Response to interpellation 2025/26:254 on the right to school and education for persons with disabilities
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
1 2 L believes that the government is implementing the largest state investments in primary school ever to compensate for the municipalities' lack of investment and advocates for remedial teaching, standardized tests as well as a reform of the special education teacher training 1 2. 2 3 L argues that the legislation is changed so that students in adapted primary school get access to the preschool class 2 and that it is important to organize the legislation for early interventions 3. 3 L argues that the government is now regulating teachers' teaching time 3. 4 5 6 V argues that the school is hit by the largest cuts in 30 years 4 5 and that resources are spent on tax cuts for the richest 4 5 6. 4 V criticizes that students in adapted school receive less instruction than other students 4.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Gymnasie-, högskole- och forskningsministern Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! Nadja Awad has asked what measures I and the government intend to take to ensure the right to school and education for students with disabilities.
Students who, as a result of a functional impairment, 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 functional impairment as far as possible (Chapter 3, Section 2 of the Education Act [2010:800]).
As the Swedish National Agency for Education has noted, far too many students do not receive access to effective support measures in a timely manner. Schools therefore need better conditions to be able to meet the students' needs. The support must also be implemented earlier than it is today. Today's regulations on extra adaptations and special support do not work as intended and do not meet the students' support needs to a sufficient extent.
The Government therefore wants to introduce remedial teaching in Swedish, Swedish as a second language, and mathematics as a new type of support measure, together with mandatory standardized tests that can contribute to identifying early on students who need support measures, including remedial teaching. In the budget bill for 2026 (prop. 2025/26:1), the Government proposes that funds be allocated to enable improved support in schools, including the introduction of remedial teaching. The proposals are now being prepared within the Government Offices.
The government is implementing, among other things, major investments so that schools can employ more special education teachers and establish more special education groups. We are also ensuring that more people can train to become special education teachers. The government has also decided that a special investigator shall propose measures to reform the educations in the special pedagogical field (dir. 2025:93). The purpose is that the educations should better reflect the schools' needs and that more people should be able to work directly with the students. The investigation shall report its assignment in June 2026.
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.
For many people with disabilities, the folk high school works better than other forms of education. This is partly due to the fact that the folk high school offers smaller study groups, adapted support, and flexible study arrangements. It improves individuals' opportunities to establish themselves on the labor market or continue to further studies. In the budget bill for 2026, the government therefore proposes investments in the folk high school's activities specifically for people with disabilities.
The Swedish Council for Higher Vocational Education has, among other tasks, the mandate to monitor activities based on the national goal for disability policy. The authority may also provide state grants or special funds for support to students with disabilities to providers of higher vocational education and arts and culture education.
Few things are as important for Sweden's future as the school.
Nadja Awad (V)
Madam Speaker! The Minister notes the reality, which is that far too many students do not receive support measures in a timely manner. The school therefore needs better conditions to be able to meet the students' needs. The Government therefore wants to make major investments to train special education teachers. Schools shall be able to employ more special education teachers, establish more special teaching groups, and increase attendance for the students through an investment in school social teams.
Madam Speaker! These are high ambitions in a reality where the cuts in Swedish schools are the largest in 30 years. The government is sending mass layoffs from Rosenbad to Swedish schools out there. These are layoffs of special education teachers, special educators, student assistants, and teachers. Fully qualified special education teachers are not even being hired in the record-high unemployment, which is the highest in 20 years. The student groups are also becoming larger and larger. Sick leave among teachers is increasing. Violence in schools is escalating. Students' mental ill-health is worsening significantly. This is what the schools are alarming about, and it is urgent.
I am terrified by the developments within the Swedish school system. Economic resources are required to curb this development.
This is also stated by the primary school principals. Two out of three of them state that they are not allocated sufficient financial resources to meet the support needs of students with NPF diagnoses. This can, for example, involve adapting the schools' premises, hiring staff, or purchasing assistive devices. Those resources are instead spent on tax cuts amounting to billions of kronor for the government and the government's wealthy friends. Kristersson, Åkesson and their friends have become richer. Students, school staff, and guardians have had to pay the bill.
The Minister also notes that for many people with disabilities, the folk high school functions better than other forms of education. This is partly due to the fact that the folk high school offers smaller study groups, adapted support, and flexible study arrangements. It improves individuals' opportunities to establish themselves in the labor market or continue to further studies.
