceed to the folk high schools. That possibility may actually decrease.
I would have been very grateful for a consequence analysis of how it is believed this will turn out in the end. What measures will be taken to make it possible for all people in society to get a second chance, as the minister himself said before?
Niklas Sigvardsson (S)
Mr. Speaker! We can agree that the pandemic is over. That has been established, and that is pleasing.
But it is also about priorities. The government could have made other priorities when it comes to educational initiatives. Instead of securing the right to education and adult education, the government chose to provide income insurance for high-income earners, including those of us in this chamber. It was a choice that the government made.
I would like to take the opportunity to continue talking about the folk high schools and the important part the folk high schools do in getting people into work.
During my visit to June folkhögskola as recently as last Monday of last week, I had the chance by chance during a lunch break to sit down with some participants who, after nearly two years, are finishing their education. They were incredibly satisfied with the education they had received. Many already had jobs, and many were about to enter jobs. They were incredibly happy and expectant about getting to use all their knowledge. Some had it tough. Some had had it tough earlier and never ever felt that school had suited them until they, at just over 30 years of age, ended up at a folkhögskola.
One of the participants received a phone call during our conversation and left the dining table. She came back shortly thereafter – overjoyed! She was going to get an employment interview for a job she really wanted. The joy that erupted not only in her but in all the participants shows the greatness of the folk high school.
I want more people to be able to feel this happiness, and therefore I want to ask the Minister for Education how he will ensure that more people can feel the joy of succeeding and get the opportunity to enter the workforce through the folk high school.
Utbildningsministern Mats Persson (L)
Mr. Speaker! It is important to say and establish that no savings are being made on adult education in Sweden. It doesn't matter how often the Social Democrats say it; no savings are being made on adult education in Sweden.
What is happening, however, is that we think it is important that the money used in adult education goes to what it is intended to go to. The money should not go to criminal actors who milk the system for money. It has been noted over the last half year that, for example, ABF has major problems with this, and a very large responsibility rests on not least the Social Democrats to resolve the problem.
The folk high schools are an important part of our Swedish educational flora. The changes we are now making to the management model itself are something we are doing because the operations look very different and have different conditions. I also note that the folk high schools have received this with some curiosity and, in several places, also welcomed it.
We have great ambitions with popular education, and we have great ambitions with the folk high schools. We have very high ambitions with education in general, and we are now making large investments in education to make it possible for more people to participate in an education, to become their best self and be able to enter the labor market.
It is about broad reforms. It is about vocational training, and it is about komvux. It is also about that we, as we have said, have high ambitions when it comes to adult education and folk high schools.
Annette Rydell (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answer! I want to be clear that we Social Democrats never stand behind fraud or the use of tax money for things that they are not supposed to go to. Therefore, we appointed an inquiry to get to the bottom of these matters. It is absolutely our intention that tax money should go to the things they are supposed to go to - to the activities they are intended to go to.
I would like to have some kind of guarantee from the Minister that the steps now being taken by separating the study associations from the folk high schools will not lead to any future dismantling of folk education in its entirety. I have spoken with many who have a slight feeling that this is a step towards something we do not want to see. I assume, hope, and believe that the Minister values folk education so much that he can give a guarantee that this is not the beginning of the end for folk education.
Utbildningsministern Mats Persson (L)
Mr. Speaker! Thanks to the interpellator and for her commitment to the issues! I believe we are in complete agreement on the importance of the activity not being characterized by fraud and trickery, and that we will get to the bottom of the actors who are milking the system for tax money.
The member's former colleagues in the industry should be able to go to work at 6:15 or 6:30 and feel secure that we want the money to be used in the right way. I do not believe anything other than that the member and the member's party have the same position as the government in this.
With that said, it is still important that we take measures. It is not only important that we have high ambitions and a strong political will that the money goes to the right things, but we must also have safety pins and safety valves in the system that make it impossible to cheat or significantly much harder to cheat than it is today. The Government is taking a number of measures right now, and I do not rule out that we will need to do more further ahead. I believe that it is very important.
We do this because we have high ambitions when it comes to popular education, and we believe that it plays an important role in democracy to build trust in society. It is also important when it comes to creating opportunities for people for a good leisure time. Thanks to and with the help of folk high schools and study associations, one can grow as a human being, and they play, as said, an important role in our democracy.
Lastly, Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank you for the interpellation and thank the member for the fine and great commitment shown in the debate.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.