Response to interpellation 2024/25:565 on increased resources and competence to ensure that students with NPF receive an equivalent education
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 need for increased resources and competence for students with NPF. L believes that the state must take greater responsibility for the school's funding and regulatory framework because the municipalities do not always prioritize the school sufficiently 1 2 3. L argues that the government is already investing a lot of money in staffing reinforcements and special education teachers 4 1 2 and that state funding has increased year by year 3. L wants to implement regulatory changes to remove obstacles to proper support 1 2. V believes that the government and SD are prioritizing away Swedish welfare through the largest cuts in 30 years 5 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.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! Nadja Awad has asked whether I and the government intend to work towards the state taking a greater financing responsibility towards the municipalities so that all students, regardless of need, can receive the support they need when schools now, according to several studies, lack the resources to be able to provide students with NPF the support they are entitled to.
All students who need support measures in education shall receive them. Students who, as a result of a disability, have difficulty fulfilling the various grading criteria or criteria for assessment of knowledge that apply shall be given support aimed at counteracting the consequences of the disability as far as possible. This is stated in Chapter 3, Section 2 of the Education Act (2010:800).
In order for the education to work well for all students, the school needs to be given good conditions to meet students with different types of disabilities and offer all students an education of high quality.
The government has decided on several measures to strengthen the school. More than 2.9 billion kronor has been added to the school for 2025. This includes, among other things, a collective state grant that can be used for staffing reinforcements to increase safety and study in the school, relieve teachers, improve student health, and better meet the students' needs for support. Over the next two years, this means a comprehensive investment in, among other things, more special education teachers in the school. Furthermore, in the autumn budget amendment (prop. 2024/25:99 expenditure area 16), which was recently submitted to the Riksdag, the government proposes, among other things, a reinforcement of the investment in school social teams and on increasing the conditions for a safe and secure educational and working environment for children, students, teachers, and other staff.
To address the problems with the school's work regarding support measures, the government appointed the Investigation on Improved Student Health (U 2024:01), which recently presented its proposals in the partial report Improved Support in School (SOU 2025:44). The investigation proposes, among other things, that the provisions in the Education Act regarding support in the form of extra adaptations should be abolished. The report is on referral until June 27, 2025.
The government also improves the possibilities for the primary stakeholders to strengthen the cooperation between school and social services and increase attendance for students through the initiative on school social teams.
The State contributes to the school's funding, but it is important to remember that it is the municipalities that have the primary responsibility for financing preschool and school. There are currently large differences in how much different municipalities invest in the school. Therefore, the government has appointed the Inquiry on a national school funding norm for increased equality (U 2023:05), which shall propose a system for resource distribution based on a nationally binding school funding norm. The aim is to increase equality in the Swedish school across the entire country through state steering of the funding. The inquiry shall report this part of the assignment by June 16, 2025, at the latest.
Nadja Awad (V)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answer!
Vänsterpartiet believes that the government should take a greater financing responsibility towards the municipalities so that all students, regardless of circumstances or needs, can receive an equal education everywhere in the country.
Because the government and the Sweden Democrats are prioritizing away Swedish welfare, the cuts within Swedish schools are the largest in 30 years, according to Sveriges Lärare – 30 years!
I myself went directly from the school world into the Riksdag in 2022. Even then, it was very tough to work as a teacher, but today it is on a completely different level. I suffer with my teacher colleagues out in the country, and I often think of my former students and wonder how they are doing in school.
Madam Speaker! We see devastating consequences of the state not providing the municipalities with sufficient resources in relation to today's challenges. School staff are being laid off; this applies to everything from teachers and special educators to student assistants. Staff density is decreasing. Teachers experience a high workload and that their work is physically and mentally demanding, which leads to increased sick leaves. The difference between schools' student health varies, and they are getting more to do. It is crowded and difficult to adapt existing premises, or the economic resources are lacking to make adaptations.
The classes and student groups are only getting larger and larger. Students who are struggling in school have high school absence. They do not reach the knowledge goals and therefore leave primary school with incomplete grades. Interventions are not provided in time or perhaps are not provided at all. The possibilities to provide students with special support have simply decreased.
