Response to interpellation 2025/26:195 on competence supply in Malmfältens schools
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
1 L advocates for historical investments in schools by strengthening the knowledge contribution with 1.8 billion SEK in 2026, where funds are distributed according to resource needs 1 2. L wants to regulate the teaching time for teachers and preschool teachers to improve professional conditions and increase attractiveness 1 2. L emphasizes that the municipalities have the primary responsibility for the school 1 3 2. L argues that the government's reforms to strengthen teachers, including by regulating teaching time and planning time, are crucial for the willingness to become a teacher and to stay in the profession 4. 5 S argues that the government's reforms do not address the competence shortage in Malmfälten and that regulated teaching time and the teacher education reform rather worsen the situation 5 6. S asserts that the state has the responsibility for the supply of teachers and that the government should create incentives to move labor to northern Sweden 6. 7 S believes that the government does not understand the competence supply concerns in Kiruna and Gällivare since the answers only concern reforming teacher education and reducing teaching time 7. S argues that the government's historical investments are in fact cuts and that the state's extraction of natural resources drains the schools of competence 7.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Utbildnings- och integrationsministern Simona Mohamsson (L)
Madam Speaker! Linus Sköld has asked me how I intend to act so that school activities in Malmfälten can manage their competence supply and improve their results in the future.
Education in the Swedish school system shall be of equal quality regardless of where in the country it is organized (Chapter 1, Section 9 of the Education Act). This means that all students shall have access to an activity of high quality, so that the established goals for the education can be reached regardless of where in the country the students live or which school they attend.
The government is working intensively to improve the knowledge results in the Swedish school. From and including the autumn of 2028, primary school in Sweden will be made ten years long to give students a better opportunity to develop basic skills such as reading, writing, and arithmetic. The government has also signaled the introduction of new curricula with a greater focus on basic knowledge and skills. Furthermore, the government wants to introduce support teaching as a new support measure from the autumn of 2028, in order to improve support in school. Additionally, the government proposes that mandatory standardized tests should be introduced. The tests can contribute to identifying early on students who need support measures.
In the budget bill for 2026 (prop. 2025/26:1), the Government makes historical investments in schools. Among other things, a reinforcement of the Knowledge Grant (Kunskapsbidraget) of 1.8 billion SEK is proposed for 2026, which is distributed according to an index reflecting the resource needs at the headmaster level. This means that those headmasters who have a high proportion of students with a low probability of achieving eligibility for upper secondary school receive more funds. In this way, the Knowledge Grant means that large investments can be made where they are needed most. At the same time, it is important to remember that it is the municipalities that have the primary responsibility to guarantee all children and students an equal education of high quality. The municipalities shall distribute resources for education within the school system according to the different circumstances and needs of the children and students.
In order for the teaching to maintain a high quality, preschool teachers and teachers must be given better conditions to focus on the teaching. The Government is taking several measures to improve the conditions for the preschool teacher and teacher professions, so that more people get educated and stay in the profession.
The Government proposes that the time for teachers' and preschool teachers' teaching assignments be regulated. This means that a maximum limit shall be set for how many teaching hours a teacher can have. There shall also be a minimum limit for how much time a preschool teacher or teacher shall have to plan and follow up on their teaching. The purpose is that preschool teachers and teachers shall receive better conditions to concentrate on their core mission. A good working environment with more time to devote to planning, carrying out, and post-processing the teaching will hopefully also lead to more people seeking out and choosing to stay in the profession.
Linus Sköld (S)
Madam Speaker! My interpellation took its starting point in that the Minister in the autumn rejected an invitation to a meeting with the municipal leaderships, the municipal councilors, the municipal managers and the school managements – that is to say, the school managers – in Kiruna and Gällivare municipalities. The Minister's answer here today is, I would say, the receipt that she really had needed to have that meeting.
The municipalities of Kiruna and Gällivare, often referred to as the Mining Fields, are mining communities that have grown up around LKAB's extraction of mainly iron ore, hundreds of miles from here. It is cold and crisp but dark in the winter. It is light around the clock in the summer. Heavy base industry, in particular the mining industry, is still the lifeblood of the communities. Wonderful people live there, in symbiosis with the mining industry.
But the local communities also have problems. They have the same problems as the inland of northern Sweden in general: it is sparse between the houses, and one has an aging population and a rising dependency ratio. But one tops this with a labor market that is totally overheated. Unemployment is below 2 percent, and there are thousands of vacant jobs. Industrial companies, not least the state-owned LKAB, are vacuuming up the labor market for available labor with a wage level that the municipality's welfare activities can only dream of matching. The business sector flies in people to work in its operations, even in relatively low-wage sectors such as shops and cafes.
One has, therefore, a population with a relatively high average income. The municipalities are net contributors in the municipal financial equalization system. One has, however, a rather weak educational tradition, and it is many miles to the nearest university, with the exception of Rymdcampus in Kiruna.
