Education and university research

Fredrik Malm (L)

Mr. Speaker! Now, at this late hour, it has become time to discuss perhaps the most important expenditure area in the entire state budget, namely that which concerns education and research.

I want to begin by expressing my support for the committee's proposal in the report and also clarify that I am now speaking about the Liberals' policy for the entire expenditure area. Some parties have two speakers who have divided it, but I am covering everything in this speech.

Mr. Speaker! We who have followed the debate and the reporting on the presentation of the latest PISA report are all very concerned, regardless of political camp. The figures are extremely gloomy. Swedish students have made the largest loss in knowledge in mathematics and reading comprehension since PISA began its measurements. It actually cannot be described as anything other than a collapse in knowledge.

Just because of the somber situation that Swedish schools find themselves in, the government, with us Liberals at the forefront, is working very hard to turn the development around. We are shifting school policy to focus more on factual knowledge, obviously especially at the younger ages.

For far too long, Sweden's students have been subjected to experiments without scientific grounding, where the intention has often been good but where the results have been devastating. Therefore, we shall revise the school's curriculum and place greater emphasis on just factual knowledge. This will help all students, but especially those students who need school the most.

We ensure that students receive proper textbooks and break with the uncritical approach that the previous government had towards digital learning materials. Screens shall not be used in teaching unless it is pedagogically justifiable. A total of 685 million kronor is allocated for textbooks in the current year, and from and including next year, 2024, that is in a few weeks, it is estimated that just over half a billion kronor will be allocated per year moving forward.

Education and university research

We are now moving from screen to folder. The government also clarifies the teacher's role in the classroom, because order and discipline is a prerequisite for being able to learn. Teachers should know that they have our and the entire society's full support behind them when they maintain order in their classroom. The government is now implementing reforms that make it possible for teachers to maintain zero tolerance for harassment in the classroom. We are also investing 165 million kronor per year for the next three years to improve the working environment for teachers at vulnerable schools.

The Riksdag and the government will also move forward with reforming the school at a systemic level. Unserious actors who perhaps have as their primary goal to make quick money have been allowed to operate in the school for far too long, but their time is now over. The only acceptable driving force for running schools in Sweden shall be the students' best interests.

We are also revising the resource allocation model and will introduce a floor or a national standard for the school funding, as it is called, which ensures that municipalities can no longer deprioritize the school too much in their budget.

Teacher education must be of top class, Mr. Speaker. In teacher education, those who are to teach our children and youth in the future are trained. Therefore, the requirements for the quality of the education and for the students must be high. Better prepared teachers enjoy their profession more and stay in it longer. A good and attractive teacher education that attracts capable people to the profession is therefore a prerequisite for a strong supply of teachers. We have tens of thousands of teachers in Sweden who are qualified teachers but who do not work in the profession today.

In order for the Swedish school system to maintain high quality, it is crucial that the individuals admitted to the teacher training programs have the prior knowledge and abilities required to complete the education and become skilled teachers and preschool teachers. The admission requirements therefore need to be raised.

Therefore, the quality of the subject teacher education needs to be raised. There is a shortage of research-trained staff while the education is provided at many higher education institutions. Available teacher resources therefore need to be used in an efficient way. To raise the quality and achieve better resource utilization, cooperation regarding the subject teacher education therefore needs to increase.

The content of the teacher training programs must also be reformed. The teacher students' knowledge shall be adapted to the needs and conditions that prevail today. Greater focus shall be placed on subject-specific and subject-didactic knowledge, cognitive science, and practical methodology. The students shall be prepared for the teaching profession when they leave the training.

The Government appointed an inquiry in July this year to investigate how the teacher and preschool teacher educations can be reformed in order to increase the quality of the educations and the status and attractiveness of the professions.

Mr. Speaker! In the budget bill for 2024, the government also proposes several initiatives for education and research that shall strengthen the engineering nation Sweden and meet the large competence needs that we have, as always, had for a time and will have also moving forward. Among other things, an expansion of the civil engineering programs is proposed and an increase of the compensation amounts for education within natural sciences and technology.

The increase in the compensation amounts for education within NT - nature and technology subjects - can enable more teacher-led time and access to educational environments that prepare students for their future working lives. The quality initiative includes 100 million SEK for 2024, 200 million SEK for 2025 and 305 million SEK from 2026 onwards, this is in addition to the price and wage adjustment that occurs every year of the price tags.

I am proud that we in the Liberals have succeeded in getting the increase through and that Sweden is now implementing this. It is the first time in 15 years that a government has increased the compensation amounts for education within natural sciences and technology, and it is truly about time.

Sweden is, and has long been, a prominent technology nation. However, we need more people with solid knowledge in natural sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics to manage in an increasingly tougher competition with other countries. If we cannot address the competence shortage that exists, we will be overtaken by countries that invest heavily in research and development.

The Riksdag has set a clear goal. Sweden shall be one of the world's leading nations for knowledge and research. Sweden has for a long time been an internationally prominent research nation with large investments in research and development, and that is good. But continued investments in research and innovation, including knowledge dissemination and utilization, were needed to build new knowledge and competence, create competitiveness, growth and welfare, as well as to attract and retain key competence in Sweden.

Let me summarize, Mr. Speaker. This government, with the Liberals at the helm, is investing very heavily in schools. After years of Social Democratic passivity, we are now beginning to pay back the reform debt that exists in Swedish schools. We are investing in the basics. All students shall be able to read, write, and count. We shall have a calm working environment characterized by order and discipline. We are investing in higher education and ensuring that the enormous need for engineers that exists on the Swedish labor market is filled so that we get more engineers out into our workplaces. One can simply see that when Liberals sit in the Ministry of Education, and it is a bourgeois government, the school is prioritized.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Åsa Westlund (S)

Mr. Speaker! The government has finally admitted that the friskolor in Sweden are economically overcompensated. They are simply being paid for something they do not do. It is exactly what we Social Democrats have pointed out for a long time. Yet, the SD government is not doing everything it can to stop the overcompensation. Instead, it has been decided that the billions of kronor to the friskolor shall continue for many years to come. It is about as stupid as having used the taxpayers' money to pay fake invoices from the friskolor for several years unnecessarily.

It is actually completely irresponsible towards today's students. They do not get their schooling back when their schools are hit by cuts. It is irresponsible towards the taxpayers. Why does the government and SD want to give away the taxpayers' money to exactly private school owners in that way? Are there other groups in society that the government also wants to receive compensation for things they do not do? Or does the laxity towards exactly private school owners stem from the fact that the government and the Sweden Democrats seem to have close ties to exactly that group?

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Fredrik Malm (L)

Mr. Speaker! I thank Åsa Westlund for the question.

Fundamentally, three major reforms were carried out in the Swedish school system 30 years ago, and they fundamentally affected the Swedish school system.

The first was the municipalization, which the Social Democrats together with the Left Party Communists, as they were called at the time, pushed through. We were against this, but it was pushed through.

The second was the friskole reform a few years later, which the bourgeois government launched.

The third was the resource allocation system, that is, the school funding system.

What we are doing after 30 years is to review all three reforms from the ground up. We need to strengthen the state governance of the school. Municipalization will remain for the time being. We are reviewing the free school system in a large free school inquiry and also things that affect the free schools in supplementary directives to other inquiries. We are now investigating the question of a national standard for the school funding system.

It is absolutely necessary to do this, but not to break the back of the friskolor, as some on the left want, but to make the system work, to ensure that the economic incentives are reasonable, and so on.

It has now been eight lost years. Nothing happened during the last eight years. An investigation must look at changing precisely the resource allocation to the schools and the balance between municipal schools and independent schools, as well as how the school funding is calculated in different models. It is not possible to change the funding model for the Swedish school system overnight. It must be investigated, and then the question will come back to us in the Riksdag in the future.

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Åsa Westlund (S)

Mr. Speaker! During the eight years when the Social Democrats held government power, they countered the Liberals' every attempt to change this. Now, however, the Liberals have acknowledged that we were right all along. The independent schools are overcompensated. There are ready-made proposals on the Minister for Education's desk that the Liberals have voted down in the Swedish Riksdag together with the Moderates, the Sweden Democrats, the Christian Democrats, and the Centre Party. But those proposals can be submitted again, so that we can put a stop to the waste, so that students in the municipal schools can get more teachers instead of the independent school owners being treated to free lunches.

Why do SD and the government not want to change this as quickly as possible and prevent the private school owners from receiving billions in payments, compensations for a responsibility that the government itself says they do not have? It is completely incomprehensible.

I am happy to give the member a chance to explain exactly this. Otherwise, unfortunately, only the close ties to the private school owners remain as the only reasonable explanation.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Fredrik Malm (L)

Mr. Speaker! If Åsa Westlund listened to my answer, she would have heard me explain that we are now reviewing the three major changes that were made 30 years ago and which fundamentally changed the Swedish school system, namely the municipalization, the free school reform, and the school funding system. All of this is being reviewed.

The three parts belong together. When discussing the financing of, for example, independent schools, it is evident that the school fee looks different in our 290 municipalities. Municipalities calculate differently and have different ways of relating to administrative costs and premises costs. An independent school may very well be overcompensated in some places, but there may also be independent schools that are undercompensated relative to their municipality. There can also be such examples.

The consequence of municipalization has been that the financing of Swedish schools has been completely fragmented, so that the school fee today is calculated in up to 150 different ways across Sweden. This has been a fatal blow to the equality in Swedish schools. The knowledge results are connected to the school that the Social Democrats laid the foundation for, and it is this baggage that we in some way must handle in the government that exists now.

Mr. Speaker! Åsa Westlund says that this government does not want to do this as quickly as possible. Well, we do. We really want to do this as quickly as possible. A large part of the school section of the Tidö Agreement is precisely about this. We want reasonable conditions. We believe that students and parents should be able to choose a school; a municipal school or an independent school. But it should not be the Wild West in Skolsverige, instead, we should have reasonable rules and reasonable economic incentives. That is what paves the way to raise the results in the international measurements moving forward.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Anders Ådahl (C)

Mr. Speaker! Member Malm began his speech by talking about the PISA results, which we all unfortunately know have fallen for Sweden. The member speaks of a knowledge collapse. It is perhaps a bit of a strong word when we see that the entire OECD is retreating, but it does not look good for Swedish schools.

What is more interesting to study is perhaps that which is a bit more nuanced regarding what the causes and the major differences are. We do not have an equivalent school in Sweden. There are large differences regarding socioeconomics and prerequisites. There are large differences between city and country.

Member of the board Malm says that they are working very hard within the Liberals to get this in order. At the same time, Sveriges Kommuner och Regioner announces that they have a deficit of 28 billion kronor to provide school, healthcare, and elderly care. The Center Party sees this reality and allocates 7 billion kronor more than the government. I actually wonder how the reasoning has gone on inside the Liberals, in the government, and together with SD. Should we invest in Swedish schools? Should we invest in plastic bags? Should we invest in snus?

School after school is being closed down. Teacher after teacher is being laid off. It is worst in disadvantaged areas and out in the countryside. Why are the Liberals not helping Swedish schools?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Fredrik Malm (L)

Mr. Speaker! We had a debate here yesterday concerning student support. Then the demand came - why has the Central Swedish National Student Aid Board, CSN, not received exactly as much money as they have demanded from the government? I have listened to debates earlier today, and I have listened to several other budget debates. On almost all expenditure areas, that question arises. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency has demanded this, the Swedish Energy Agency has demanded that, some other agency has demanded something else - why do they not get what they have demanded?

What happens then if we take all the different demands from all different sides of the economy and add them together? I can say that I know quite a lot about the Center Party's economic policy, Mr. Speaker. I believe that the tax increases that would be required to satisfy all the different wishes from all sides, and the resulting tax profile of the Center Party's policy, would become very difficult to reconcile, not least with the subsidy cuts of 100 billion that the party leader Demirok recently announced.

SKR, Sveriges Kommuner och Regioner, assesses that the need is 28 billion. They have, however, not said that they demand 28 billion from the state; there are many municipalities that have built up surpluses, especially during the pandemic years as a result of pandemic-related support and so on.

But it is clear that it is tough. I admit it. We must be humble in the face of the situation we have. We have high inflation. We also have a labor market that is now heading downwards. We obviously have a tough situation for our municipalities and regions and all the extremely important activities in the welfare sector, as well as for individual individuals and additionally for the state treasury. We will need to help each other. The government is now increasing the state grants to the municipalities by 10 billion. I think that is a reasonable balance.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Anders Ådahl (C)

Mr. Speaker! I thank you very much for the answer. I completely share Member Malm's assessment that one cannot give money to everyone who shouts for money. Politics' perhaps most important task when it comes to the state budget, especially in difficult times, is to make priorities.

Swedish school, which is the foundation for everyone's start in life, is bleeding money. Inflation is driving up enormous costs for the municipalities. The pension commitments in the municipalities are increasing. SKR says that we lack 28 billion kronor. In that situation, the government and the Liberals choose not to prioritize school and education.

The question is about the choice of priorities. Why is it more important to lower the tax on plastic bags and snus than for us to invest in Swedish schools? Does it build a strong society? Does it build individuals who can take responsibility? Does it build a society where we in the future can obtain tax revenues that can cover the costs and prosperity of future generations?

I would like to ask the question once more. How is it that the Liberals have chosen such a prioritization? That is, after all, what it is about. We cannot give everything to everyone. Why is the prioritization chosen to not support Swedish school as much as is required?

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Fredrik Malm (L)

Mr. Speaker! We are making very large investments in Swedish schools now. Some of these investments are made through targeted state grants, because municipalities sometimes prioritize other things than schools – in quite many cases, unfortunately. In addition to the 10 billion that I just spoke about the government is allocating to the municipalities, there are an additional 6 billion in targeted state grants. We will, for the most part, reach the same budget allocations that the Centerpartiet does.

But the sum remains. We face huge challenges in the Swedish school system. We have challenges in the form of falling knowledge results. We have challenges in the form of the socioeconomic challenges we face, just as Member Anders Ådahl mentioned. We have a large group of young people who do not have Swedish as a mother tongue, or even have parents who have not yet learned Swedish, and who need extra support. We have residential areas with large social challenges; in many places, the school receives a huge compensatory support, but still, the conditions are difficult. It is clear that we have huge challenges, even in higher education when it comes to sharpening Swedish research and excellence and much more.

Over the last eight years, it is not much more than Gustav Fridolin's hand heart that has happened, if I am to be honest. I regret that. A bit further back in time, left-wing governments - but also bourgeois governments, I would say - should have more continuously followed up on the three major reforms that were implemented in the late 80s and early 90s and which I mentioned in previous posts.

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Camilla Hansén (MP)

Mr. Speaker! Fredrik Malm is talking about our former Minister for Education's "hand heart." Now we have a Minister for Education from the Liberals. A thousand times better to have a hand heart from a Minister for Education who understands what the teaching profession is, who understands what the school's mission is, and who understands that this here truly is the most important area in the state budget!

It is very fascinating that the debate begins with this being the most important area. I think so too, and I hope you all here think so as well. The others think the same about their areas, but they are wrong. The question that arises is: Why does the government not treat this as the most important area?

The municipalities do not receive the state grants they need. It is a nuisance. People say "from screen to folder," but it is perhaps rather finger-wagging instead of money that Swedish schools happen to face.

I would like to know: When will the money that the municipalities need to run schools arrive? Right now, it is children and students who are the crash cushion in the Swedish economy. It is a case of wrong priorities, Mr. Speaker.

Now nothing is happening, we have heard quite many times during eight years. I still want to be pleased by such things as that the government is now ensuring that the investigation into teaching materials is addressed. It probably came to some other place at some other time. I believe, now that we are debating the budget for 2024, that we can be wise in closing the door backwards and talk about 2024 and the future. Otherwise, we will not talk about the important priorities.

Why is school and education not truly prioritized in the state budget when the Ministry of Education is led by the Liberals?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Fredrik Malm (L)

Mr. Speaker! The simple answer is that we have a municipalized school system in Sweden. This means that we in Sweden do not have a school that is financed via the state. The reason why we nevertheless provide as much as up to one-fifth of the school's financing via the state is that the municipalities have failed in their responsibility, which has constantly increased the pressure on the state to step in and make investments. These can be teacher reforms, targeted state grants for textbooks, and so on. I would honestly have wished that we had a municipalized school that functioned. Then the municipalities would take that responsibility.

The municipality has the largest part of the funding of the school. It is the municipalities that finance the lion's share of it. They do so by collecting taxes and other things. But unfortunately, there are many municipalities that consider there are other tasks than the school that they consider more important and do not prioritize this.

From the Liberals' side, we have year after year for decades argued that the central level must take a stronger grip on the management and also the financing of the Swedish school. We have done so because we have seen the problems.

We have wanted to go the furthest of all and said that it is just as good to re-establish the financing responsibility for Swedish schools. The Green Party does not consider that. The Green Party wants the school as it is today. But one does not think that the municipalities should have to take responsibility for what the municipalities have responsibility for.

Then they go and blame me for it. The cuts that Miljöpartiet, Socialdemokraterna, and Vänsterpartiet are making in the City of Stockholm right now are not the fault of Fredrik Malm and the government. It is the leadership in the City of Stockholm that does not prioritize the school, and then they blame the government for it. It is an incomprehensible stance to take in that way.