The question then is why the government chooses to distribute budget cuts to the country's folk high schools. 90 percent of the folk high schools have reduced their activities in 2023 and 2024. There have been fewer teachers, and courses and educations have been discontinued.
Madam Speaker! It is symptomatic that the Minister does not mention adapted school and education in his answer at all. Students who study according to subject areas in adapted school forms still receive 225 hours less instruction than all other students in Swedish school. It is not just a detail in the curriculum but a message that year after year says that precisely those students who often need the most instruction and the most teacher presence are expected to manage with the least.
When the signal from above is that this group of students should have less time for learning, how can anyone then pretend to be surprised that adapted school is still seen as care and storage rather than education? Fewer teachers are qualified for this form of school – only 15 percent. When the compulsory preschool class was introduced, the adapted school was left out. When the guarantee for early support interventions came, it did not apply to students in adapted school form. The number of students in adapted school is increasing, but the premises are not increasing. The operations are moved to leftover spaces that were never intended as a school. We are talking about basement floors, health centers, and secluded corridors.
Does the Minister think that the government is providing sufficient resources to Swedish schools so that children and young people with disabilities can receive an equivalent schooling and education?
Gymnasie-, högskole- och forskningsministern Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! Sometimes it is a bit fascinating to listen to the Left Party, because in some way you have a historiography as if nothing is happening and as if a great deal happened during the eight years that the Left Party was responsible for the state budget for Swedish schools.
The truth is that we have never made such large state investments in Swedish schools as we are doing now. It is clear that even more money is needed; I am fully aware of that. I would, just as I guess the Left Party wants, like to have a completely state-run school. The truth is that the school in Sweden is municipalized, which means that it is primarily municipal funds that go to all the activities that Nadja Awad mentions.
We must also make major changes to the legislation regarding the school. Nadja Awad mentions, for example, that it is completely unreasonable that students in adapted primary school, what was previously called the special school, have not had access to the preschool class. This is now being changed with a ten-year primary school. This did not happen during the eight years that you were responsible for this activity, but now it is happening. Students in adapted primary school will start grade 1 at the age of six, just like all other students in Sweden.
It is also quite true that we must invest in more special education teachers. That is why we have given a mandate for an investigation to completely overhaul the special education teacher training so that everyone who takes the special education training actually receives the qualification to become a special education teacher and teach. So that is not the case today.
One reason why we have so few special education teachers is that a previous Social Democratic government completely abolished the special education teacher training. It was a government that the Left Party supported.
Enormous amounts are happening in the school area. We must get new curricula, new course plans and a new grading system. We must ensure that we get legislation that is adapted so that support for students is provided significantly earlier than today. I look forward to presenting all these propositions during the spring and to see whether Vänsterpartiet will support the reforms or not.
Nadja Awad (V)
Madam Speaker! I want to clarify one thing in this debate. For over 15 years now, the right-wing parties have held the majority in Sweden's Riksdag. Vänsterpartiet, Socialdemokraterna, and Miljöpartiet have not had the majority. That is why it looks the way it does across the country.
Now we are talking about the school, but we can also look at the households' economy. We can look at the climate ambitions. We can look at elderly care, healthcare, social services and a number of other areas. It looks the way it does because the government's parties, together with Sverigedemokraterna, have prioritized tax cuts for the very richest and dismantling the welfare state, making deregulations and privatizing the welfare activities. That is why it looks the way it does in Sweden today. That is what I want to say.
I will now move on to the various investigations and potential legislations that the Minister mentioned, which are intended to improve school operations. As I said in my first speech, the content of several of the investigations is positive. The proposals would, for example, lead to us having more qualified special education teachers and that more special education teachers could be employed. One could have more special teaching groups in order to be able to follow up and reach out to those students who have it the hardest at an early stage, including students with disabilities, and invest in reducing absenteeism among them by introducing school social teams. These are positive proposals. That is why I said that these are high ambitions, but in a reality where the cuts are the largest in 30 years.
This right-wing government claims that they are making the biggest reforms for Swedish schools in over 30 years. But Sveriges Lärare is simultaneously warning that cuts are occurring across the entire country. There is a reason behind this. Ulf Kristersson, Jimmie Åkesson and their friends have become richer. Everyone else has had to pay.