The result of this situation is that the schools in these municipalities lack staff. The proportion of qualified teachers in primary school is below 50 percent. The proportion of qualified preschool teachers is below 20 percent.
Kiruna municipality tried to solve this by hiring staffing companies. In that case, the municipality received a fine order from the County Administrative Board of Education. They had to stop this, as it is not permitted in primary school.
The state has taken state measures for rectification in Gällivare for the second time in history. They took over a school, the municipality's secondary school, and rectified routines for special support, teaching of newly arrived people, and so on. But they state in their final report that not even the School Inspectorate, i.e., the state, can find qualified teachers to hire in Gällivare. The problem with a major competence shortage thus remains, but the state is leaving Gällivare after nine months.
Now I have asked the minister what she will do to help Malmfälten's schools. She responds by listing a long series of reforms that will not make any difference for the issue of skills supply.
A reform concerning the supply of skills is, however, regulated teaching time. It will worsen the skills shortage in Gällivare by approximately 20 percent. This means that an additional 25 teachers would be needed. Does Mohamsson have any proposals for school policy reforms that would facilitate things for the schools in Malmfälten?
Utbildnings- och integrationsministern Simona Mohamsson (L)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Member Linus Sköld, for this very important question! I agree: It is important for the operations in the preschool and the school that a high quality is maintained. In that case, it is important that one has trained staff.
The basis for making preschool teachers and teachers feel satisfied and continue within the profession is to increase the profession's attractiveness. Furthermore, it is crucial that the preschool teacher and teacher educations prepare students well for future professional practice. This can also be crucial for newly graduated preschool teachers and teachers to want to continue within these specific professions.
The Government has made several decisions to adapt teacher education to the different needs and conditions prevailing in schools today, which is also highlighted by the member. The changes mean that we will also have sharper admission requirements, a reformed educational content, and increased cooperation between higher education institutions and teacher educations.
During 2026, 7 million kronor will be allocated so that the educational institutions can develop educational collaborations and continue to have an offering of teacher training across the entire country. Additionally, 1 million kronor will be allocated to map teacher training in small subjects where the student base is too small for teacher training to be organized.
It is absolutely crucial that we increase the attractiveness of the teaching profession so that more people choose to become teachers but also so that more stay. The municipality has the primary responsibility for financing and operating preschool and school, but regardless, I want to emphasize that the government takes the situation in preschool and school most seriously. As I mentioned initially, the government has therefore taken several measures, including reinforcements of the knowledge grant and a general state grant to municipalities and regions.
The government is also working to facilitate for the municipalities to access the state grants in order to reduce their number and simplify the targeted state grants. There, the government initiates a review and adaptation of existing grant structures and grant purposes. The purpose is to reduce the administrative burden on the principals and the number of targeted state grants. Again: It is important to make it easy for municipalities to take their primary responsibility, namely to run preschool and school based on the needs that exist in their municipality.
Linus Sköld (S)
Madam Speaker! It is as if Simona Mohamsson does not hear what I am saying or does not take the problem seriously. Every other teacher in primary school in Kiruna and in Gällivare is unqualified, and the teacher qualification in Gällivare is 46 percent. One result of this is that every other student does not pass the national tests in grade 3. Another result of this is that every tenth student has more than 50 percent absence in primary school.
Simona Mohamsson said that the education should be equivalent, and she quoted the Education Act in the beginning of her first answer. Then she has presented some reforms that she claims shall meet this, for example a ten-year primary school, a new curriculum, remedial teaching and standardized tests.
The only reform that has to do with teacher eligibility and teacher supply is the one concerning the regulation of teaching time. If the government intends to follow the investigator's proposal, this will worsen the teacher shortage in Gällivare. There will be 25 fewer teachers, when they already have a recruitment need of 150. It is worth noting that the minister is taking counterproductive measures.
In the same way, it is with the teacher education reform, which she referred to in her second answer. The reform that the government is in the process of implementing will reduce the number of teacher students by a third, according to the best assessments. In what way will this facilitate the supply of competence in Malmfälten?
It is as if Simona Mohamsson does not understand how far it is from Malmfälten to Stockholm. The school principals in Gällivare and Kiruna municipalities wrote a debate article in DN Debatt last summer where they underlined that the government's school policy reforms are made for the metropolitan areas. Malmfälten's problems will be exacerbated by the reforms that the government is about to make.
Are there any reforms concerning the available workforce in southern Sweden? The government has driven unemployment to record levels in the country on average. Are there any reforms concerning the redistribution of the available workforce in southern Sweden and introducing incentives to move to northern Sweden, where unemployment is very low, the need for skills supply is huge and the labor market is overheated?