In conclusion: Rules are actually nothing negative. A school with order and structure, and peace and quiet, is something that is very important and positive.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Camilla Hansén (MP)

Mr. Speaker! Now it is often as Fredrik Malm wants to speak about Gustav Fridolin. I take another quote from Gustav Fridolin: Never trust politicians who come with short and simple answers, because it is not true.

There are no simple answers. School funding is incredibly complex. We say that the state needs to take a greater responsibility. That is what we are prepared to do.

Now we are discussing the entire education area and also the investments in higher education. Just as many others know, we know that the engineering country Sweden is important for us, for our future and the global trends that we need to manage.

I am also pleased with the investments in science and technology at the educational institutions. But what is common between Uppsala, Lund, Gothenburg, Stockholm, Umeå, Linköping, Karolinska and several other educational institutions? It is that the investment being made in science and technology is less than the general savings that the Liberals are making at the forefront of Swedish education at the Ministry of Education across all state activities in Sweden. This also applies to the educational institutions.

What kind of investment is that? It is actually wanting to have a reprioritization. One could just say that. But it becomes silly to say that it is an investment when it is, in fact, a saving for the higher education institutions as a whole.

It is about priorities. It is a budget we are talking about with priorities. Several parties here have chosen to prioritize differently than the government. It shows that it is possible to prioritize differently and to prioritize school, education, and research, which is the foundation for the knowledge nation Sweden.

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Fredrik Malm (L)

Mr. Speaker! I fundamentally have a very positive view of Gustav Fridolin, who has now been apostrophized twice by my environmentally-minded colleague and only once by me. Now it is 2-2 there.

We now move on to the two partial reports that Gustav Fridolin has submitted to the government regarding school libraries and teaching materials. I would have wished that the government basis which Gustav Fridolin himself represented as minister had taken into account his investigations, but that is what this government is now doing.

We can see how important this is. We can have books out in some corridor on some small shelf. It is not the same thing as a staffed school library with a trained school librarian who also helps the students with other things that are very important to be able to navigate the world we have today. This concerns, for example, how one can search digitally for things and such, not falling for disinformation on the internet and such things.

The same thing applies when it comes to teaching materials. We have now spent very large amounts, almost 700 million this year and half a billion in the coming years, on teaching materials. There are also things in Gustav Fridolin's investigation if we proceed now. It concerns different types of regulatory frameworks and how strictly one should define what teaching materials are and such things in order to truly secure the quality of this. It is extremely important.

In the fundamental question, we see the declining knowledge results. They are also linked to a lack of order and discipline in many schools. We really need to re-establish peace and quiet in Swedish schools. In that regard, Miljöpartiet have never been the ones you want to hold hands with in that work.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Daniel Riazat (V)

Mr. Speaker! Fredrik Malm is a very funny person. I believe everyone in the Education Committee can agree on that. But perhaps we should be serious in this debate, considering that it concerns the country's future.

I want to be serious and say that Fredrik Malm is probably the politician in Sweden's Riksdag who, when his party is in opposition and not in government, blames all problems on Sweden's municipalities. When his party has ruled the majority of Sweden's municipalities, he thought that everything was the fault of the Social Democratic government.

Today he is in a position of government power and is responsible for having an extreme austerity policy right now towards the schools and the municipalities. The teachers' unions, Sveriges Kommuner och Regioner, parents and student organizations have all come out and said "Now we will not be able to manage it". If the government's budget is passed, it will be a slaughter of the Swedish school.

Fredrik Malm stands here and speaks about this as if the government is investing in the Swedish school system. We know that is not the case. Fredrik Malm's party was involved in governing more than 50 percent of the country's municipalities during the last mandate period. In the majority of these municipalities, cuts occurred.

Now Fredrik Malm is chairman of the Education Committee in the Riksdag, and his party is responsible for the Ministry of Education. Then enormous cuts occur again.

What is the answer, Fredrik Malm, right here before Christmas when children, parents and teachers are going on Christmas break with worry about what will happen with Swedish school during the next year? What is the answer to these hundreds of thousands of people all over the country, or the millions, who are affected by this cutback policy?

What is Fredrik Malm's answer? Why is it so important for the Liberals to implement the largest cuts to the municipalities over a very long period?

(Applause)

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Fredrik Malm (L)

Mr. Speaker! There is no slaughter of Swedish schools. It is very dishonorable, dishonest and incorrect to claim that. Sweden is possibly the country in the OECD that allocates the highest proportion of its GDP to schools.

In the budget we had to take a position on here last autumn - now I haven't checked the figures exactly this year - our expenditure areas that we are now debating accounted for the largest share of the Swedish state budget in several decades. There is no slaughter of Swedish schools taking place.

What we have seen, however, is a collapse in the knowledge results of Swedish students. It is very strange that our children and youth perform so poorly when we in Sweden have such extensive investments in welfare and in school as we do.

Not everything is just about redistribution when the government looks at it. That is what the Left Party believes. It is also about other things. It is about what pedagogy one uses, how students learn in school, and how well-educated the teachers are, and so on.

We are now going to reform the Swedish school system across the board in a number of different areas with the investigations that we have initiated. It is particularly about the three major reforms that were carried out 30 years ago.

Mr. Speaker! Resources are often discussed here in the chamber. I will tell a secret to Daniel Riazat. Money does not grow on trees. In the world of the Left Party and the Socialists, that is how it is. Then you do not care so much about whether people work or do not work and so on.

We must have an economy that works, and with the inflationary pressure and other problems we have now, it means that not everyone will get everything they ask for. We are not in that situation in Sweden, but we must also be realistic economically.

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Daniel Riazat (V)

Mr. Speaker! It is true; not everyone can have everything. However, in Fredrik Malm's, the Liberals' and the blue-brown government's world, school corporations can get exactly everything. All corporate directors can get everything. All people who are in the top percent of our society in terms of economy shall get everything, because our society apparently can afford it.

But when it comes to the school, there is no money. Money doesn't grow on trees, truly. That is the message from the Liberals when hundreds of thousands of students, parents, and teachers are now going on Christmas break with worry over what the government is doing with the Swedish school. So, the answer is: Money doesn't grow on trees.

Perhaps that is something one should have thought about when lowering the tax for the richest. Perhaps that is something one should have thought about when implementing a policy where the rich would get socialism while the rest would have to face the consequences of the capitalist policy that you pursue.

Before deciding to lead a country, one might have considered having a plan for how to lead a country. The plan is clear right now. There is a plan, and it is about those who are doing well being benefited the most. The companies that exist within the school system shall be able to continue to plunder the Swedish school of its resources. That is what the plan is.

I have a question as well, which is not just about the economy. In the midst of an economic situation that is appalling for the Swedish school and where knowledge results are falling, the government chooses to focus on making teachers into informants. Teachers are to go around in the Swedish school and start hunting students who look like me, like my cousins' children, or like others who have attended the Swedish school and have not even always had a residence permit. Why is this a priority to do? Apart from the fact that it is noticeable how the Liberals and the Sweden Democrats have moved significantly closer to each other—how is it that this is a priority in the Swedish school? Is this the next step?

First, it was about mobile phones being banned. It was incredibly important for the Liberals. Now they have moved closer to the Sweden Democrats, so now children who look like me must also be hunted in the Swedish school. Teachers are to be responsible for that instead of teaching. Why?

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Fredrik Malm (L)

Mr. Speaker! I do not know where to begin, but I can start with the fact that money does not grow on trees. If one listened to me in my previous contribution, one heard that it was not a message directed at students and parents out there; it was a message specifically directed at Daniel Riazat. It is Daniel Riazat who has problems with the funding.

Ordinary people out there know very well that money does not grow on trees. They have a quite tough existence right now, partly due to a fluctuating labor market, largely due to Russia's genocide campaign in Ukraine, and as a result of inflation and many other things.

Furthermore, I become a bit thoughtful, Mr. Speaker, when Daniel Riazat says that all teachers should run around and hunt people who have a foreign appearance in the school. I believe that many teachers do not quite recognize themselves in that they should start hunting people with a different skin color.

When it comes to the question of the duty of disclosure, it is clear in the directives that the investigator shall look at exceptions for specifically teachers and also persons in healthcare. Nor did it become much more correct there, Mr. Speaker, in Daniel Riazat's reasoning.

In conclusion, I can only state that it was Daniel Riazat's party together with the Social Democrats who pushed through the municipalization in Sweden, which means that it is now eight-tenths of Sweden's municipalities that finance the school.

It means that the criticism Daniel Riazat directs at me, he should direct at his own party colleagues, not least in this municipality. In the city of Stockholm, cuts are being made to schools, and it is the S-V-MP government that is doing it. That means we have a lot of children and young people, especially in the vulnerable areas, for example in the suburbs, and in many other municipalities around Sweden with red-green governments that are very concerned about what is happening with their schools.

(Applause)

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Åsa Westlund (S)

Mr. Speaker! A good and educational schooling is both a right for the individual and the most important investment society makes in a human being. Knowledge gives us power, both to shape our own lives and to influence society. A good school lays the foundation for future Nobel Prizes, innovative industries, and the next generation of competent teachers.

A good education protects both society and the individual from future unemployment, ill health, and crime. A well-functioning education system is also the foundation for a country that wants to compete with knowledge and competence. If Sweden is not to compete with low wages but with new ideas, innovations, new technology and high added value – then the education system must be highly prioritized.

Unfortunately, it was instead cuts to school and education that the SD government prioritized in its first budget - not because they were desperate and forced to, but to afford large tax cuts for those who earn the most.

When the budget was presented, the government boasted about record investments in schools. But in reality, it cut 2 billion from the appropriations to schools in constant prices. The money that the state provides to Swedish schools this year will therefore cover 3,000 fewer teaching positions than last year with a Social Democratic government.

Instead of standing for their own cuts, representatives of the government base have during the year let municipal representatives and principals bear the responsibility for the cuts that the government's policy has forced through. Municipal representatives have furthermore been accused by the government base of being poor at prioritizing. This happened most recently just now by member Fredrik Malm.

Of course, there are municipalities that can prioritize differently. But SD and the government themselves chose to cut the school in fixed prices by the equivalent of 3,000 teaching positions in order to, in the same budget, be able to afford to lower the tax for those who earn the most by 12.5 billion. Those who themselves make such a prioritization should blush with shame when they speak about the municipalities being bad at prioritizing.

Mr. Speaker! What does the government do then in this year's budget proposal? Do they compensate for the cuts they have made so far on the state funding of the school? No, unfortunately not. The state grants will also in 2024 amount to less than they did in 2022.

Mr. Speaker! It is possible to prioritize things that build Sweden strong even in tough times. Therefore, the Social Democrats prioritize education higher than the Sweden Democrats and the government do, even in next year's budget.

We Social Democrats want to allocate 1,850,000,000 more to school and education, of which 1 billion is for children's and young people's education. That is something I am proud of. For Swedish students, they need to get more time with their teachers, teachers need to get more colleagues, and school libraries need to be filled with both books and trained staff.

Mr. Speaker! School funds must also be used more cost-effectively. School funding overcompensates independent school corporations for responsibilities that only municipalities have. This has now even been acknowledged by the government. Still, the Sweden Democrats and the government continue the overcompensation to the independent school owners with at least 2 billion per year. Tax money that should go to teaching can continue to disappear away to waffle stands, beach plots, or expansion in other countries.

The government and SD are therefore failing the school in several ways: cuts in fixed prices since they took over and a market school that drains the school of resources.

The government could have stopped several billion from leaking through the school funding by taking action, but instead, it lets the profit-seeking continue. The bill is paid every year by students, teachers, and taxpayers. It is paid by children and young people who do not receive the help and support to develop that they are entitled to according to the Education Act. It is paid by teachers who do not receive reasonable working conditions and by the taxpayers, who have to watch their money being wasted.

Mr. Speaker! Several surveys show that the gaps are increasing and equality is decreasing in Swedish schools, including the latest PISA measurement. The pandemic has pulled down the results in all countries, but we also know from other surveys that Sweden has had an increasingly less equal school since the market school was introduced.

When schools are allowed to choose profitable students, the lack of equality increases. To strengthen knowledge results and increase equality in school, the market school must be abolished and more resources must go where they are needed most. We Social Democrats therefore propose that the state grant for knowledge development and equality be strengthened with an additional 700 million kronor next year.

We also want the state grant to be more targeted towards lower grades. Support for students who have difficulty with reading, writing, and arithmetic must be implemented earlier than it is today. We also want to invest more than the government in improving the working environment and working conditions in the most socioeconomically disadvantaged areas in Sweden.

Mr. Speaker! Students with a foreign background have lower knowledge results than children with Swedish-born parents. Lack of knowledge in the Swedish language hinders learning and understanding even in other subjects and in later school years. Measures are implemented too late, despite the fact that we have introduced a read-write-calculate guarantee.

That is why it is important to strengthen the language development work already in preschool. Unfortunately, the children who are in greatest need of training and development in the Swedish language often have the worst access to language training during the preschool period. Therefore, we Social Democrats propose a special initiative on precisely language development and high quality in the 200 preschools in the country that need it most. We also want to introduce language requirements and a language boost for pedagogical staff in preschool.

There is also a persistent difference between boys' and girls' school results. Therefore, Skolverket should receive a clear mandate to propose measures and work to strengthen boys' school results based on the research and proven experience that exists.

There are also more boys than girls among the thousands of young people who every year are prevented from continuing their studies in upper secondary school due to the grade F. Instead, they are sent toward a future that we know involves higher mental ill-health, great difficulties in the labor market, and a high risk of being recruited by criminal gangs. But the government basis's ideological blinkers prevent them from seeing this reality, and therefore they have put a stop to even investigating the issue of the grade F.

Mr. Speaker! We Social Democrats also want to provide more schools with support for adapted school environments for children with neuropsychiatric disabilities and ensure that the vocational schools can continue to meet the competence needs that exist within small but for society completely crucial professions.

Mr. Speaker! In the 2023 budget, the SD government cut 1 billion for adult education and universities of applied sciences. It did not take long before they realized it was a bit foolishly done and returned some of the money and called it an investment. The fact is, however, that the appropriations for adult education are still half a billion lower than when the government took office.

We Social Democrats allocate 500 million more than the government in our budget to adult education. Regional vocational adult education and combined education programs shall continue to grow, but it is also important that people through komvux have good opportunities to study for grades and courses.

Vocational college education also needs to continue to be expanded to meet the competence needs across the country. We therefore propose 250 million more than the government for this. In order for it to be possible for more people to receive education regardless of where in the country they live, we also want to develop more learning centers.

Mr. Speaker! It is deeply unfortunate for Sweden as a knowledge nation that the government both allocates too few resources to education and allows the leakage of tax funds to teaching to continue in this manner. Since our proposal for frameworks in the budget fell in the framework decision, I refer today only to our special statement. Better economic conditions and better economic management could, however, have raised the educational results in our country.

With Social Democratic policy, the school would have had more resources, and all tax money for the school would have stayed in the school. More adults would have had the opportunity to study, and more companies could have grown because they would then have found the right personnel to hire.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Fredrik Malm (L)

Mr. Speaker! I listened to the speech and was struck by the fact that there was almost not a word about the content of Swedish school. What should the students learn? How are we to raise the knowledge results? There was only a focus on the conclusion that the Social Democrats, by means of hard-lining and a very Social Democratic way of calculating bourgeois budget allocations, arrive at, namely that very much is being saved.

It is not quite in that way. The truth is, in the economic situation we have in Sweden and in many other countries, it is impossible to compensate all operations for an inflation of over 10 percent - now it has fallen, but it was there earlier. What the Social Democrats mean is a cut. Everyone, the entire Swedish people, are affected by this, and also many other operations.

We are making major investments in Swedish schools, but we are also making major reprioritizations of Swedish schools. I would have been very happy and grateful if some of this could have happened earlier. Over the last eight years, not much has happened, if we are to be honest.

We have now launched an investigation to raise the quality of teacher education. Nothing happened for eight years. Why? The Social Democrats did nothing. We are now carrying out the largest deregulation of the independent school sector in 30 years. We have appointed a large independent school investigation that will review matters. It is stricter controls, it is queues, it is profit stops, and it is other things. The Social Democrats should be positive about this, but they did nothing during the eight years they were in power. They submitted some legislative proposals half a year before the last election that were so poorly prepared that they didn't even pass. You didn't even get the Center Party and the Liberals on board on the question of queues.

Very little happens when the Social Democrats are in power. Significantly more is happening now.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Åsa Westlund (S)

Mr. Speaker! This is, after all, a budget debate. The member is upset that we are talking about the budget. We should be talking about something else. In that case, he is in the wrong place.

I understand, in itself, that Fredrik Malm does not want to talk about the resources for Swedish schools, because they have indeed decreased. The state's financial responsibility for Swedish schools has decreased with Liberalerna. I assume that Liberalerna in the election campaign did not stand and say: We want a state school, but we want the state to reduce the funding so that you can lay off teachers out there. But it is as the party leader said: One said one thing before the election, and then did something else.

The state funding covers less in Swedish schools today than it did in 2022. And even if it might be news to Fredrik Malm, Swedish school consists largely of teachers. They want a salary. I think they are entitled to that. It costs money.

Teachers are the most important thing Swedish schools have. Today, Swedish schools can afford 3,000 fewer teachers with Fredrik Malm's policy than when Fredrik Malm and his government took over in 2022.