What will be the result of this? Well, children's and young people's mental health has deteriorated significantly during recent years. More and more young people are drawn into crime when preschool and school are no longer a protective factor for them.
Madam Speaker! Up to 2,500 demonstrators gathered on May 6, 2023, at Stockholm City Hall and then marched in a parade to Mynttorget to continue protesting there, a stone's throw from the Swedish Parliament. Then followed more demonstrations against the cuts that threaten preschools and schools as a result of a heavily pressured economy in many places around the country: Arvika, Gävle, Gothenburg, Sjöbo, Umeå, my home municipality Örebro, Malmö and Västervik. And it turned out to be only the beginning.
Now we stand here, on April 25, 2025, and the government and the Sweden Democrats have consistently in their state budgets refused to provide the state grants the municipalities have requested in relation to the cost developments. My question to School Minister Lotta Edholm is whether the state and the government will take a greater financing responsibility towards the municipalities.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! I completely share Nadja Awad's views regarding the state's responsibility for the school. I work every day to increase the state regulation of Swedish schools. We have an unreasonable system today where the municipalities are responsible for both the financing and for interpreting the regulatory framework we have, which in many cases is very unclear. This applies in particular to students' right to support when they need it in Swedish schools today.
Today, Sweden is one of the countries in the world that provides special support absolutely last. The truth is that most of the special support that is provided is provided in grade 9 when it is already too late for many students. This is naturally, just as Nadja Awad said, partly due to economic conditions. Some municipalities invest very little in their schools. There is a difference of 70,000 SEK between the municipality that invests the most and the one that invests the least per student per year, and that is a lot of money. Approximately half of the 70,000 SEK can be attributed to objective factors. But we actually do not know what the rest of the difference is due to. Some municipalities choose to invest less money in their schools. That means we have very large differences in Sweden.
We are working hard from the government's side to try to regulate this so that students receive the right to special support and so that the needs that exist, for example when it comes to learning to read, do not drown in extra adaptations in the way that happens today. Instead of receiving special support to learn to read properly, students engage in listening-reading, which is such an extra adaptation that is used to a very high extent today and which de facto leads to 20–25 percent of students actually being unable to read properly when they complete grade 9.
I also share the view that increased state support is needed. That is why the government is investing a lot of money, for example, in staffing reinforcements. But it is also about how those funds are used. We need, for example, to get more special education teachers in Swedish schools, i.e., teachers who work directly with students who need special support. We also need regulatory changes. That is why all these inquiries are currently working and have begun to deliver proposals in the area.
Nadja Awad (V)
Madam Speaker! In the debates I have had with School Minister Lotta Edholm, I have experienced that we have the same view of the problems within Swedish schools and of which measures need to be taken. But then we have different opinions and prioritize differently. It is about what Vänsterpartiet would do if we had been in power and about how the government continues to act regarding the financing of Swedish schools.
It is very good that the government wants to review the school voucher system. It is something that the Left Party welcomes. But it will take time. We also need to look at how the state grants are distributed today. The state grants that have been distributed over time in this government's budgets have actually not gone to the school to the extent that was needed considering today's societal challenges.
Two out of three primary school principals state that they are not allocated sufficient financial resources to meet the support needs of students with NPF diagnoses and similar challenges. Resources are lacking, say the principals, for both general adaptations and individual support measures, and for, for example, adapting the school's premises, hiring staff, or purchasing assistive devices. This is what the schools are sounding the alarm about, and it is urgent. They demand financial resources to cope.
Madam Speaker! I am terrified by the development we are seeing within Swedish schools. The cuts are the largest in 30 years. Teachers are being laid off. Sick leave among teachers is increasing. Violence in schools is escalating. Students' mental health is worsening to an enormous extent. But the government and the Sweden Democrats are taking the money the schools need and spending it on other things, such as tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. It is about billions of kronor in renovation and repair grants, which in practice benefit the very richest.