Is there any idea that the state has a responsibility for the supply of teachers? Simona Mohamsson has, on two occasions so far in this debate, returned to the point that the school is primarily a municipal political responsibility. Yes, that is true, but the supply of teachers is a state responsibility. It is not the municipalities that provide teacher education, and it is not the municipalities that are to provide competence in the schools. It is the state.
Instead of trying to evade responsibility for this, Simona Mohamsson should step up and say: I see Kiruna and Gällivare. They have a unique situation linked to the state extracting natural resources there, digging under the city so that it must be moved and simultaneously vacuuming the communities of all available labor. Dozens of teachers are working in the mines instead of in school activities in Gällivare.
What proposals does Simona Mohamsson have to facilitate the supply of skills in Kiruna and Gällivare?
Utbildnings- och integrationsministern Simona Mohamsson (L)
Madam Speaker! As I said initially, the government is making historical reinforcements and investments in schools. In the government's budget bill for 2026, there are major investments in schools. Among other things, a reinforcement of the knowledge grant of 1.8 billion SEK for 2026 is proposed, which is distributed in accordance with index and reflects the resource needs that the principals have. This means that principals who have a higher proportion of students with a low probability of achieving eligibility for upper secondary school receive more funds. The knowledge grant means that large investments are made in those who need it the most.
I am pleased that the member highlights the need for attractiveness in the teaching profession. In order for teaching to be able to maintain a high level, both preschool teachers and teachers need to be given better conditions for their teaching. The Government is therefore taking several different measures to improve the professional conditions for preschool teachers and teachers so that more people want to train and more people want to stay.
The Government therefore proposes that teachers' and preschool teachers' working and teaching time and teaching assignments shall be regulated by setting a higher limit for how many teaching hours a teacher can have and a minimum limit for how much time a preschool teacher or teacher shall have for planning.
I wonder if the member is against us regulating the teaching assignments of preschool teachers and teachers, because that is how it sounds in this debate. Don't you think that it is not the best way to increase the attractiveness of the job and get more people to want to apply for the profession but also stay there, regardless of where in the country it is?
Furthermore, I am pleased that we are now ensuring that the teacher education is redesigned so that it focuses on providing teachers with the best conditions when they subsequently go out and meet students at our schools. Even there, the member implies that they are opposed to us having a new teacher education. It would have been interesting to hear if the member thinks that we should not have a new teacher education that focuses on knowledge and on providing the right tools.
In conclusion, I would be pleased if I heard correctly during the interpellation debate. Was it the case that the member opened up for a nationalization of the school system? I would not have anything against that, but today the primary responsibility for the financing and management of schools lies with the heads of the schools in the municipalities.
Linus Sköld (S)
Madam Speaker! I can state that Simona Mohamsson was wrong when she said no to the meeting with the municipal leadership and school leadership of Kiruna and Gällivare. I hope that she considers taking a visit to Kiruna and Gällivare and actually familiarizing herself with how the situation really looks, because it is obvious that she has no idea what reality looks like for these municipalities.
I asked how we are to solve the competence supply problems in Kiruna and Gällivare and what ideas Simona Mohamsson has for this. Her only answer was that we should reform the teacher education so that fewer qualified teachers are produced and that we should ensure they go less far, that is, use them for less teaching and thereby increase the need for qualified teachers. I mean that she has not understood what I am saying.
Simona Mohamsson has returned to this in every post here with historical investments in schools. Every time the government says they are making historical investments, one should become suspicious. Simona Mohamsson's representative had to sit for 30 minutes with Anders Holmberg and admit that her historical investments were actually 2 billion in cuts to schools. It is likely exactly the same this time.
I summarize this by saying that the situation in Kiruna and Gällivare is that the state's extraction of natural resources in those municipalities drains the schools of competence. This has fatal consequences. And the state's representative who is responsible for the supply of teachers in the country completely ignores the problem.
Utbildnings- och integrationsministern Simona Mohamsson (L)
Madam Speaker! The fundamental question was what the government is doing to increase the supply of competence and raise the results. I believe I have stated many reforms and proposals on what the government is doing to ensure that teachers are strengthened in their mission and to ensure that the teaching profession returns to becoming Sweden's most important profession, among other things by regulating teachers' teaching time and planning time. I have also stated that the government is making direct investments and reinforcements in the knowledge contribution, so that one can strengthen the school providers and thereby also the students.
There is nothing as important for students to be able to succeed in school as having teachers, truly skilled teachers. One might think it is a minor detail to reform teacher education, and one might think it is a minor detail to regulate teachers' teaching time. But it is absolutely crucial for the desire to become a teacher and for teachers' desire to stay in the profession.
I continue to wonder if we should interpret the member's statement as being against regulated teaching time for teachers and against a new teacher education, but opening up to a nationalization of the school. If that is the case, I believe many teachers, students, and parents will become worried that the teachers' teaching mandate is not taken seriously and that it is not understood how important it is. But if the member and the Social Democrats open up to a nationalization of the school, that would please me.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.