I am fully aware that not everyone can be compensated for cost increases. But the government and Fredrik Malm chose to lower the tax by 12.5 billion kronor for those who earn the most instead of compensating the school for the cost increases that have occurred. It is a choice and a prioritization that Fredrik Malm must stand for.

I understand that he does not want to be reminded of this, but this is a budget debate and I remind him: How, Fredrik Malm, does Swedish school become better by the state reducing its responsibility for the financing of Swedish school? How does Swedish school become better from 3,000 fewer teachers who are financed by the state with this government than with the Social Democratic-led government in 2022?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Fredrik Malm (L)

Mr. Speaker! For the sake of clarification, I can begin by stating that teachers are municipal employees. If you work in a Swedish school, you are employed by the municipality. This was one of the main reasons why we were critical of the municipalization that Åsa Westlund's party pushed through 30 years ago, which has drained the Swedish teaching profession of authority and status and resulted in teachers' salaries in Sweden falling behind because the municipalities have not prioritized these and also not, in any case, to a sufficiently large extent, the teachers' working environment.

Then it is a bit strange that as soon as a tax is lowered in Sweden, the Social Democrats claim that it is only for the very richest. Police officers and nurses are not the richest people in Sweden. I think they deserve a few hundred kronor or thousands of kronor more in their pay envelopes for the efforts they make.

When we get the Swedish economy in order and achieve more growth and lower inflation, it is also important that those who work, toil, struggle, and go to work every day get to keep a little more of their salary in their wallets.

I understand that it stings terribly in the eyes of the Social Democrats when one points this out, but that is how it is.

Now I am going to tell you one thing that will surely make the Social Democrats even more upset: I also do not think that people who earn a little more money because they have completed long, heavy, and demanding educations should have to pay proportionally much more than others, as they do today. I think it should pay off to educate oneself to become a lawyer or a doctor. They also often have loans after having completed long educations.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Åsa Westlund (S)

Mr. Speaker! I listened carefully but did not hear the answer to my question, which was in what way the member believes Swedish school will become better by the government's budget bill prioritizing the use of the budget space for tax cuts while the school in practice receives fewer resources than in 2022. I did not perceive the answer on how it strengthens Swedish school. It does not.

In our budget, we are allocating more money to support all schools through a knowledge development and equity grant. We have more targeted initiatives for the most vulnerable schools, language development for vulnerable preschools, higher language requirements for staff, and training for preschool staff so that they can support children from different backgrounds in learning the Swedish language. We have continued support for vocational schools, higher support via SPSM for students with disabilities, more money for komvux and yrkesvux, and more money for the university college.

You say no to all of this. Instead, you use approximately the same amount to remove the plastic bag tax and introduce luxury-rot. That is your budget prioritization. I would like to ask the question, but it will, of course, be rhetorical: How does Sweden become a stronger knowledge nation by removing the plastic bag tax and introducing luxury-rot instead of doing what the Social Democrats propose in the form of investments in Swedish school and education?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Anders Ådahl (C)

Mr. Speaker! Let me first say that we in the Center Party of course welcome that the Social Democrats have the capacity to invest more than the government in Swedish schools. However, the investment that the Social Democrats manage is not enough. It is 1.8 billion more than the government's investment, while the Center Party has decided to prioritize school and education and is investing 7 billion more than the government. But my contribution is not quite about that.

Member of the Board Westlund has often used the expression the market school. From the Social Democratic side, one is not so fond of what is called the market school.

Centerpartiet has recently revised its school policy and view on the school, but that being said, we are a party that sees every individual and believes that the market is often the best solution to achieve a good society. At the same time, we perhaps do not believe that the surpluses that have occurred have benefited the school, and we have revised our policy.

We believe in pluralism. We believe in freedom of choice. But I have not quite understood what the Social Democrats mean that they want instead of the school that the Center Party wants, where there is a freedom of choice. Does the Social Democrats want a school that looks the same across the entire country and is owned by the municipalities and the state? What does it actually look like? Should there be different kinds of schools? Should there be different kinds of owners? What should the management look like? I am genuinely curious about the answer.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Åsa Westlund (S)

Mr. Speaker! With all due respect - Anders Ådahl cannot have exerted himself very much when he poses such a question.

The Social Democrats want to keep the free school choice, but we want a common school choice where all students choose at the same time, just as is done for universities and colleges. In that case, one seeks the places that are available. In such a system, we see that there should be several actors, but we want to remove the pursuit of profit in Swedish schools. We want those who run schools to do so out of a genuine interest in improving the school for Swedish students and equipping them with the greatest knowledge available. In that case, the profit interest must be removed from Swedish schools.

We are open to several different solutions and have not locked ourselves into a single one. There are several paths to take. Therefore, we would have liked to see the investigation that we commissioned when we were in power have finished its work and produced alternatives and different courses of action to remove the profit-seeking from Swedish schools.

Unfortunately, we do not believe, with the experience we have, that it is possible to control away the problems with profit-driven schools. The system must be changed in a more fundamental way so that no fortune seekers shall find themselves in Swedish school activities.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Anders Ådahl (C)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you for the clarification, Åsa Westlund! The reason I am asking the question is, of course, that we have a budget debate here in the chamber of the Riksdag this evening. In the Social Democrats' budget proposal, there are no funds allocated for reforming Swedish schools in the direction that the Social Democrats want. Would the member would like to say something about when you see such a reform would be possible? Why do you not allocate funds in this year's budget? Do you not believe in the model the member presents yourselves?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Åsa Westlund (S)

Mr. Speaker! I believe the member is looking for a specific solution to this issue which, in that case, would have needed to be included in a budget, but there are different ways to proceed. Not everything needs to be included in a budget motion. We are, as said, open to several different courses of action. What is important for us is to remove the negative drivers.

There are many parts of this that need to be settled. It is about reforming the school choice so that schools do not choose profitable students and that the school choice becomes common. It is about a resource allocation where independent schools are not overcompensated compared to municipal schools. Perhaps the responsibility for all students can be shared in a better way. It is not about removing the free school choice but about finding a solution that removes the profit interest.

I would be happy to return to this debate at a later time, but as has been said, there are also many different paths that do not need to be visible in a budget motion.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Patrick Reslow (SD)

Mr. Speaker! Let me first and foremost express my approval of the proposals in the report.

This week, the results of the PISA survey conducted during the spring of 2022 were presented. It was a fundamentally disappointing report that shows there are extensive knowledge gaps among Swedish students. Fredrik Malm has also previously accounted for this. The results in reading comprehension and mathematics fell back to 2012 levels. The pandemic is, of course, part of the explanation. Mass immigration is another part, and poor Social Democratic school policy is a third.

Reading and writing skills are of essential importance for how students manage to reach the knowledge goals and succeed in higher studies. In the long run, they also affect the possibility of getting a job and being an active citizen. Reading is a part of education and must therefore be strengthened.

The Sweden Democrats and the government are making a large-scale investment in reading, which also involves a shift from digitized learning materials to printed books. We allocate funds partly for the purchase of books for preschools and schools, and partly for the development of reading lists with Swedish and international fiction. We strengthen and expand the investments in teachers' professional development. We also announce an investment in staffed school libraries before 2025.

In the best of worlds, the teachers have sufficient time to prepare and plan the teaching, carry it out, and review what has been taught to ensure that the students have understood the subject area.

This places great demands not only on the teacher's subject knowledge but also on the students' discipline and on government steering documents that promote knowledge and educational progression.

Once upon a time, Sweden had a school form that emphasized exactly this, but it was overturned when the Social Democrats in the 50s and 60s reformed the school system and gradually began to mold all students into one and the same mold. Instead of being knowledge-focused, the school became the subject of a postmodern view where actual knowledge did not exist. It is the effects of this change of course that we see today.

The new political direction is clear. We are strengthening the school's knowledge mission. New curricula shall put an end to the concept world of "flumskola" (vague schooling). The grades shall clearly reflect the level of knowledge, and digital, centrally administered national tests shall ensure this.

The digital national tests will be rolled out starting from the autumn semester, and from the autumn of 2026, centrally graded national tests for upper secondary school will be introduced. We are introducing more specialized classes for high-performing students and increased opportunities to study subjects and courses at a higher level.

However, an important prerequisite for increasing knowledge levels is well-educated teachers. Teacher education must be reformed. The admission requirements for teacher and preschool teacher programs shall be raised, the subject education shall be strengthened, and subject knowledge and subject-didactic knowledge shall receive a significantly clearer focus. The degree objectives shall also be adjusted. Cooperation between the higher education institutions shall increase, and certain subjects shall be concentrated to fewer institutions in order to strengthen the quality. In this way, we create a strong, knowledge-focused school.

Madam Speaker! None of these measures will have any effect if we do not deal with the extensive order problems prevailing in Swedish schools.

The other day I received a letter from a teacher who told me about his work situation. He told me that school management and staff had stopped making the tough decisions required to handle disruptive students, probably because they did not dare to tackle the problems.

We have been able to read in the media about exactly this, for example that students who are victims of violence have to meet the perpetrators in school every day because the school does not take action.

The effects of mass immigration are also becoming apparent. We have, for example, been able to read about schools where clearly antisemitic acts have not prompted a police report, despite the municipality in question having zero tolerance for crime.

We have received information about schools governed by gang formations, schools where weapons and drugs are part of everyday life.

The insecurity in schools has increased. Threats and violence against other students and teachers have increased. Teachers choose to quit because of the working situation. The best students choose to rule out the teaching profession as an option.

The ongoing conflict between the terrorist organization Hamas and the Middle East's only democracy, Israel, has also penetrated the school world. Antisemitism is increasing, Jewish students are afraid to go to school, and in some places, teachers do not dare to teach about the Holocaust. How could it have gone this far? In no other workplace in the country would we have accepted such a work environment.

School shall be a place where knowledge, education and norms shall be in focus. School shall be a safe place. The Sweden Democrats and the government have therefore appointed an inquiry that shall strengthen precisely the safety and order in schools.

We strengthen the teachers' powers to maintain order. There should be no doubt that it is the teacher who decides over the teaching. For students who do not follow the rules, there shall be clear and immediate consequences. The principal's responsibility to maintain safety and study shall be written into the Education Act. The principal shall be responsible for ensuring that rules of order are established with a ladder of consequences. This shall form the basis for an expectations document to be signed by students and parents. A national absence register and order judgments shall be introduced.

The school must also be able to act forcefully when students violate, threaten, use violence, or otherwise act disruptively. It is directly offensive to read about cases where perpetrators are allowed to remain at the school and the crime victim is forced to meet their perpetrator daily, or where the victim is moved instead of the perpetrator. We will therefore expand the possibilities for temporary and permanent relocations, temporary and permanent suspensions, as well as more emergency schools - a broad spectrum of measures.

Madam Speaker! It is well known that the Sweden Democrats advocate for state ownership of the schools. We can, however, state that there is no majority in the Riksdag for this as of yet. Our work for state ownership continues, but in compromises with the government parties, we have agreed that it shall now be investigated how a national school funding norm for both municipal and independent schools should look and be introduced. We think that is good. We are taking a big step on the way towards state ownership but, at the current moment, not the step fully. A national school funding norm, however, means that the state takes control of the financing of the school and creates equal conditions for learning across the entire country. That is good. For our part, we will monitor that the design puts the students and not the form of operation at the center when the bill finally lands.

For us Sverigedemokrater, the right to choose school is of central importance. It is the students and parents who should decide over their future, not meddlesome Sossar or bureaucrats. Today, there are more than 410,000 students attending independent preschools, primary schools, and upper secondary schools. That is almost 20 percent of all children and students. In upper secondary school, it is as many as one in three students who choose an independent school. For many children and students, independent schools have become a natural alternative when the Social Democrats have failed to maintain a school with order in the classrooms or good study results.

The Sweden Democrats are positive about there being a diversity of school actors, everything from municipal schools to larger limited companies. For us, the form of operation is of less importance. What is more important is that the schools are good, maintain high quality, and deliver a high level of knowledge. For that very reason, it is also important to remove actors who are not serious and who do not deliver well enough. This shall, of course, also apply to municipal schools.

With this said, Madam Speaker, I would like to conclude by thanking you for the past year and wishing Madam Speaker, the Chamber Secretariat, the Committee Secretariat's staff, and the committee members a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Åsa Westlund (S)

Madam Speaker! I want to begin by saying that the two most recent curricula have been developed by conservative governments and that the Social Democratic government initiated a process and took several steps to remove the vagueness from the curricula and strengthen the knowledge requirements. I am pleased that the current government is continuing that work, because it is needed.

I intend, however, to ask a completely different question to Patrick Reslow.

In 2018, a five-year pilot project with industry schools was launched. The purpose was, among other things, that students in the upper secondary school's vocational programs and in komvux could be offered instruction in vocational components that cannot be provided at the regular school. During the trial period, Sweden was hit by a pandemic. But at the industry school for sheet metal workers, for example, the trial still led to the number of applicants increasing by 30 percent.

So these are vocational training programs, and society is truly crying out for trained personnel to fulfill important societal tasks.

Nevertheless, the SD government chose to abandon the attempt when it took office. We Social Democrats thought it was wrong, and we still think so. Therefore, we propose a state grant for this also this year in our budget motion.

Don't the Sweden Democrats think that more sheet metal workers and more power distribution technicians are needed in Sweden? Or why did the Sweden Democrats withdraw support for these well-functioning vocational schools?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Patrick Reslow (SD)

Madam Speaker! It feels a bit strange that a representative for the Social Democrats is asking questions about the need for more sheet metal workers.

The Social Democrats are the party in Sweden's Riksdag that has fought the most for everyone to study at colleges and universities. Everything is to be theorized. But when something that interests the Social Democrats actually comes along, for example that we do not have enough sheet metal workers, they do not reflect on their own guilt in that but make it into some other thing.

That is the problem in Swedish schools – that we have not succeeded in getting enough students to apply for the vocational programs because the Social Democrats have deliberately sent out the signal that these professions mean nothing. Everyone is supposed to go to university; that is what counts. Everyone is supposed to become an academic.

Will the vocational schools return in the future? We do not know. We probably do not have so much against it as a party. But we see other solutions that we are now working on together with the government parties. This concerns, for example, a vocational school and strengthening the vocational programs in upper secondary school. We are talking about vocational adult education and vocational colleges. I have high expectations that just sheet metal workers will be included here and that we can thereby fulfill Åsa Westlund's long-awaited dream.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Åsa Westlund (S)

Madam Speaker! This was actually qualified nonsense from Patrick Reslow. But I still did not hear the answer to the question. Why did the Sweden Democrats and the government remove the funding from fully functioning vocational schools that gave students the opportunity to train as sheet metal workers and other socially necessary occupations?

Due to the Sweden Democrats' decision, many upper secondary school students have now not been given this opportunity. Workplaces have lost out on competence. Knowledge and staff that have been built up at these vocational schools risk being scattered to the wind and becoming impossible to get back.

One of the vocational schools that succeeded well was the one that trained power distribution technicians – an important profession now that Sweden is to transition and needs more electricity production. A functioning power grid is also needed for the new production and the new industries that need the electricity.

Why, then, do the Sweden Democrats attack this opportunity to secure access to just electricity distribution technicians? Why shut down fully functioning vocational training in order to hopefully, at some point in the future, create something similar, Patrick Reslow?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Patrick Reslow (SD)

Madam Speaker! I note, and it is quite remarkable, that when one receives an answer that does not fit, it is nonsense, according to Åsa Westlund. When we answer and explain why we stand for certain things and this is not in Åsa Westlund's interest, it is therefore nonsense. That may not be so good.

The interest in the vocational schools was weak, and so it was decided to do something else. Now investments are being made - I do not understand Åsa Westlund's question, because I was very clear about this - to strengthen the vocational programs that the Socialdemokraterna chose not to place the emphasis on because everyone was to study at university and become academics. We are strengthening the vocational programs. We are establishing the vocational school. We want strengthened vocational adult education. We want to invest in the university college.

We are confident that we will meet the need that exists. We already see today that the demand for the vocational programs is increasing; that is very good. The message is that with SD policy and bourgeois policy, better conditions are created to fill the shortage occupations in the future. This is more than what has been achieved during eight Social Democratic years.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Daniel Riazat (V)

Madam Speaker, members and market school representatives! I would like to begin my speech by sending a thought to all the children in Gaza who today do not have the opportunity to go to school. I would like to send a thought to all the children in Kurdistan, to all the schoolgirls in Iran who cry "zan, zendegi, azadi" and to all the children around the world who do not have the privilege we have here.

Madam Speaker! It would have been nice if the Minister for School Markets – or I mean the Minister for Schools – had also been here, but I note that we once again have a school policy debate without the presence of any of the education policy ministers. I find this to be regrettable.

"Don't make excuses when it's your fault, Edholm." That is what the teachers' union Sveriges lärare wrote a couple of months ago. In the article, it further stated: "Lotta Edholm has in various ways tried to pretend that the government is putting an extremely large amount into schools. That is not true. If one only looks at what was added to the budget, there are several years during the last ten years when larger resources were added. Additionally, the high inflation means that the money goes further less now than before."

It is one thing that the Swedish bourgeoisie uses terms like communism and the like as soon as someone criticizes the government's poor school policy. But is Sveriges lärare also a communist organization? I wonder. Is Sveriges Kommuner och Regioner a communist organization? Are all of Sweden's school researchers communists? No, I do not think they are, and I also believe that the government knows that they are not.