The tax money that should go to children and young people and workers in Swedish schools is instead being set aside so that the very richest can grab for themselves. High-income earners can receive over 50,000 kronor a month in state subsidies if they fully utilize the luxury boat and luxury root subsidies and the benefits of ISK savings. We are talking about over 50,000 kronor a month! These are subsidies high-income earners receive because bourgeois politicians have decided that they should not have to pay for their kitchen tiling in the Östermalm apartment or for the house cleaning, and so that they can avoid paying tax on their own savings.
Ulf Kristersson, Jimmie Åkesson and other high-income earners, including the minister himself, who earns over 66,000 kronor per month, have received a tax cut of over 6,000 kronor every month – over 70,000 kronor per year – while children with disabilities in Swedish schools receive instruction in basement floors, unauthorized teachers, student assistants and special education teachers are being laid off in the middle of a school crisis, students with NPF diagnoses such as ADHD and autism do not receive support measures in time and the student groups are becoming larger and larger. Are these the right priorities, does the minister think?
Gymnasie-, högskole- och forskningsministern Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! It is somewhat fascinating that the Left Party does not take any responsibility at all for the policy that was pursued 2014–2022 and now claims to support a multitude of the reforms that will be presented during the spring but obviously never would have presented the same proposals when they themselves were in charge.
I welcome that Vänsterpartiet now wants more special education teachers, for example. That is very good. I welcome that Vänsterpartiet thinks the work with school social teams is important. I welcome that Vänsterpartiet is now in favor of a ten-year primary school instead of the strange system we have had where the preschool class has been a separate school form alongside the primary school. Very good! But the truth is that these initiatives have come from this government and not from the government that Vänsterpartiet previously supported.
We must make major changes in the area of schools, and we need to increase state governance powerfully because we have a very unequal school system. There is a big difference in how much the different municipalities invest in their schools. Some of that the state can, of course, help with through large state grants. The government is making the largest state investments in Swedish primary schools ever to compensate for the fact that many municipalities do not invest in schools.
I look forward, as I have said, to when we present all these bills and to see what the Left Party's position will be on these issues. My impression is that the Left Party partly shares the same view when it comes to increasing state control and increasing equality in Swedish schools.
Nadja Awad (V)
Madam Speaker! I can repeat what I have said about why Sweden has a cut welfare, which has affected the school, and why households have and have had it very tough economically. It is because the right-wing parties in Sweden's Riksdag have the majority. How is the Left Party then to get anything through that would improve the Swedish school or make it easier economically for households? Bourgeois budgets and legislative proposals have passed, but not the Left Party's budgets and legislative proposals. It is quite simple mathematics.
It has looked like this over the years because the government's parties and the Sverigedemokraterna have prioritized tax cuts for the very richest. As I was mentioning: Ulf Kristersson, Jimmie Åkesson and other high-income earners, more specifically those who earn over 66,000 kronor every month, have received a tax cut of over 6,000 kronor every month or over 70,000 kronor per year. That is the prioritization the government, with the help of the Sverigedemokraterna, has made instead of ensuring that children with disabilities in Swedish schools do not receive instruction in a basement floor by unqualified teachers, that student assistants and special education teachers are not laid off in the middle of a school crisis, that students receive support measures in time and that the student groups do not become larger and larger.
We were recently met with the news that three out of four who become ill from stress are women. They work within the welfare sector, for example in schools. Take responsibility for once!
I look forward to reviewing the bills during the spring term and taking a position on them.
Gymnasie-, högskole- och forskningsministern Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! I would not have looked forward to a debate on tax policy, but rather a debate on the school system, which is one of my areas of responsibility and which I consider to be incredibly important.
I take responsibility for what this government does. I am fascinated that the Left Party does not take responsibility for any of what the previous government did, even though they voted for it for eight years.
If we go back to school policy, it is clear that it is important to organize much of the legislation we have, for example so that students are guaranteed the right to early interventions when they need them. That is not the case in Swedish schools today. If one looks at the interventions that are put in place, one sees that they are put in place mostly in grade 9, which most of us probably think is quite late.
I have also taken note of the reporting on sick leaves in the welfare sector. School is an important part of that. The government is now regulating teachers' teaching time. Teachers have received much more teaching time – approximately two weeks more per year – since this was deregulated about 30 years ago. It is something that this government is now implementing. It did not happen when Vänsterpartiet was responsible.
It is actually not just about what one wants to do or about saying that things that this government does are good. Vänsterpartiet had a responsibility for a period of eight years. It is actually not possible to absolve oneself from that responsibility. One voted for a government that, I would say, did not implement anything in the school area.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.