Hundreds are being laid off in Swedish schools while others receive state grants for their newly renovated kitchens in Östermalm. The students who have it the toughest are being knocked out of the Swedish education system while others have their house cleaning subsidized by the state. How is that a responsible prioritization by the government? It is the schools that need these economic resources. The municipalities' own financing is not enough. The amount the government sends in state grants to the municipalities is not enough.
In what way is this supposed to increase safety and learning in schools, relieve the teachers, reduce sick leaves, improve the work of student health services, and make it possible to hire more special education teachers and better meet the students' needs? It is an equation that is completely impossible to make work. That is also why I have requested this debate with School Minister Lotta Edholm. I want to know if the government wants to take an increased financing responsibility towards the municipalities by, at this moment, increasing the state grants to them. I would very much like to know if Minister Lotta Edholm and the government will increase the state grants that are needed by the municipalities so that the schools can stop the savings.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! The Government naturally sees that there is a problem with the school's funding in Sweden, precisely because the municipalities are not able to take this responsibility.
Sometimes it is a conscious policy that one does not prioritize the school. Sometimes it is because one has too small economic resources to do this. That is why the government year after year has increased the state grants to the school and also increased the direct grants to the school. They are not to go towards building new swimming halls or anything of the sort, but actually directly to the school. But I mean that it will not be enough. The school is a national responsibility. It is important that the state takes great responsibility for both the financing and the regulatory framework. One should not be able to use the money a bit as one wants, but they should go to the school.
I am, of course, aware that we have a financially pressured situation. School is a municipal responsibility. The municipalities want to take this responsibility but are unable to do so fully, because they are unable to prioritize the school in the way that should be done.
I mean, however, that regulatory changes are also needed. We must ensure that we remove the extra adjustments that lead to students not receiving the support they need.
More special education teachers are needed in Sweden who work directly with the students. Student health services are needed that work directly with the students and not in the way that often happens today, that is, that they function more as consultants to already heavily pressured teachers.
We also need regulatory changes regarding safety and study environments. Today, we have a situation with far too much noise, harassment, and violence. Not least, teachers are very vulnerable. This, in turn, leads to it becoming difficult to recruit teachers. It is difficult to get more young people to want to become teachers.
Everything is connected. Funding is an important part of it all, but it is not the only thing. However, the government is making many very large investments in Swedish schools right now.
Nadja Awad (V)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for the debate on the municipalities' increased financing responsibility to enable an equal Swedish school.
I stand here as a member of Parliament and speak about the political solutions, but I also have a background of work in Swedish schools for nearly eight years before I became a member of Parliament. I take that knowledge and experience with me into Parliament for my work in the Education Committee and in the parliament.
That is why I also appeal to the government: When I and other Vänsterpartister or others from the opposition raise issues that we perceive as incorrect priorities, for example tax cuts and rut- and rot-grants to the very wealthiest, we do not do it to score political points or engage in symbolic politics. For my part, it is about showing that teachers and students are having a very tough time right now.
I encounter many of my former students in public transport and in the grocery store. I also encounter their guardians, whom I have had much contact with. I encounter my former teaching colleagues. It has become much worse within Swedish schools. The cuts are the largest in 30 years.
That is why I so many times bring up the issue for debate with the Minister for Education and appeal to the government to do something. Do something that truly creates a systemic change for Swedish schools! It must not happen for anyone else's sake but for the students, so that they can have a good future and good conditions for continued education and work.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! I thank you for the important debate.
I agree with much of what Nadja Awad says about this. The state must take greater responsibility for both regulations and funding. A school system is a national matter. It is not just about the individual students attending school here and now, but also about Sweden as a prosperous country. We cannot accept that 20–25 percent of students cannot read properly. We must have a national school system. That is where state funding is important, and therefore the government has now increased it year by year.
Fundamentally, the municipalization of Swedish schools that occurred 30 years ago is part of the problem. Municipal politicians can choose whether they want to invest a lot of money in schools or in something else. They can also have very poor finances. This is unreasonable for both students as well as teachers and other staff.
I truly welcome this discussion. It is nevertheless interesting that there is a fairly large consensus on these important issues in a way that has not existed before. It is something I truly welcome.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.