Madam Speaker! The Left Party's collective proposals regarding the state budget are in our party budget motion. In that motion, we have also set a framework for expenditure area 16, which I am here to speak about today. But we also have a specific statement in the Education Committee because we do not stand behind the government's budget frameworks.

Sweden faces very large societal challenges, not least when it comes to the school. The mental health of children and young people has deteriorated significantly during recent years, and more and more young people are being drawn into crime. Preschool and school are completely central protective factors when it comes to these problems, but it is crucial that the school receives the resources and conditions that are needed.

Vänsterpartiet proposes that the general state grants be increased significantly in 2024, in line with inflation, wages, and population growth in different groups in the coming years. Increased general state grants to municipalities are also the platform required for the operations to have the peace to work to create a long-term secure, democratic, and equal education sector.

It is, for example, important that all children have the opportunity to attend preschool, regardless of the parents' finances. Therefore, we propose that a free allowance be introduced within the maximum fee. Here, we allocate 1.3 billion more than in the government's proposal.

We also propose that an increased exemption limit is introduced for the after-school care fee. For this purpose, we allocate 640 million kronor more than in the government's proposal.

Furthermore, we consider that the groups in preschools and at after-school centers are too large. Therefore, we are making targeted investments in staffing reinforcements at, among other places, the after-school centers, where the needs are greatest.

Vänsterpartiet proposes its own initiatives for general support to the municipalities within expenditure area 25 amounting to approximately 30 billion SEK, which is also roughly the amount that, among others, SKR has stated is needed to maintain the current quality. They have spoken about 28 billion SEK being needed to maintain the current quality.

Today, civil representatives have stood here in the speaker's chair and spoken about how the knowledge results have fallen in the Swedish school. Is the solution then to reduce the resources to the Swedish school, as the government is doing now? The answer from Vänsterpartiet and, I know, the entire united opposition is no. The answer is investments and showing the Swedish school and those who work within it that we consider it a priority area - that is not what the government does.

Madam Speaker! The results of the PISA study were recently presented, and I must say that it was not pleasant to see the Swedish results. I can begin by saying that I am not particularly fond of the great focus on individual measurements and international comparisons. I do not think that Swedish school policy should be designed solely based on international measurements. But one thing is still clear: Yet another international measurement shows that the Swedish school is becoming increasingly unequal. And this worries Vänsterpartiet and me.

The OECD has pointed this out on several occasions. Both Swedish and international researchers have also said exactly the same thing, namely that the market system is tearing apart the Swedish school system and leading to more segregation and inequality.

At the same time, there is another issue linked to this that also negatively affects the Swedish school system; I spoke about it earlier. It concerns the enormous cuts that the government is currently making regarding the municipalities and the schools.

In a time when teachers and principals are crying out for more resources and employees are forced to be laid off, partly due to the cuts that the bourgeoisie introduced in the majority of the municipalities where they were involved in governing during the previous mandate period, the government now feels compelled – the same parties that governed the majority of the country's municipalities previously – to initiate an extreme austerity budget towards Swedish school.

I received no answer from Fredrik Malm, Liberalerna, chairman of the Education Committee and a member of the same party as the School Market Minister and the Education Market Minister, as to why it is so important for this government to make the largest cuts to Swedish schools right now when it is at its most difficult.

Sveriges Kommuner och Regioner has protested. Sveriges lärare are protesting and organizing demonstrations against this. Students and parents are starting various groups and uprisings against the cuts. But the Minister for Education says that the money is not the most important thing.

Money is therefore the most important thing when it comes to raising the salaries for members of parliament, school principals, owners of independent schools who are to get away from taxes, and various types of people in our society who are at the top, but money is not the most important thing when it comes to school, healthcare and elderly care - that is to say our welfare, the core of our society.

When teachers stand in schools and say that they cannot handle more cuts, Fredrik Malm's, the Liberals' and the government's answer is that money does not grow on trees. But apparently, they do grow on trees somewhere, and that is in the government's tax cuts. There they grow on trees. When the Sweden Democrats are to decide that the market experiment with Swedish schools shall continue, then there is as much money as one could want. When billions of kronor of our tax money are to disappear from our country because of an experiment that one has been inspired by from a dictator named Pinochet, then there is as much money as one could want, but not when it comes to letting the employees have peace and quiet in the Swedish school.

When the right speaks about the need to change the school system, we should remember that, among others, the Liberals have been involved in developing four of the last five school laws and curricula in this country. That is to say that the governing parties are also highly responsible for the school policy that exists today and which we are debating. That they pretend as if they are not is regrettable.

Madam Speaker! It is not possible to talk about the Swedish school without talking about marketization. Therefore, I will time and again, in speech after speech and reply after reply, raise the question of how one of the world's most corrupt school systems is tearing apart the Swedish school. It leads to resources disappearing from our common school system and tax system. It leads to teachers not getting the opportunity to help children in the way they want to and can and as they are trained to.

It leads to school leaders being forced to cut back, against their will, because Fredrik Malm does not have more money for the school. But he has more money for tax cuts. The Sweden Democrats do not have more money for the school, but they have money to rent prisons abroad.

I find this to be regrettable. Sweden has gone from being a school nation and a knowledge nation to becoming a country where the foremost representatives of the government are not even well-read on the budget they themselves have presented in this chamber. That is what I would have expected from politicians in my home country Iran, where they have received their posts by being related to the president or to someone else, but not in a democracy like Sweden and not in a knowledge nation like Sweden.

As the committee's vice-chairman took up earlier, it is about only one thing here, and that is that there are connections between political parties and representatives in Sweden's Riksdag and the school corporations. Otherwise, there would not be a single reason for this school market experiment to continue.

We have, de facto, a system that does not even exist in all dictatorships, namely that a school minister comes directly from the school market. That is why I have consistently today spoken about the school market minister, because that is what we live with today.

For those who are listening and do not see this, I can say that the bourgeois representatives seem to be very concerned by my speech right now. It also makes me know that we are on the right track when we in the opposition raise the issue of the failure of school marketization.

We will ensure that an equal school is created, whether the current government wants it or not. It is reflected in the opinion polls, and it will be reflected on the next election day. We will take back the democratic control over the Swedish school, and we will ensure that teachers, school staff, and students receive the appreciation and respect they deserve - one should at least have school politicians who are well-read on what they are doing and do not sit here and laugh when others speak from the rostrum. We will ensure that.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Josefin Malmqvist (M)

Madam Speaker! Sweden should have the world's best school. In many classrooms, we see that teaching of absolute world-class quality is being conducted.

But unfortunately, it does not look like that everywhere. The results in Swedish schools have now fallen for over 20 years. If powerful measures are not implemented now, generations risk growing up without sufficient knowledge, and Sweden as a country risks falling behind when it comes to growth and competitiveness.

The latest PISA measurement, which several of my colleagues have mentioned here earlier this evening, unfortunately confirms this. We see that the drop in knowledge among Swedish students is the largest drop ever when it comes to mathematics and reading comprehension. One in five ten-year-olds cannot understand an everyday text. Literacy among Swedish students, and primarily among students who do not speak Swedish at home, has worsened in comparison with other countries within the OECD. So we cannot have that. It is a serious failing grade.

The failed integration is an important explanation for this development. The school now risks being divided into two, where the differences increase between those who are born in Sweden and those who are born outside Sweden. We see now that the differences are increasing.

But the fact is that Sweden is lagging behind not only among the students who perform the worst but also among the students who should perform at the absolute top. In mathematics, to mention one example, the proportion of high-performing students has fallen from 12 to 5 percent in just over 20 years.

Sweden is losing internationally. It is one of the reasons why we are now investing specifically in more elite classes. But the fact is that we do not even know if Swedish students can more or less in mathematics now than, say, 20 years ago or for that matter three years ago, this due to the Social Democrats' "flumskola" and the unclear goals we have today regarding knowledge requirements.

We want to see clear and measurable knowledge requirements. The curriculum should not describe how the teaching is to be conducted, but instead focus on it being based on evidence and proven experience. We shall focus on measurable knowledge.

There are several international experiences that show the way. Another example is externally graded national tests and external examiners. In the ten countries in Europe that have comparable school systems, the majority have tests that are assessed externally. It should not be rocket science to achieve this in Sweden as well. It is something we have fought for for many years in opposition. Now it will become a reality.

Madam Speaker! The most important factor for raising knowledge results in the Swedish school is a lot of teaching time with skilled teachers. At the same time, the teaching profession in Sweden has gone from being sought-after to being a low-status profession, according to OECD. So we cannot have that.

We mean that teacher education needs to be reformed fundamentally. We want to see more practice and a focus on subject knowledge. From the Moderates' side, we want to open up for independent teacher educations. And it should become more attractive to work as a teacher through reduced administration, greater powers, and reforms to get order and clarity in the classrooms.

Madam Speaker! In these budget debates, we very often focus on how we distribute the expenditures in the state budget, but very rarely on how the revenues are created and how the revenues can become larger. What reforms do we need to ensure that more jobs are created and for the growth in Sweden to increase?

Sweden went from being one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe to being one of the countries with the lowest growth during Magdalena Andersson's time at the Government Offices. They wasted a boom by not implementing necessary structural reforms - this applied in particular to the labor market. This resulted in Sweden having the worst development of unemployment in all of Europe.

Now a policy for higher growth is required. We need a policy that gives companies the opportunity to grow. What is it then that is required? What is it that the companies are demanding? Both large and small companies that I meet around throughout all of Sweden all raise exactly the same thing: skills supply, skills supply, skills supply.

The lack of competence is the major deficiency that is seen today. It is precisely for that reason that we are coming forward with large educational investments in this budget. We focus on expanding vocational education. This applies to regional vocational adult education. It applies to the University of Applied Sciences, which will reach record-high levels next year when it comes to the number of places. We are making an investment in more engineers, among many other things.

Madam Speaker! Christmas is approaching. Many are having a very tough time right now. Inflation is the workers' absolute worst enemy. In just a few weeks it is Christmas, and I see that many children and parents and families will have a very tough time making the money stretch. Inflation is hitting people very hard right now. That is why this is the government's absolute most important priority in this budget. We will not give up until inflation has fallen back. We now see signs that it is going in the right direction, and we really hope that it will continue.

But we need to take this with us when we debate this budget, because it is reflected in the investments that we choose to make in the budget. We need to think about it and prioritize the investments that are truly needed and that truly make a difference. That, my friends, is taking responsibility in tough times. The single largest investment that we make in this budget is on welfare. It is an investment in municipalities and regions because we know that it is needed.

But when I read the opposition parties' budgets, I do not experience that everyone is taking responsibility. Both Vänsterpartiet and Miljöpartiet are actually going against the entire collective economic science. In their budget proposals, they want to borrow hundreds of billions of kronor in the coming years to put together all their collective promises. It would fuel inflation. It would lead to higher prices and higher interest rates, and ultimately it would hit the families who are having it the absolute toughest right now.

At the same time, the Social Democrats want to give the appearance of taking responsibility when they instead propose a bank tax that is actually not even feasible next year. It is that which, on paper, is supposed to finance all the promises we have heard about here in the debate. It is thus a bank tax that is a pure castle in the air, because the money does not exist. They are made up.

We can hear Åsa Westlund and other representatives in the debate promising this and that to the left and right, but the money simply does not exist next year. You are deceiving Sweden's teachers. You are deceiving families who believe in your promises. You are gambling with Sweden's economy. That is not taking responsibility.

Sweden is in a tough economic situation, but we are taking responsibility and implementing necessary reforms to lift Swedish schools, to meet the needs, to solve the skills supply, and thereby also contribute to strengthening Sweden's growth and competitiveness in the long term.

With this, I move for approval of the committee's proposal in the report.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Åsa Westlund (S)

Madam Speaker! Many have already said this today. But I intend to repeat it again: Many schools have during the year had to reduce staff because the Sweden Democrats and the government chose not to compensate the schools for cost increases. This unfortunately means that much support staff has disappeared, and the staff that has remained has a much harder time being sufficient.

It has become more difficult for schools to ensure that, for example, students who have difficulty learning to read truly receive the support and teacher time they need to learn. Just as Josefin Malmqvist herself said from the rostrum, it is a lot of teaching time with skilled teachers that makes a difference in Swedish schools.

Nevertheless, the Sweden Democrats and the government, when it took office, chose to cut the state's funding of Swedish school in constant prices by an amount equivalent to 3,000 teachers. They also did not compensate the municipalities in any other way for the cost increases that had occurred. And in this budget, the same parties choose not to make up for the cuts that were made last year, and the state support for Swedish school is also lower in 2024 than it was in 2022 in constant prices.

The Sweden Democrats and the government are simply allocating too few resources to the school. They prioritize other things. They prioritize the abolished plastic bag tax. They prioritize lowering taxes for those who can afford to renovate their kitchens for 600,000 kronor in the middle of a cost crisis.

My question is quite simply: How does Swedish school become better when the state support for children's and young people's education suffices for fewer teachers and less teaching time in 2024 than it did in 2022?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Josefin Malmqvist (M)

Madam Speaker! Thank you, Åsa Westlund, for the question! It gives me an opportunity to repeat what I highlighted in my speech.

It is tough economic times right now. We see that households are having a very tough time. That is why I am glad that the single largest investment that we have the possibility to make in this budget, we are making on exactly welfare. We prioritize investments in the school, in healthcare, and in elderly care. It is therefore the single most important investment that we make in this budget.

Madam Speaker! I would very much like to hear from Member Åsa Westlund how the Member justifies the lack of funding. You lack funding for your big promises in your budget. The 10 billion that you stand here and promise do not exist. A bank tax is not possible to implement next year, so it is just a pure castle in the air. What answer do you have for Sweden's teachers, parents, and students who believe in your promises here in the rostrum, which are just pure fiction?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Åsa Westlund (S)

Madam Speaker! It is clear that Sweden can introduce a bank tax on the excess profits that the banks have made on Swedish borrowers during this crisis. Several other European countries have already done this with good results. It is clear that we can also do it if the government puts its shoulder to the wheel, but that is what they do not want to do. Instead, they want to prioritize other things.

In our budget, we are allocating 1 billion more to children's and young people's education, to the school. We are allocating almost 1 billion more to vocational colleges, adult education, yrkesvux and komvux. We finance this by not saying yes to luxury-rot, that is, lower tax for those who are going to luxury-renovate their kitchens. It is approximately 1 billion - 1 billion that could be allocated to the school. Josefin Malmqvist is welcome to take the opportunity and change her mind, reprioritize. Swedish school is surely more important than luxury renovation of kitchens?

Another half billion for the abolished plastic bag tax, or another half billion for the vocational college or vocational adult education? I obviously choose education, because this is what builds Sweden strong. I believe this is what we need to invest in, even when tough times prevail. We do not need to help people who can afford to renovate their kitchen for 600,000 kronor.

Since taking office, the government has prioritized tax cuts for those who earn the most over securing the funding of school and welfare through the cost crisis. How does Member of Parliament Josefin Malmqvist justify this to parents, teachers, and students who are now left facing the consequences? And how does this prioritization, namely tax cuts over investments in education and school, make Sweden as a knowledge nation stronger?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Josefin Malmqvist (M)

Madam Speaker! The alternatives in this debate are becoming clear. Here we have a Social Democratic member who represents a budget alternative where 10 billion kronor are missing. It is, therefore, a completely underfunded budget proposal, and I think it is remarkable for a party that, at least previously, has been concerned with taking responsibility for conducting a responsible economic policy in Sweden. It is a staggering development, I think.

The alternatives are clear. The Government and the Tidö parties are now presenting a budget that is financed and that takes responsibility in a difficult economic situation where the most important priority is investments specifically in municipalities and regions, because we know that many are having a tough time.

However, we will not be able to fully compensate for the effects of inflation nationally, and in that regard, we must help each other. We also see that many municipalities are taking on a huge responsibility right now, and even there, it matters who is in power. Here in the city of Stockholm - in Stockholm City Hall - the Moderaterna are investing 110 million kronor more than the Socialdemokratern in schools next year. In Malmö, the Moderaterna are investing 168 million kronor more than the Socialdemokratern next year. So yes, it is crystal clear that it matters who is in power even when it comes to Swedish schools.

I am proud that we are now implementing clear and necessary, much-demanded structural reforms and reforms for Swedish schools to raise knowledge results, to increase the attractiveness of the teaching profession, and to reduce teachers' administrative burden, among many other things. This will make a real difference so that we can raise the results in Swedish schools.

(Applause)

(THIRD DEPUTY SPEAKER: I would simply like to remind everyone of the rules of conduct in the chamber. We do not address each other as "you", but everyone speaks through the Speaker.)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Anders Ådahl (C)

Madam Speaker! A darkness is moving over Swedish schools and Swedish higher education and research. Swedish schools are losing ground. Mental illness is increasing. The gaps are widening, both between those who have it well-prepared at home and those who have it harder, and between city and countryside. The dropout rate is increasing.

Swedish research is declining, and we are losing our top position for innovations. Fewer and fewer Swedes choose to pursue a doctorate. From preschool, through primary school and upper secondary school to higher education, research and innovation - across the entire education system, a darkness is moving in. Shall we shrug our shoulders at this, or shall we try to do something about it?

Education is the cornerstone of our democratic and civilized society. The knowledge and skills conveyed in school are absolutely crucial, both for the individual's own life journey as well as for society as a whole and Sweden's competitiveness.

With knowledge we build understanding - between individuals and cultures. Fears and threats are exchanged for curiosity and inclusion. With knowledge we build the secure society - it is the foundation. With knowledge we build companies and export successes. With knowledge we build tax revenues that can be invested in an even better school and a strong welfare in general. With knowledge we build the modern, prosperous and open society.

So when a darkness moves in over the Swedish education system, the question becomes: Shall we shrug our shoulders at this, or shall we try to do something about it?

Madam Speaker! Plastic bags or school? Snus or school? Unfortunately, these questions must be asked, as we see how the government's austerity policy towards the municipalities leads to layoffs of teachers and the closing of schools, how universities and colleges face double agency withdrawals, and how study associations and folk high schools are put on a starvation diet.

A darkness is moving in over the Swedish education system. For the Center Party, the answer is crystal clear. We know the value of education, and we know how important it is to invest in the school. We hold school and education in very high regard, and in our budget, we choose to prioritize school and education.

In our budget proposal, we invest the most of the Riksdag's eight parties, both when it comes to pure crowns and öres and when it comes to the share of the total expenditure side of the state budget, i.e., also including the Vänsterpartiet's and Miljöpartiet's particularly cumbersome expenditure sides.

Our budget initiatives take off in a new and thoroughly worked-out school policy with 58 proposals to reform Swedish schools. Our proposals are divided into several different areas which together create high quality and a more equal school.

The areas we highlight in our school program are: a good start with a focus on language, a clear resource distribution system, high expectations, grades that can be trusted, support for students based on need, education that leads to jobs, freedom of choice with reasonableness, support for small schools, and strong pedagogical leadership with trust in the profession. Add to that an ongoing effort to strengthen Swedish higher education and research, and the picture becomes clear: the Center Party prioritizes school and education.

When it comes to the state budget, we in Centerpartiet are investing the most. On the total, we are investing 7 billion more than the government on school and education. That is a very large amount, as the area encompasses, in rounded figures, 100 billion kronor.

Madam Speaker! Let me provide an economic background. The economic crisis has led to a serious crisis for the Swedish welfare state, and inflation is increasing the costs for the municipalities and regions, while their pension commitments are also increasing dramatically precisely as a result of inflation.

In 2024, regions and municipalities are expected to run very large deficits, be forced to lay off staff, and cut back on care, healthcare, and other important activities. According to Sveriges Kommuner och Regioner, the projected deficit for 2024 is a total of 28 billion kronor, a total sum that also hides large variations in deficits for individual municipalities and regions that are hit particularly hard by the inflation crisis.

The government meets only just over half of these deficits with its investments in the municipal sector in its budget, which leads to municipalities and regions now warning of a continued wave of cuts during 2024. This applies not least to the Swedish school system.

Thousands of qualified teachers and other resources are being laid off, often precisely the staff who are to meet students with learning difficulties and social vulnerability. Hundreds of schools are now being closed, usually the smaller schools in the countryside, which create proximity, safety, and peace of mind for neighboring students. In a situation where the Swedish school should stand strong, it is being severely weakened. It is a worrying development we see when the collective resources for education are cut.

Madam Speaker! I can state with a certain gloom that the government is investing more in subsidies than in education. It is an unsustainable development for Sweden as a knowledge nation, and I cannot see that this is bourgeois economic policy. Instead, we need to meet the enormous skills shortage with a policy for school and education, not with a policy for subsidies.

Centerpartiets plan is to step by step re-establish Sweden as a knowledge nation, both in breadth and at the top. If Sweden is to remain a proud knowledge nation, education must therefore be prioritized. The economic policy must aim to bring those who are dependent on benefits into jobs and education. The goal must be to invest more in education than in benefits in the state budget and not, as today, 100 billion less.

All parts of the education system - preschool, school, higher education, continuing education, vocational adult education, universities of applied sciences and study associations - are important, and all must actually be strengthened.

Madam Speaker! The Centre Party makes two major budget arrangements for Swedish schools which together provide the school with 16 billion kronor. On one hand, we stop the acute wave of layoffs and closures in the Swedish school by providing 5 billion kronor in a special sector support, and on the other hand, we reject targeted state grants and convert these into general state grants to increase the effect for the school. It is the biggest difference against all parties in the Riksdag. We believe in a decentralized society with local decision-making and that municipalities and schools are best at deciding how resources should be used. We believe in the profession – in principals and in teachers.

These allocations of ours of 16 billion go towards measures to strengthen knowledge development and equality throughout the country. This means more teachers, special educators, and books in Sweden's classrooms. It also means a new focus on the countryside in the state's initiatives for schools. Funds are weighted by socioeconomic factors and the sparseness of municipalities. In this way, we provide money to both schools with greater needs and rural municipalities that are hit hardest by the wave of cuts. For many smaller municipalities, this means that they can retain the five or ten teachers who often make the difference on the margin. For large municipalities, it can actually be about hundreds more teachers.

Madam Speaker! We need to strengthen the vocational higher education. Vocational higher education is one of our most successful forms of study. The study places are in demand both from the students and from the companies that receive the further educated students. It is actually a success story. Nevertheless, vocational higher education has not been expanded in line with the needs, and too low a proportion of the vocational higher education's resources are permanent.

The Center Party believes that the government's investment must be doubled and that a large share of the resources should be made permanent to increase long-term perspective. The transition study support, which can be said to be part of the Center Party's LAS reforms, ensures that we in Sweden can have a more dynamic and flexible working life where careers can be changed in the middle of life. This is particularly valuable when the labor market is changing shape ever faster. What the AI development can lead to, we can only guess. The transition study support is, just like the university college, a success that needs to be expanded.

Madam Speaker! Sweden is a welfare state that builds its prosperity on the ability to produce products and services with high knowledge content. The very foundation for that ability is high quality in our higher education and in our research. Sweden needs more people to educate themselves, more independent colleges, and more educations that are relevant to the labor market. The quality of research must be strengthened and accompanied by a high-class innovation system where research ideas move from the lab to the global market.

Regardless of where you live in the country, it is important that there is an opportunity for higher education. Access to higher education of good quality increases people's opportunities for jobs and security, while simultaneously benefiting the business sector and our common welfare.

But the development is unfortunately worrying. The quality of Swedish research appears to be declining. It is an early signal that the quality of our products and services risks declining over time, which would be devastating for our welfare.

We in the Center Party reject the government's proposal to add general savings of 243 million kronor to the productivity deduction for our colleges and universities. It is not the time to cut back on higher education and research. The government's double cuts actually risk the quality of Swedish research. For research that is both relevant and high-quality, it is required that two perspectives be considered: firstly, free conditions for researchers to define research problems and methods themselves, and secondly, a responsiveness to society's needs on both short and long-term horizons. We believe that both perspectives must guide us and how we organize and finance the Swedish research landscape.

Madam Speaker! The Centre Party wants to save the study associations from starvation. The government has severely worsened the conditions for adult education. Within the next three years, there will be an overall reduction of almost one-third of the study associations' total budget. Despite the government's attempts to portray it as investing in the folk high schools, funding was reduced by 500 million last year, and this year's appropriation increase of 100 million thus represents a net loss over two years of 400 million kronor.

Folkbildningen is a completely crucial resource that reaches many of those who stand far from the labor market, and it welcomes everyone regardless of age, background, or functional ability. In many rural areas, folkbildningen is also the only cultural actor that can broaden perspectives.

Studieförbunden have, for example, played a decisive role for the many Ukrainians who came to Sweden after Russia's invasion. It was here they took their first steps to learn Swedish through courses for newcomers, while simultaneously acquiring knowledge on site about the society they have come to. The Centre Party works to ensure that every krona for the studieförbunden is used effectively, and in our budget, we reject the dismantling of folk education.

Madam Speaker! A darkness has moved over Swedish school and education, but with liberal and decentralizing reforms based on local conditions, we can create a school for life journeys for all children. It shall be a preschool and school where we set requirements, see every individual, and create a stable and secure environment where our children and young people thrive. The school shall be for everyone and see everyone regardless of any disabilities, socioeconomic background, gender, or origin. Talents across the country shall be given peak opportunities, and those with difficulties shall be included and given support. That is how we lay the foundation for Sweden as a knowledge nation, and that is how we enable every young person's life journey. It is in the school that it begins.

Madam Speaker! The Centre Party prioritizes school and education.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Camilla Hansén (MP)

Madam Speaker! I hope the Speaker and the members will overlook the unusual move in a chamber debate of posing a completely sincerely intended question.

We who stand here belong to the parties that put the most money into our budgets for school and higher education. It is in school that it begins, and it is higher education that one must invest in for Sweden to continue to be a leading knowledge nation.

Now, for the Center Party is introducing a sector grant for schools in the budget. I am wondering where the reprioritizations are occurring. I have also noted that you are not increasing the general state grants to municipalities and regions. Please explain a bit more how you are structuring the sector grant.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Anders Ådahl (C)

Madam Speaker! I believe the member has partially misunderstood. The Centre Party is making two major adjustments. Among other things, it is a new sector grant that is intended to help level the differences between urban and rural areas. It is a new way to calculate how money should be distributed so that small schools in particularly sparsely populated areas shall receive more money. In this way, they can retain teachers and schools and survive in this difficult time of inflation when the municipalities have such a terrible shortage of money. The wave of poor economy for the municipalities has unfortunately hit the very smallest and most sparsely populated municipalities the hardest. There, the Centre Party, which is a rural party, believes that we need to do the most.

The second part is that we reject direct state grants and convert them into general grants. We do this because we do not believe that the politicians in Stockholm are best at pointing out what a municipality or school principal should use the money for. In one case, the need may be greatest to strengthen school libraries. In another case, the need for a student assistant or similar may be greater.

We are making two initiatives, both of which aim to increase the quality and equality in Swedish schools.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Camilla Hansén (MP)

Madam Speaker! I thank you for the answer. I understand it as that while we put the money into general state grants, you distribute what could have been there into two different sector grants, where the school is one area.

I still believe that this could be something that starts some kind of journey regarding the funding for the school. I believe that liberal parties are needed who believe that decisions should be made close to the people. It is teachers in the classrooms who should make decisions about teaching methods, and it is elected officials in a municipality, who know their municipality, who should make the priorities.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Anders Ådahl (C)

Madam Speaker! It is clear that I am pleased that the Green Party notes our concern regarding the decentralist perspective. It is perhaps not always in Stockholm, in the Riksdag and the government, that one has the very best thoughts on how individual kronor and öre can be used. The Centre Party has a long tradition of nurturing the local community and working for decentralization. Presumably, it is principals who know best how money should be used in an individual school and teachers who know how to manage a classroom. For us, for example, it is very important that mobile phone bans are not something that the state should engage in. If a teacher wants a mobile-free environment, the teacher themselves should make that decision. For us, it is very important that decisions are made locally and decentrally.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Josefin Malmqvist (M)

Madam Speaker! Many thanks to Member Ådahl for the speech! I could not help but request a reply when I heard the comments regarding the university college. This is an issue that is close to our hearts and which I know engages both the Center Party and the Moderates and the government.

We are now expanding the vocational college. Next year, the vocational college will become the largest ever. The highest number of places ever had will be achieved next year. That is something I am very proud of. It is simply not possible to expand the vocational college by tripling it in one go and simultaneously maintaining the vocational college's uniqueness and special quality, which it is important for us from the government's side to be able to preserve. Therefore, we are now expanding the vocational college at a rapid pace with 3,000 additional places next year and the following year, and thereafter with 7,000 places. It is a large expansion that I am very positive about.

But we are doing more in this area. We now have an inquiry for the future of vocational education which is out for consultation and which I look forward to taking a position on. From the Tidö parties' and the government's side, we also have a number of other proposals that we are now moving forward with. This includes, among other things, a two-year vocational school as a third track in upper secondary school. It also concerns attempts to introduce the vocational college model even in upper secondary school.

Madam Speaker! I would like to ask Member Ådahl how the Center Party views these concrete proposals on how we could achieve more vocational training for more people already at the upper secondary level.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Anders Ådahl (C)

Madam Speaker! Let me first thank Member Malmqvist for raising the important question regarding the university college. I believe that the differences between the Moderaternas view on this and the Centerpartiet's view are quite small, if I am to be honest. I actually also share the view that a success story should be expanded with some caution. I agree with that. Centerpartiet considers, however, that the need is so great for people in the workforce to be able to transition and that the university college has been so successful that the pace can be a little faster than what the government advocates. One can always discuss which tempo is best.

Some of the vocational programs that currently exist at colleges and universities, one could actually consider having in a different location in the future. I would like to answer the question from the Moderaterna like this: If the government is interested in initiating a dialogue with the Centerpartiet and listening to our thoughts, you are warmly welcome. Our door is open for that type of conversation. It would be very nice if two bourgeois parties could discuss these important issues.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Josefin Malmqvist (M)

Madam Speaker! I believe we share a common view regarding the need to expand the university colleges. We base our actions on the agency's own assessment of what is a reasonable and feasible pace for expansion. We expand as much as is possible. I also share Member Ådahls view that it may certainly become the case in the long run that the university colleges replace some other higher education. One can take over programs.

But perhaps that is also where our similarities end. I am, in fact, deeply concerned about the Centerpartiet's proposal to remove the requirement for upper secondary school eligibility for the practical upper secondary school programs. We believe from the Moderaternas side that this is completely the wrong way to go. We believe that it risks undermining those programs. What we propose is a third track to upper secondary school with a two-year vocational school that should be a path in for those students who lack upper secondary school eligibility, instead of undermining the functioning programs that already exist. I would very much like to see Centerpartiet join in on this as well, and it would be interesting to hear how they stand on that. However, I do not believe in Centerpartiet's proposal to remove the requirement for upper secondary school eligibility at all.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Anders Ådahl (C)

Madam Speaker! I thank you again for the question. Let me elaborate a little on why we are submitting such a proposal to remove the eligibility requirement. As it stands now, when we stand here, it is 15 percent of our youth, our boys and girls, who do not pass in school but receive the stamp: You have failed. You are worthless. You are not wanted by society.

Society is therefore saying no to 15 percent of our youth. On the other side, we have the parallel society with the gangs, who stand and say: Welcome here instead! If you cannot continue your studies at the upper secondary school - welcome to us! Take a mission with us! You might get this gold chain in a while.

We are now in an acute situation. We must do something here and now. Our proposal does not constitute an optimal solution. What we should do instead is to reform the grading system. The grade F, fail, creates incredible mental ill-health and puts teachers in extreme dilemmas. We should redesign the grading system and review the grade E, so that many more can pass. Our proposal now is an emergency measure in a situation that is deplorable for a huge number of boys and girls.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Mathias Bengtsson (KD)

Madam Speaker! To be honest - not all children actually have to whistle when they go to school. Not all children have to jump out of bed every Monday morning with joy and long for the first lesson at school. Math does not have to be the highlight of the day. It actually doesn't matter if school is sometimes even a little bit boring.

Mr. Speaker, all students should feel safe when they go to school. One should feel seen when one is in school, feel good in school, and receive education and knowledge for life. That should not be asking for too much. Unfortunately, however, it is quite far from the reality that many students experience. It is for far too many children who do not only carry their backpack on the way to school but also a lump in their stomach of worry over what their classmates will shout in the corridor and what looks they will receive during the lessons during the day. This bullying does not only result in falling behind in school but also leads to increased mental ill-health which can have the most devastating consequences for young people.

That is why the government is now introducing measures that will ensure it is visible in practice that there is zero tolerance for bullying, harassment, and violations at all schools. It must not only be fine words, but it must also make a difference for the children out at the schools. There are a number of neighboring countries that are already ranked as safer than Sweden when it comes to schools, for example Norway and Denmark. The government wants to look at what the neighboring countries in the Nordic region have taken measures that have had an effect and follow their lead. It could, for example, be about evidence-based anti-bullying programs that are based on science and proven experience. It could be about strengthening the principal's role and being clear that it is the principal who shall ensure that the zero tolerance is upheld.

Madam Speaker! Students who feel well also learn better. It goes without saying that a student who is wondering whether they even want to continue living finds it difficult to concentrate on math lessons. In the fight against mental ill-health, student health services constitute a strategic frontline. The earlier one identifies the problems, the lower the risk that they take root and follow the student into adulthood. The Christian Democrats believe that Sweden needs a student health guarantee which means that every student should be able to come into contact with student health services within a reasonable timeframe from the time it is requested.

According to the Education Act today, students during their school time shall be offered at least three health visits which include general health checks and simpler healthcare interventions. The Christian Democrats believe that student health should be strengthened so that all children can also be offered routine conversations with the school's counselor based on the children's needs.

We also want to strengthen student health in the long term by reflecting on the responsibility of the contracting authority and by giving the regions a collective responsibility for the entire child and adolescent healthcare. This would, above all, reduce the risks of students falling through the cracks in the handover between student health and child and adolescent psychiatry.

Madam Speaker! When one speaks about the mental health of young people, it is difficult not to mention the screens. Technology has brought enormous progress and opportunities. But several of the causes of children's health problems seem to begin and end with the constant flow of social media. It is about the lack of sleep, movement, relationships, and the lack of meaning. The negative digital effects of the screens are many. Still, we have forced the screens into the preschools and schools because we have wanted to be modern.

But the extensive screen time creates problems in school. Reading longer texts is opted out. More difficult tasks are not prioritized. The screens compete for attention simply by their mere presence. Even if one succeeds in resisting the temptation to open the phone, just the thought itself distracts and steals energy and concentration.

Today's students have practically all the world's entertainment constantly within reach. Surveys show that only one in five students does their homework without digital distraction.

A challenge in today's screen society is to get children to lift their eyes and learn the basics. The school must be a force that stands up in the fight against the TikTok brain and its demands for quick kicks and entertainment, with a focus on the basics of learning to count and write and having the stamina to read longer texts. It shall happen without quick kicks and without shortcuts. It shall be a bit old-fashioned, honest, and boring drudgery, quite simply.

We need to go back to the basics of school. That is why the government is investing over half a billion on physical textbooks. For the very youngest students, screens should be the exception rather than the rule. Furthermore, we are taking steps to ensure that the entire school day is mobile-free.

For a long time, there has been a digitalization fever in schools where everything digital has been considered good in the name of modernity, completely regardless of content. That time is over.

Madam Speaker! The growing mental ill-health also needs to be met with investments for families, for in families that function and have time, we are loved unconditionally. There, love is not measured in the number of likes or priced in the brand of the shirt. There, we are loved for who we are, not for what we perform or how we look. It lays an important foundation for life, and it lays an important foundation for school.

The importance of parents and the family for the students' schooling cannot be overemphasized. However compensatory we want the school to be, however much we try to set things right, and however much we wish that family background would not play any role in the school results, the family will always be important. The importance of the family therefore needs to be recognized by the school, and parental responsibility needs to be re-established.

For us Christian Democrats, it is important to support parents through parental support. Today, parental support is offered within the social services' open activities, such as child healthcare and family centers. We in the government are now pushing for parental support to be available in all municipalities throughout the country.

We also mean that parents should receive support in helping their children to meet the school's requirements and be more actively involved in the children's learning. It can involve offering parents tools to support the children in different ways.

For some parents, it can help to be told in an encouraging way that one of the most important things they can do for their children in school is to read aloud to the children every evening, and to be told that parents have a completely decisive importance when it comes to ensuring that the children eat correctly, move around, and go to bed on time, and to ensure that the homework gets done.

It is a matter of the parents being involved and telling the children that in school, one listens to the teacher and does as the teacher says. It is about asking every day how it has been in school. It matters for how the student will view school and, in the long run, also for the school results. The school and the parents simply need to cooperate and help each other so that our children will have the opportunity to learn as much as possible in school.

Madam Speaker! The school is part of a larger society where everyone needs to help each other so that children can be safe, feel well, behave, and also be given the opportunity to acquire knowledge for life. That is how we turn the knowledge results. That is how we secure Sweden's future.

With that, I move for approval of the committee's proposal in the report.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Camilla Hansén (MP)

Madam Speaker! I have both folder and screen, so I am ready for my speech then.

I want to speak about how the government [is handling] the debate on knowledge and digitalization, Mathias Bengtsson. When I booked a spot on Aftonbladet's debate page the weekend after it was known that the Pisau investigation would be presented, I still thought you would have something to contribute regarding important education reforms. You came with an article about screen bans in schools.

It is very important. The screens affect our lives. It concerns both adults and children, I want to say to everyone in the room. But this is going to be about the children's knowledge development. In preschool, digital learning tools should be used when it is appropriate. No one is forcing anything on anyone. There are incredibly skilled educators who work with digital learning tools in preschool. It is recommended to visit them.

This debate will rather be a mockery of the educators who work in preschools. It is about politicians preferring to give instructions on how things should be carried out in detail in classrooms and preschools instead of providing the necessary conditions. Education should be conducted on a scientific basis and proven experience.

Then there was this matter of what should characterize learning in our schools: honestly boring rote learning. That sounds great. One of the concerns, according to the Pisander survey, is the poor motivation of Swedish students.

School is a part of society. It needs money and not lectures. Explain how you actually view the digitalization.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Mathias Bengtsson (KD)

Madam Speaker! Thank you, Member Camilla Hansén, for the question!

We see that the enthusiasm for digitalization has gone too far in schools and in preschools. In the eagerness to be modern and in the name of modernity, we have run far ahead of the evidence that exists. On the contrary, there are many studies showing that screens are not suitable in preschools and that screens are also not suitable in schools.

Reading a text on a screen makes one remember it worse than if one reads it on paper. If one writes something on a computer, one learns to formulate oneself with letters worse than if one writes by hand.

It is precisely science and proven experience that need to prevail in the school. Therefore, we see that we need to turn back the development so that it becomes just that.

When it comes to the mobile phones, I am deeply concerned about the effects they have on the mental health of children and young people. We have, above all, seen how the usage has increased avalanche-like over the last ten years.

It is 70 percent of 14-year-olds who spend several hours a day on their mobiles. This has occurred hand in hand with the fact that mental ill-health has increased. Is there any connection? I do not know, but I think it is worth looking at it and being cautious about how much we encourage mobile use before we have answers to that.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Camilla Hansén (MP)

Madam Speaker! Most schools do not have mobiles during the day, especially not for younger children. In upper secondary school, it is often the case that one hands in the mobile in a mobile hotel when the lesson begins and takes it when one goes out again.

A large part of the government parties' article is about what happens in one's free time. That is why the adaptation to a digitized life is something that is important for both adults and children. The children, after all, live the life that the parents live.

I am not sure that the state should step in and regulate in detail just because a development is winding its way along different paths and something goes too far. I think that the state should provide substantial conditions for the school to carry out its mission. It is about competence development and sufficient resources to have enough teachers who have time for their students.

There is no steering document or anything else stating that children should not read books or write by hand. On the other hand, there are many parties that would like to reduce the subjects where one practices precisely these abilities.

Then we have this thing with Pisa. One of the results showed that students who use up to one hour with digital learning materials in mathematics have a better knowledge result in mathematics. There will never be a government that has a grip on the latest on the research front regarding what teachers should do in the classroom. This is a tendency that emerges when we have bourgeois governments; then school policy moves from providing conditions to micro-managing, sometimes down to where the teacher should stand in the classroom.

How should one view the results in mathematics in relation to digital learning tools?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Mathias Bengtsson (KD)

Madam Speaker! I have no problem with the fact that there are digital learning tools that are effective, that are good and that are evidence-based. I believe that the vast majority agree that we need a combination in school of digital tools and physical teaching materials. But I believe that many who agree with me also see the problem that the digitalization and the place of screens in school has gone all too far.

There are, as Member Camilla Hansén mentions, many schools that successfully collect phones and which already have a mobile phone ban and manage this in a good way. I think that is positive. But we also know that there are many schools where the mobiles cause disturbances during breaks, create insecurity, provide a completely new playing field for bullying and harassment, and lead to poorer concentration. The mobiles make it so that one cannot focus on the tasks and does not do the homework or school assignments when one should be doing them. There are signals that they also affect mental health.

I do not want such a tool in the schools. We do not need such tools in the schools. If we are to turn around the Pisa results, which we are currently in, we need to move away from distracting elements and go back to what actually works.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Camilla Hansén (MP)

Madam Speaker, members and observers! The track has just begun; we shall see what the people choose.

Welcome to this year's most important budget debate! I understand that all the other committees also believe they have the most important budget debate, and that is fine. But just about everything in society becomes better when preschools, schools, and universities deliver good and equal education and important world-class research.

Miljöpartiet has a holistic view of education and research as part of lifelong learning in a changing world. Our contemporary era is characterized by a number of large, global megatrends. This affects how we need to organize our system for education and research in order to strengthen Sweden's position.

Among those that are called global megatrends, climate change, globalization, digitalization and technological development, urbanization and demographic changes are usually mentioned. Today's children, pupils and students are global citizens and power holders who have the ability to be part of the sustainable society building in light of these global megatrends. These trends will affect them and our society throughout their entire lives.

Swedish school shall be a school for all, and Miljöpartiet argues that the state shall take a greater responsibility for an equal school with a strong knowledge development. The connection between school failures, poverty, exclusion, and crime is strong and well-documented in research. The state must continue to direct resources to increase equality in preschool, school, and the after-school center across the entire country.

It is a disservice to the entire society when it is saved on children and students, and we know that it is happening right now in municipality after municipality. Yesterday, I asked Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson when the school will receive the state funding that is needed to be able to give the students the education they have a right to. I did not get a proper answer to the question. I was told that one cannot invest in the school because it drives inflation, but that was nothing I had asked about. Furthermore, we do invest in the school, and it goes perfectly well. One can make social investments that are not inflation-driving.

Miljöpartiet wants the state to take responsibility for ensuring that schools across the country have sufficient resources and therefore proposes that what is now called the state grant for strengthened knowledge development be topped up. It concerns 1.5 billion more than what the government prioritizes. I say "what is now called" because this is a state grant that was established during Miljöpartiet's time at the Ministry of Education. But now the government has deleted the part about strengthened equality. It is, of course, something that for us is the basis for how we should finance the school.

The purpose of the school must always be education, never profit. There must be a stop to the market school because it drives segregation and increases inequality between schools. A fair school choice must be created to counteract these effects.

Now the Liberals have commissioned an inquiry that is intended to make it a bit more complicated to extract money from Swedish school. But that is not enough. Teachers are not service personnel, students are not money bags and parents are not customers. The market school is tearing Swedish school apart.

Preschool is the foundation of the education system and has an important role in compensating for differences in children's upbringing conditions. The groups are too large, and there are too few educators. The equity grant that exists for primary school, which I spoke about earlier, we want to also have for preschool. This shall be given to all preschools but distributed based on key figures. This would make a difference for many children, preschool teachers, educators, and municipalities in their everyday lives.

A good education is crucial for creating conditions and ensuring that everyone gets the chance for self-realization and independence. Education and cultivation therefore play a very important role in creating the conditions for the individual's freedom. Through school, children and young people shall receive the will and the tools to learn, critically examine, and develop throughout their lives.

In school, every child shall learn to read, write, calculate, create, participate in societal discussion, cooperate and socialize with others, and feel the power to be able to influence their own life situation. School shall be a place where one is given good conditions for learning.

As part of our budget, there is funding for both breakfast and lunch in primary school and upper secondary school to be free of charge for students. This means that we need to expand student health services. We need to strengthen school libraries. There shall be staffed school libraries with trained school librarians at every school.

I am pleased that the government, just as the committee chair pointed out in the exchange earlier, is proceeding with the investigations that were commissioned when Miljöpartiet sat in the government and which are now being handled by the Riksdag.

But for a truly good school, it is also required that skilled teachers have enough time with their students. For that to happen, more people need to dream of becoming teachers. The teaching profession must move from a high-risk profession for sick leave to a high-reward profession.

I want to remind again that there is no other profession that more students train for at the country's universities. It is clear that it is important to have an attractive teacher education. That is it, and it should be good. But if the profession itself is not something that one longs for, it is also not an education that one applies for. The teaching profession needs to be allowed to be the dream job it deserves to be.

Grades have also been touched upon in this debate. Miljöpartiet does not want us to have a grade F that functions as it does today. It knocks out students, and we need to have a grading system that strengthens learning. The absurd thing about today's grading system is that we know that grades can be good and motivating for those who are already skilled, but for those who are not as skilled in school, the effect is the opposite. I think this is a terrible way to administer the distribution of places to higher education, for example. This is a grading system that leads to ill health, and we need to redo it.

I also want to say a few words about higher education and research. Higher education and research in a country like Sweden is something that lays the foundation for lifelong learning. Our position as a knowledge nation is built on a well-educated population and on high-quality research. The societal transformation that is now required to curb and manage climate change still constitutes a partially unmanageable challenge, and here higher education and research have a key role to play in enabling the transition to a sustainable society.

Knowledge contributes to understanding the world around us, whether it is of commercial interest or not. Therefore, the humanities, arts, and interdisciplinary subjects also need to be strengthened and developed in harmony with strengthening technology, natural science, and social science education. Basic research and research funding that is not earmarked are necessary prerequisites for future commercial breakthroughs and for future successful cutting-edge research.

Right now, an unreasonable erosion of the funding of educational institutions is taking place through the productivity deduction. The effect will be fewer teaching hours for the students and that teachers and researchers are apparently expected to produce more high-quality teaching and more research results that are to bring home Nobel Prizes to Sweden in a shorter time. That is not quite how a research process works.

I also want to mention the investments being made in science and technology. Our largest universities are thus receiving an investment, which the government likes to talk about, in science and technology. But one chooses to slice it, to make a general deduction on all state activities. That means that for our largest universities, the government's general deduction is larger than the investment being made in science and technology. I actually think it is quite embarrassing.

I also want to raise an issue from my own constituency that affects medical education at least in Central Sweden, but as you know, the medical educations are necessary for the supply of competence of doctors and for clinical research across the entire country. It is clear that all higher education institutions and regions that have activity-based education and clinical research within medical science should have equal conditions. But now that is not the case. Only Örebro University, of all the higher education institutions that have medical education, has half compensation in what is called ALF funds. I think it is an injustice that should be quite simple to rectify.

Madam Speaker! Our mission as elected representatives is to build a socially sustainable society. That is the goal. The tool we are debating here today: the economy. Here, we in Miljöpartiet step forward and take responsibility to ensure that the sustainable transition can be delivered by providing an alternative to the state budget that manages to prioritize welfare, which we have talked about some in this debate. We do this by borrowing money for investments in the sustainable transition.

Our budget is fully funded. These loans concern necessary investments in a sustainable and just transition.

Economists' analyses now say that they believe the room for reform may be greater than the government has and that the policy must dare to look forward. They argue that what the Finance Minister calls responsibility is being stingy. In countries with low public debt and growth problems, such as Sweden, one can manage an expansive fiscal policy. We believe that it is a necessary prioritization so that we can reach the goal of a socially sustainable society within the planet's boundaries.

Madam Speaker! Miljöpartiet does not participate in the decision on the state budget. I refer to my special statement.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Fredrik Malm (L)

Madam Speaker! I would like to begin by quoting the head of PISA, Andreas Schleicher. He was interviewed in the newspaper Vi Lärare after he presented the PISA results. He has followed Swedish schools, and it is quite interesting to hear what he has to say since he is the head of this entire large international survey.

He says the following to the newspaper Vi Lärare regarding Sweden: "What struck me most is the relatively poor discipline. You have a majority of students who say that they do not listen to what the teachers say. They are disengaged. It is noise and disorder. Many students are also distracted by their mobile phones. It can be positive with technology-supported teaching, but the risk is that the students use the technology for completely other purposes."

He continues: "I miss signs of a productive classroom climate, strong bonds between students and teachers, teachers who guide and encourage. I believe this existed before in Swedish schools."

He says approximately the opposite of what is signaled from Miljöpartiet and from Camilla Hansén, Madam Speaker. Practically all measures that have been proposed over the last 20 years to restore the teaching profession's status and authority and to create peace and quiet in schools—that students should not sit with mobile phones in lessons and play, that one should arrive on time and so on—Miljöpartiet has defined as something authoritarian and old-fashioned.

The Green Party is a bit like the left-wing movement of the 70s that saw every instruction as authoritarian. Why is that, Camilla Hansén?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Camilla Hansén (MP)

Madam Speaker! Fredrik Malm's references backward in time go further and further back all the time. We are here for a budget debate on 2024.

I pick up a part from the quote Fredrik Malm read out. Andreas Schleicher lacks a classroom climate he believes Sweden had before when the teachers were guiding and encouraging, according to what Fredrik Malm read out.

I believe it is like this: When skilled teachers have enough time with their students, one manages to build relationships and be guiding and encouraging. I believe that it is very important. This is something that must happen in the classroom, in the relationships with the students.

The government's proposal on order and discipline was met with very strong opposition from the student movement, which emphasizes the importance of building positive relationships between adults and children in school. There are concerns about whether student influence, which is mandated by law, is truly taken seriously.

I think these are important aspects of creating classrooms with a good learning environment. Those who are to do the work are the principals and, above all, the teachers who are in the classrooms. Ensure that there are enough teachers in the schools! Ensure that the classes are not too large! Then the teachers will be able to do a much better job.

From the government's article on the mobile phone ban, it emerged that eight out of ten primary schools do not have mobiles during the day. It also emerged that a major problem was the time spent with mobiles. In schools that have good results, there is a correlation with the school having a health profile. That is more important than the mobile phone ban.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Fredrik Malm (L)

Madam Speaker! I thank the member for the answer, even if it was not completely complete.

There are very many schools in Sweden that are super good. There, it is calm and peaceful in the classrooms, and the students feel safe. The knowledge goals are reached and there are trained, qualified teachers and so on. But that is not the case everywhere.

If it is very rowdy in a school – who is it that is affected the most? Well, it is the children who need the school the most. It is the children who do not have Vilhelm Moberg and Selma Lagerlöf crowding together on the bookshelf at home. Those students are knocked out immediately. There is also another category of students. It is those who have engaged parents who do not accept that and change schools for their children. It is often those children who get more help at home. This results in us getting an even more divided school system.

The Green Party is concerned about the independent school system. It is just that one reason why so many students attend independent schools is that they offer peace and quiet, order and structure, and a completely different level of discipline.

National tests, grades and other types of national assessments and so on, the Green Party has been against. They are still against at least one step in the grading scale.

I note that if one is to do high jump, one needs a bar. If one then manages to jump over it, one raises it a little further. The problem is that Miljöpartiet is attempting to do high jump without a bar. In that case, it is very difficult to know how high one has jumped, and it is very difficult to jump higher than last time because one cannot measure this.

There is a big difference between the statutory right to student influence and it being complete chaos in a classroom. It is not the type of student influence we want.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Camilla Hansén (MP)

Madam Speaker! We want to build a real knowledge school. It is knowledge that is in focus. It is not about ticking off checklists, writing agreements and rattling off answers. I described a bit of our view on knowledge in the speech.

No one wants a rowdy school. Do not try to stick that label on me, Fredrik Malm! I also do not want the member to stick on Sweden's students that those who have Vilhelm Moberg and Selma Lagerlöf crowding the bookshelves in some way would be more orderly than students who do not have those prerequisites.

We have a free school choice in Sweden, and we shall keep it. One should be able to choose a school based on what the children need and what views the parents have. All schools shall be good schools. Learning shall be in focus. Learning takes place in the classroom and shall be based on science and proven experience.

We have a grading system that harms those who learn less well. I think it is a mockery. Grades are not a motivating factor or knowledge-enhancing for those who already have it difficult in school. It is for those who have it good and who perhaps have a lot of Moberg and Lagerlöf on the bookshelves. I don't know. Students are different, after all.

No one wants a chaotic classroom, but we also cannot have a black-and-white debate. Do we think a chaotic classroom is best managed from the Ministry of Education or by teachers who have the right conditions to do their work? I want the teachers to be able to lead Sweden's knowledge school.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Patrick Reslow (SD)

Madam Speaker! When I myself once became interested in politics, it was precisely the question of grades that engaged me. At that time, it was very popular on the left wing – the Green Party did not exist at that time – to speak of grades in negative terms. It was something that was considered ugly.

I hear echoes from that time when I hear Camilla Hansén here in the speaker's chair. If one now says that one should lower the requirements for grade E and lower the bar, what happens then to everything else one talks about, for example, having high expectations of the students? It is said that one of the actual reasons when one has a high level of knowledge is that one has high expectations, and that we have not had sufficiently high expectations of students. Many other parties in Camilla Hansén's constellation often talk about having high expectations of students.

My question is in what way it would benefit knowledge development to lower the requirements for the grade E. In what way would it mean that these students are driven to strengthen their knowledge? To me, it sounds more like some kind of postmodernism where one does not believe in measurable knowledge and says that a grade is just something on a piece of paper. One does not see that it can also be a recipe for what interventions need to be made. In what way would it stimulate students to increase their knowledge if one lowers the requirements to get a passing grade?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Camilla Hansén (MP)

Madam Speaker! It is about knowledge and learning being in focus. At a seminar on grades recently, a researcher told that when one talks with Finnish and Swedish students about knowledge in school, the difference between them is that the Swedish students can talk about details that are required to reach the next grade or a high grade. If it is knowledge, they cannot talk in the same way. Finnish students talk more about what knowledge one needs to be able to do certain things and what knowledge is needed in life. That is the difference. Knowledge is in focus.

We have an assessment system that fails 15 percent of Sweden's students. If it were to be successful, then those who receive an F in grade six would be much more numerous than those who receive an F in grade nine. But that is not the case. It is therefore obviously the wrong tool.

Having a grading system that supports knowledge development is nothing that contradicts having high expectations. There has been research on it since the 50s, if we are to go far back in history. High expectations are important.

There are also some other things that are important. Do you know that one of the most important things is that it should be fun to go to school? It is motivating to be able to devote oneself to things that one is interested in, and the teachers should have the conditions to guide their students toward that.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Patrick Reslow (SD)

Madam Speaker! Of course it can be fun to go to school, but the main purpose of going to school should surely not be that it is fun? It should be educational and knowledge-developing. That it, in turn, means that it is fun is another matter, but we cannot turn it around and say that it primarily should be fun. One does not go to school for nine or twelve years to have fun. It is fluff. Here we have fluff-school!

Knowledge and grades are placed in opposition, but grades are indeed a way to measure knowledge.

There is nothing that says a grading system in itself would not promote knowledge. On the contrary – if we have knowledge criteria, as we do, the grade is a measure of how much knowledge one has acquired.

The problem here is that if we lower the bar, something hits that economists usually call Pareto optimality: Where do we place the efforts to get out as much as possible? Then you lower the bar; then you place the efforts low. In the end, it means that the knowledge level in the country drops.

We are not prepared to do that. No one on the government side is prepared to do that. But I note that Miljöpartiet is ready to play with fire and lower the knowledge levels in a situation where it is necessary that we raise the knowledge level in the country.

We are not to have any fluff in school where people are supposed to run around and have fun. We are to learn things. It should be stimulating to go to school. The teachers shall ensure that it is stimulating. But we shall have the starting point that it shall be educational. We are not there to have fun and play around.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Camilla Hansén (MP)

Madam Speaker! I am speaking about us having a knowledge school. It is the knowledge that is in focus. The best way to have motivation to learn difficult things is to find it fun, to be motivated.

If the "flumskola" is a knowledge school where the students learn a lot, then I love the "flumskola". Then I would like to have it back, because I think that children and students should learn a lot and that it is knowledge that should be in focus.

We can measure some knowledge; we can do that. But the grades are but a fragment of the knowledge that children and students acquire in preschool and school. One can, therefore, measure knowledge. We have chosen to have a grading system that does not promote knowledge development. I want us to have a grading system that promotes knowledge development, that allows teachers to do a better job, that stimulates the children in their learning process. Now we have something else. We have something that harms Swedish children.

We lose 15-20 percent who do not proceed to upper secondary school. We also lose an approximately equal proportion who do not pass upper secondary school and cannot proceed to higher education if they wish. Then we lose very much.

I want a school where one takes away knowledge that one needs in life and where one can also replenish the knowledge one needs throughout life.

I believe that the Green Party's view on a strong knowledge nation, which Sweden is and which we want Sweden to continue to be, differs very much from how the Sweden Democrats want Sweden as a knowledge nation to develop. I am completely okay with that. I know what I and the Green Party want. It is the knowledge and the student and the teachers who are at the center.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Robert Stenkvist (SD)

Madam Speaker! I vote in favor of the committee's proposal for a decision in UbU1.

Yes, the government has reduced the appropriation to the universities. It is an obvious pandemic effect - the pandemic is over, and the investment that was made then is tapering off. It is completely natural that there are then some reductions.

The number of applicants in 2022 had also decreased by 11 percent compared to the previous year, which is also a sign of a diminishing pandemic effect. It is perfectly natural that there is then a certain reduction.

Speaking of appropriations, the public capital has also not been used as it should. There are approximately 15 billion kronor in unused public capital for research and education. These funds should probably be used for something sensible, one might think, if money is lacking.

However, and very pleasingly, the government is investing in the so-called STEM educations - science, technology, engineering, mathematics - and natural sciences. The government has launched a so-called engineering package, which is very welcome. The civil engineering educations receive 49 million kronor extra in that package to permanently expand the education.

The government is also investing 74 million kronor to permanently expand the civil engineering programs at the advanced level. Including student grants, the sum will be 93 million kronor in the coming budget year.

The compensation amount per full-time student for technical and pharmaceutical education is increased by 1.6 percent over what other educations receive. It is a proposal that goes in the direction we in SD have constantly argued for.

The government is also investing 100 million kronor this year to expand natural science education within higher education.

We think these are good investments. We in SD have actually argued for this line for many years. I believe these investments are absolutely crucial for maintaining Swedish competitiveness and technological progress. It is of utmost importance for our future prosperity that Swedish technical and natural science education maintains high quality.

Over the last three decades, the quality of these programs has been systematically eroded because the costs for the programs have not kept pace with the price developments in society. These important programs may have lost as much as 40 percent, according to a number of university chancellors. There must be an investment in these programs now. That is precisely why the budget investments in these disciplines are very pleasing and, I believe, absolutely necessary.

What I am calling for for the future, and which I hope will be included in the research bill, is an investment in engineering education within nuclear technology and nuclear physics. We were once world leaders in these areas. Then we dismantled nuclear power and, with it, also the extremely important expertise in these areas. It is not just about capital destruction here, but about competence destruction on a drastic scale. Now the work must begin by restoring this critical competence.

Another thing, Madam Speaker: I read that Minister for Education Persson recently visited Konstfack. I thought of an interesting survey in Norway in 2017 regarding political sympathies within higher education correlated to the party sympathies in society as a whole. This sounds interesting, doesn't it? I intend to tie up the bag at the end regarding this with Konstfack.

The study was conducted by Johannes Due Enstad and Kjersti Thorbjørnsrud, if you want to google it, in connection with the 2017 parliamentary election. In the actual election, the right-wing bloc won by a narrow margin. Among the researchers, however, it could be stated that there was a clear left-wing majority. Researchers within the humanities discipline voted to 80 percent for the left-wing bloc. Among social scientists, the same figure was 77 percent. That was certainly not how the Norwegian people had voted.

Is it possible to translate this to Swedish conditions? I believe so, unfortunately. I will also say that it does not need to be any problem as long as researchers, teachers and others within academia can distinguish between their professional role and their personal opinions.

Can they then manage this? A glaring answer to that question came with the outcry that Konstfack and several other colleges made in connection with the ongoing Middle East conflict, which has been mentioned earlier this evening. Students and teachers demanded that the colleges as institutions should unilaterally take a stand for the Palestinians, this without mentioning Hamas's bestial attack against Israeli women and children.

There are two parts in this, at least. There are many more parts.

The first is the one-sided stance for the side that actually started the conflict. One does not mention - according to the media, at least - a single word about Hamas's horrific attack, not a syllable about it.

Secondly, when did students start governing our universities and rectors? We are talking about a tax-funded activity where we let immature dreamers decide what the university and the rector should stand for - completely unacceptable.

In conclusion, Madam Speaker: If we conducted the Norwegian survey of party sympathies at Konstfack, what would the result be? Perhaps the Tidö parties would also win a narrow majority there, as in the parliamentary election? I leave the answer to that question to each of you here.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Mats Wiking (S)

Madam Speaker! Sweden has been and still is a prominent innovation and research nation. Many development issues have been solved by Swedish researchers. But we have many challenges ahead of us. The threats to Sweden and Europe have come close, with war and climate and environmental threats. Today's and tomorrow's threats require knowledge, competence, and innovations.

Sweden must therefore, both nationally and internationally, safeguard the freedom of research and promote open science. This is particularly important in a time of fact resistance and threats against researchers. Authoritarian politicians have, where they have gained power, often pursued a policy that has reduced the independence of research and even forced universities to close or move their operations. The Swedish government should clearly signal against such tendencies.

Madam Speaker! Pressure, threats and hate against researchers do not only strike the researchers themselves but against the entire knowledge base needed for free debate and wise decisions. We Social Democrats stand behind the principle that researchers should be able to freely choose research topics and research methods. This is fundamental for the quality of research and for a functioning democracy.

Madam Speaker! Another way to strengthen the freedom of research is to give researchers more secure employment. Fixed-term employment needs to decrease and equality needs to be improved. The occurrence of stacking of fixed-term employments also needs to be reviewed. This is important from an equality and work environment perspective.

We Social Democrats want to continue investing long-term in research. During the previous parliamentary term, the then Social Democrat-led government implemented a level increase of state funds for research by 3.75 billion during the period 2021-2024. This has strengthened Sweden in the international competition.

Madam Speaker! In order for Sweden to continue to hold a strong position as a research and education nation, long-term perspective and that political decisions are made with transparency and openness are required. Here, the government unfortunately began the mandate period in the worst possible way. Without any discussion, anchoring, or foresight, they shortened the term of office for the boards of higher education institutions. The entire research world was taken by surprise, and the signal that was sent was that no one is safe. The decision and the way it was made have been a hard blow to both academic freedom and the government's credibility.

Madam Speaker! In the summer of 2023, the next intervention came. The government suddenly and without warning made a significant cut to development research. Already announced research funds were withdrawn without respect for all the hours already invested in the application process, by both Swedish and foreign researchers. This unfortunately damaged trust in the state as a research funder. The cut in development research also undermines Sweden's position as an aid nation and creates further concern that the government is acting short-sightedly and without anchoring.

Now we stand in the middle of the work of preparing a research proposal, Madam Speaker, and here the government has much to prove. We Social Democrats assume that the government will have a more open and cooperative process than what it has previously shown itself capable of.

Madam Speaker! When it comes to space issues, Sweden, thanks to its geographical location, its technical and scientific expertise, and already existing infrastructure, has a unique opportunity to belong to the leading countries in the space area. Through cooperation within Europe and with other countries, we have, among other things, developed satellites that can monitor, for example, security and climate change, be of help in space research and navigation, and contribute to improving agriculture and forestry.

Sweden, however, needs to produce a new space law to achieve a modern and sustainable regulation of space activities. The work on a new space law was initiated under the Social Democratic-led government. The government should promptly submit such a proposal to the Riksdag.

Madam Speaker! More and more people are choosing the opportunity to study at universities and colleges - it is something we can be proud of. Sweden has also successfully allowed colleges and universities to grow, and since the 90s, the number of students has doubled. I believe that this year we had an increase of 4 percent after a previous decline over a few years.

Our social democratic vision has always been that higher education should be accessible throughout the entire country. There are still white spots where people lack higher education.

Madam Speaker! It is not necessarily about establishing new educational institutions, but rather about developing more ways to offer higher education and skills-enhancing initiatives where people live. Not everyone can move to a university town.

Already today, there are several successful examples of this, such as Campus Västervik and Campus Skellefteå. There, a long-developed cooperation with several colleges is ongoing, where they jointly carry out distance education and site-based education in various shortage occupations.

We Social Democrats want learning centers and campuses to continue to be developed and become accessible to more people across the country, and we are allocating 50 million to this in our budget proposal.

Even though the government has now, a year too late, understood that it is important to support adult education during a recession, there is still a long way to go before we are back at the economic level we were at under Social Democratic rule. Even here, the mandate period was initiated with cuts to education. Adult education was cut by over 1 billion. When it comes to higher education, a small saving of approximately 80 million was made.

Madam Speaker! Even though the government is now returning some funds and boasting about investments, the education debt that was created in the budget for 2023 actually remains. This is not being told. The appropriation for adult education in 2024 is still closer to half a billion lower than when this government took office.

Madam Speaker! The government now also risks increasing the gaps within higher education and research and between city and country. While resources are micro-managed towards larger institutions and individual initiatives, other needs are forgotten or ignored. Initiatives in northern Sweden, where the green transition is now being intensified, seem to be missing.

Madam Speaker! It is obvious that the government is not investing sufficiently in adult education. The consequence is that fewer people pass the courses and can take those important jobs – this at the same time as there is a great need for qualified graduates who can take jobs as civil engineers, computer programmers, nurses, or teachers. We Social Democrats therefore consider, Madam Speaker, that a review of the universities' resource allocation system should take place – to ensure high-quality education and dimensioning that is adapted to the market's needs.

In our dialogues with the educational institutions, we hear that they are not worried about having too much money. Instead, they are worried that the basic funding is not being increased and that the number of teaching hours per week tends to decrease.

Finally, Madam Speaker, we Social Democrats also see a need to develop student health. We see that more students today suffer from mental ill-health, which affects them negatively during their studies and also later in life. At the same time, the mission of student health according to the Higher Education Ordinance is very difficult to interpret, which affects the students' well-being and study results.

A survey shows that seven out of ten students do not know where to turn if they are feeling unwell. Unfortunately, there are also large differences between the higher education institutions when it comes to the preventive care offered. This means that it is unequal. A student should be able to expect the same support and care regardless of where he or she studies, but that is not the case today.

Furthermore, we agree with Sveriges förenade studentkårer that it is very inappropriate that the government proposes cuts within the Erasmus program, which enables exchange between thousands of students within the framework of the EU countries' work to promote student mobility and intercultural exchange within the union.

I support our special statement and thank you.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Marie-Louise Hänel Sandström (M)

Madam Speaker! I would like to begin by moving to approve the committee's proposal in its entirety.

The hour is late, and it is because we are so engaged and find education so enjoyable. That is why we are still here. I see that we have had to change speakers a few times because it has been such a long and interesting debate here tonight.

When I tell friends that I am a member of the Education Committee, many people say: How fun! How important! But how difficult it must be!

Then one can say that it is almost always very fun, and it is always very important. Then it can be quite difficult. One becomes frustrated sometimes, because there is so much we want to do and so much we want to improve after the previous government.

All people have a relationship to education, also to research but primarily to education, as everyone has gone to school and often has a view on how the school should be governed and what it should look like. That makes very many people interested in discussing education.

Education is incredibly important. Without education, Sweden stands still. We want Sweden to continue to be a research country and maintain a high level of education. Despite being a small country, we are large in research and innovation.

My colleague Josefin Malmqvist has previously exemplary presented what we think about basic education and adult education, so I will now mostly speak about higher education, research and space research.

Madam Speaker! Now that AI is modern, I could not resist checking what Chat GPT says is most important in our areas: "Important aspects within higher education, universities, and research include rigorous methodology, scientific integrity, interdisciplinary collaboration, and open communication of results to promote knowledge development and societal benefit." I could hardly have said it better myself.

But of course, the Moderates have a part that we want to add regarding what is important concerning education. It is that the education, of course, shall maintain a high quality. It shall be conducted efficiently. We also emphasize academic freedom and also the teachers' and researchers' autonomy over both the research and the education.

Research is also the foundation for societal development and prosperity, so it is extremely important that it maintains a high level. It is required that we have scientific excellence for Sweden to be able to hold its own in the international competition.

Madam Speaker! We are all affected by all the unrest in the world. We have heard a lot about it in the debates this morning. But one must think positively. A lot of exciting things are happening in our immediate surroundings. I am thinking of the industry, the green transition, and the digital transition. A great deal is happening, and it is moving fast. Sweden must keep up with the exciting train.

As a resident of Gothenburg, perhaps not entirely unexpectedly, I have good contact with a vehicle manufacturer. I visited Volvo as recently as a little over a week ago, a business visit with the Society for Politics and Business. It is a good collaboration.

From Volvo Cars, we received word that by 2030 all their car models shall be completely electric. So, by 2030, everything shall be completely electric. It is quite fascinating. It is not so far away until then.

We also have Northvolt, which is building battery factories. Some are already up and running, in Skellefteå, Västerås, Borlänge, Göteborg, and Mariestad, and they have a lot of subcontractors. So, a lot is happening around this, but it also requires competence.

Earlier we heard it mentioned that wherever one goes on site visits, one is told that it is a shortage of competence. We need more competence. What are we to do about that, then? We need to invest in technical training, which we have heard about earlier today. We also need further education and retraining.

Madam Speaker! I am very pleased to be able to say that we are making a major investment in engineers, what we call the engineer package. I thought I would reassure Anders Ådahl with this, as he was very negative. But I see that he has left the chamber.

We are investing heavily in technical education. It is not at all as pitch-black as it sounded earlier. We are adding a lot of funds to foundation year programs, and we prioritize those to Uppsala universitet, Lunds universitet, and Chalmers tekniska högskola. The foundation year is therefore about obtaining technical competence to meet the admission requirements for the university. We have a proposal for 200 full-time students during 2024 and 500 full-time students for 2025. It is a major investment, 23 million. Then we also need to have student grants, so it will be 31 million in total.

We had a debate here yesterday where we spoke about how student grants are very important. There was a concern that we were not investing enough in student grants. As a consequence of us increasing the number of places, we are also increasing the money for student grants.

We are also investing in the engineering programs, also at an advanced level. This also applies to Uppsala, Lund, and Chalmers. One must make priorities, and here we want to make these priorities. The expansion corresponds to approximately 2 million kronor during 2024. Until 2029, we will invest 111 million in this education. It is an important and urgent education. I am very happy about it, and it is fun that we prioritize this.

Madam Speaker! We are also making other educational investments. We are investing in natural sciences and technology - the STEM educations, as someone mentioned. We are investing over 100 million on this, because we need to develop it. This means that the higher education institutions receive higher compensation per student. It also means more teacher-led instruction. It also means that we get better throughput and more finished civil engineers and people in other technical or natural science professions.

It also means that teachers' education must be changed so that they can manage this teaching. It is therefore a major investment both for students and for teachers.

Madam Speaker! We are making further investments. I could actually talk all evening about how many good investments we are making, but perhaps I should not take them all. But we are also investing in battery research.

I was at Uppsala University recently. There, it was told that they have world-class battery research. It may sound like a small part, but it is incredibly important now with the electrification. We are investing an incredible amount of money there. It is important both nationally and internationally. The competence is unfortunately lacking so far, and there is fierce competition for those who are educated in these areas.

We are also investing 30 million in short courses and training. It can sometimes be a chance occurrence to see how many students apply for these shorter retraining courses. Therefore, we are investing a good amount of money there. We also know that one will need to further educate oneself, probably several times during one's working life.

An additional initiative is Cybercampus at KTH. There is already a cyber center, but this will become a national initiative. Work is being done together with several universities, with the Försvarsmakten, and with several research institutes. It is incredibly important.

We are skilled and have a lot of digitalization in Sweden, but we are not competent enough to withstand all the cyber threats that exist, so it is important to have a cyber competence center. We must withstand cyberattacks. Unfortunately, we are affected by such things.

Madam Speaker! We have more initiatives. We are investing in KPU, that is, complementary pedagogical education. We need more teachers, as we know. There is great benefit with teachers who have a different background and study this one-year education.

We are also investing in Teach for Sweden, a leadership program for teachers that also focuses on education for teachers in areas of exclusion.

We have, of course, more initiatives, among others within health and medical care. It is incredibly important that we have more competence there. It will be needed all the time. AI technology is incredible and implies a major development when it comes to medical research, medical imaging within X-ray or within precision medicine, for example. We have very great benefit there.

As mentioned earlier, we are working on our research policy bill, which we will decide on next year. It is incredibly exciting. I heard that the Social Democrats were a bit worried regarding insight into it, but I promise that people will be able to participate in the discussion. Already now, we have been able to gain access to all the submitted referral responses regarding what people want us to prioritize for input. There is plenty of time to provide input even for the Social Democrats. Obviously, it is important for them to also be able to be involved here. We are focusing on excellence, internationalization, and innovation as the most important points.

I must also, of course, speak about space research, which is incredibly important. Everything that happens in space we also benefit from on Earth. We hope that no one has missed that we have a Swedish astronaut who leaves Earth on January 10 in California and will travel up to our international space station. There, above all, a lot of medical research will be conducted, because the body is affected when one is weightless. That research can then be used on Earth. Experiences from weightlessness and what it is like when one does not strain muscles can contribute a great deal when it comes to osteoporosis and what happens after one has had a stroke. We therefore have great benefit from this. Of course, a lot of environmental research also takes place in space. It is very important that a lot is invested in this.

I hope you follow this. It is possible to follow the space launch on YouTube. It feels very exciting.

Then there are other research funders that I also want to mention. We work together with the EU's framework program Horizon Europe, which is an important part of the research. There are also other funders, such as the Riksbank's Jubilee Fund, which invests in the humanities, and the Cancer Foundation, which is a major research funder when it comes to cancer research.

I also want to touch upon the last point. There, I agreed with Anders Ådahl, who has now left the chamber. It is important that we invest in keeping our Swedish doctoral students and that more Swedish students want to become doctoral students. Then we must have increased cooperation between academia, the municipalities, and the business sector. One must see that there is a benefit to a doctoral education. There must also be a plan for what one could get for a position when one has completed the doctoral education. Regardless of what one studies, one has a great deal of knowledge. One can, for example, take in a large amount of research.

We want the employment opportunities for doctoral students to be reviewed, and also how the career paths can look. We want the doctoral education to be reviewed as a whole.

I thought I heard from our opposition parties that it was a bit pitch black. I want to say that there is a lot of positive. We are investing very much from the government's side in teacher training, medical education, technical training and also basic education. I think we should see this very positively. I personally look forward very much to the research bill, which will come next year.

I wish the chair a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Camilla Hansén (MP)

Madam Speaker! Thank you, Marie-Louise, for the speech! I know that the member truly burns for research. I also know, Madam Speaker, that the member particularly burns for natural sciences and technology. In that case, I wonder about something given the NT initiatives that the member mentioned in her speech.

Uppsala loses 10 million in a general cut. They receive 8 in NT initiatives. Lund loses 12 million, and they receive 8. Gothenburg loses 12 million in general savings, and they receive 5 million. Stockholm loses 10 million, and they receive 6 in NT initiative. Umeå loses 8, and they receive 4. I can continue the enumeration for a while longer, but it won't be very fun for anyone.

My question to Marie-Louise Hänel Sandström is: Why are you making a mockery of higher education and research when the government seems to want to invest?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Marie-Louise Hänel Sandström (M)

Madam Speaker! Thank you, Camilla Hansén, for the question, which I may have heard before! We naturally believe that it is extremely important that one prioritizes, but we are also making a general saving. It is not the same across all agencies. There are more savings on other agencies than there are on the educational institutions. Some of the money is from previous pandemic investments that are no longer there. It may be perceived as a cut, but it is actually something one had previously and which one no longer has.

I have spoken with many universities, and we have discussed this. Then, it has been meant that it is not a major concern and that one solves this within the university. I have mostly heard positive things, that one is not so worried about this.

Since these investments are very specific. It is not an investment, but it is actually something permanent when it comes to engineering education. This will also exist in the future. We are investing more money. We start in 2024. And as I mentioned, it is until 2029, just within the engineering initiative, 111 million. It increases for each year. Education programs might not have time to get started. Therefore, we do not invest immediately, in 2024, as much as we do in 2025, 2026 and onwards. These are simply permanent education programs that are being put in place.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Camilla Hansén (MP)

Madam Speaker! From my perspective, it does not get much better by making general cuts across the entire public sector. It truly affects the educational institutions. It also affects the school system because the school authorities are affected.

No matter how you turn and twist it, it is a prioritization of money. The government is making a big push with an investment in nature and technology. But money is being withdrawn from somewhere else, and it is not really visible.

When it comes to a budget of this size, a government agency naturally answers its clients: This is what we will solve.

But the solution will hit somewhere. Cuts will be made somewhere so that the mission concerning the nature and technology investments can be carried out.

I think it is much more honest of a government to say straight out: This is what we want more of, and this is what we want less of. We should, in fact, be grateful that you let the educational institutions handle this themselves, I just realized.

The member has mostly heard positive feedback from the educational institutions regarding a reduction. I do not know. Perhaps the member has. I hear from the educational institutions that I speak with that it is a concern, because they experience that they are underfunded. They do not receive an increased compensation when it comes to prices and wages. And then you deduct a little more.

I simply do not understand why one makes that prioritization when one says one wants to make investments. It is incomprehensible to me. I think one should have refrained from the "cheese slicer" [osthyvla]. As I said in yesterday's debate: I think the "cheese slicer" is for lazy politicians who do not have the strength to make important prioritizations.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Marie-Louise Hänel Sandström (M)

Madam Speaker! Thank you very much, Camilla Hansén, for the question! I believe even that we have visited - and discussed cuts with - the same educational institution, but we perhaps heard different answers.

I heard the discussion yesterday when the member of parliament said that the cheese slicer was too lazy. We make major prioritizations because we think it is important – in other words, we are not lazy. That is why we make major prioritizations. That is why we invest in STEM education and in NT. We want to prioritize, and that is what we do too. That is what I have emphasized here. I tried to make it clear in my speech that we are making major investments. We are making permanent investments. We invest in the teachers, who receive additional training to be able to carry out these educations. We invest in getting a higher throughput of civil engineers, so that they can enter the workforce faster.

I think we make big priorities. I do not think we are lazy at all. We are active and interested in solving many of today's problems.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Lorena Delgado Varas (V)

Madam Speaker! It has become a bit late today, a Friday evening. But these are important issues.

There are many beautiful and important foundations that education in Sweden has stood on. On one hand, it has been economically accessible, meaning you do not pay for the education because we see it as a collective responsibility, on the other hand, there are several paths if you want to study at a college or university. These are important components when it comes to being a knowledge nation and driving development forward.

But now we have a government that opposes both democracy and the knowledge nation. We need a cohesive policy, a policy that benefits everyone. It is about actually investing in education rather than a policy that will hinder people's active participation in society and people's freedom and which will increase the social and economic inequalities in society. I am thinking, for example, of visitation zones, of the eviction of families, and of the families who may now lose their income due to the government's cuts.

I come from an area in Stockholm, Skärholmen, where we have needed to increase the number of children attending preschool. There is a big difference between children who have attended preschool and children who have not attended preschool when they step into primary school on the first day of lessons. That difference follows certain children throughout their entire childhood and youth.

But in a society where one prefers to point at the individual, one does not try to find collective solutions. A collective solution could, for example, be that the municipalities receive resources to be able to have different forms of preschools and be able to open up the preschool for these children.

In Skärholmen, we chose to open an introductory preschool so that children who were too old for the open preschool could attend an introduction together with their parents. While the children took their first steps into the pedagogical activities, the parents could receive social information and learn Swedish.

It was a very successful initiative. The number of children who started attending preschool increased significantly already after one year, and trust in society improved. However, such initiatives cannot be implemented when one has budget cuts. There is no room to create new activities, or for that matter, to expand activities. The long-term consequence is that more children reach school age without having participated in pedagogical activities. It simply creates a greater difference between children.

Having an equal and accessible preschool and primary school is essential for creating a knowledge nation. It also leads to safer and more inclusive societies. Here, the market school has had an incredibly negative effect. It is astonishing that one still insists on maintaining it.

Members of the House! An equal school of high quality would get more young people to continue their studies. We would not have to patch up the education system as much as we are forced to do today. More would reach the level of knowledge required to study a range of professions that we need in our society.

We would also perhaps not have the large differences that exist today between the children of the poor and the rich, where children from economically disadvantaged areas do not reach eligibility for upper secondary school. We would give children and young people hope and the opportunity to shape their future regardless of background, where they live, or previous choices in life.

Unfortunately, things are happening here in Sweden that make it harder to reach the diversity and quality one would expect from a knowledge nation. Now, municipalities and regions, as well as adult education and higher education, are being hit by cuts.

If we are to become a world-leading knowledge nation, the prerequisites for this must be real. We have taken a step backward in that development, and we are not moving towards being a world-leading knowledge nation at all. This is unfair to the young, but it is also hindering Sweden's future.

No, we need to strengthen it from preschool to university. Knowledge and education is a right and should not be a commodity. When it comes to higher education, we in Vänsterpartiet present a number of proposals to broaden the opportunities and secure the right to education.

The current resource allocation system ensures that the educations receive funding governed by a price tag, and different educations receive different grants. We from Vänsterpartiet believe that these price tags should be reviewed and that the entire funding system needs to be redesigned so that the funding follows the needs of the higher education institutions and the educations and changes in costs. We therefore propose an increase in the compensation per full-time student to the higher education institutions. The total figure will be 324 million kronor more than what the government has.

The cuts within higher education also occur through savings requirements. We have a wage recalculation model that time and again requires efficiency through savings, and this year the government is also adding a general saving of 0.5 percent, which will have far-reaching consequences.

There is also a need to change Akademiska Hus' rental pricing model, which otherwise consumes the budgets of universities and colleges. These buildings have only one purpose, and that is education. Therefore, they cannot be put out to tender in the way that occurs today.

The bottom line is that students will get a worse working environment and fewer teacher-led hours, and that employment within the academic world will remain insecure. The students will have less influence. We already have a couple of examples.

An example from this year is that KTH will shut down the entire KTH Kista. This is a sorrow for academics, students, and the local community. They lose the proximity to the IT sector, and the students will now have less space despite the fact that there will be more of them.

The truth is that new knowledge is created through research. Often people talk about that we are an innovation society and that we shall lead our development forward through innovation, but then we actually need to invest in research and develop our knowledge. By doing this, we develop the economy, create jobs, improve welfare, and create an ecological and social society.

Research needs to be close to education because it leads to development and enhances the quality of both. Therefore, we need increased support for research. We from Vänsterpartiet propose increased base appropriations, and in our budget for 2024, we have allocated 500 million kronor for this purpose in addition to what the government has appropriated.

There are other parts that worry me regarding universities and colleges. In addition to the government cutting the funding for, among other things, the student unions, we have seen that the government increasingly wants to have control over what higher education does and does not do.

The non-cohesive policy also leaves its mark on how and if people dare to shape their surroundings. The cuts regarding the student associations mean a weakening of students' influence, and teachers who do not have secure employment may not dare to design courses based on facts but instead worry that the world situation will drag them down.

For a little over two months, we have seen how Israel has responded to a terrorist attack through a genocide. This is something that affects many students and teachers across the country. I have received messages from both students and academics who have seen with dismay how the democratic space has diminished at the universities.

In a free and democratic society, students and academics should be able to express themselves freely. Actually, it has been so historically. Often it is university students who drive democratic development forward. We have seen this in Iran, and we saw it in the dictatorship of Chile. The examples of changes in society are many.

That educational institutions are trying to curb the expression of students and academics during an ongoing genocide is truly negative. Therefore, I would like to take the opportunity to extend a thank you to those of you who are students and academics at, among others, Chalmers, Borås University, Stockholm University, Södertörn University, and many more who have protested regarding this. What you are doing is part of the pressure that made the Swedish government at the UN choose to vote yes to a ceasefire. And that struggle, dear friends, must continue until we see a free Palestine.

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Robert Stenkvist (SD)

Madam Speaker! We had agreed not to request any remarks so that everyone could go home at some point, but the end of this speech regarding the student protests made it so that I could not help but press the button.

It has nothing to do with freedom of speech that the universities decide that, as institutions, they should not involve themselves in foreign policy. The students are free to demonstrate outside campus, they are free to write opinion pieces, and they have full freedom of speech. We are talking about institutions that should not be involved in foreign policy.

This is a very long-standing conflict. I heard about it when I was a small child and the teacher told us about the conflict. The conflict is incredibly complicated, and it is incredibly sensitive. I do not believe that students with purple hair running around on campus, for example at Konstfack, can make a real assessment, a foreign policy assessment, of the conflict. It is incredibly sensitive. Should state institutions interfere in foreign policy?

I read the article that the students at Konstfack wrote. Not a single word was written there about Hamas's horrific attack on Israel, how they murdered Israeli women and children in a bestial way. It shows that these student groups completely lack a sense of tact.

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Lorena Delgado Varas (V)

Madam Speaker! There are several things I am a bit surprised by. First and foremost: To point out that students who have purple hair do not have enough knowledge to make decisions is an arrogant way to view our students. It is truly sad to hear a Member of Parliament express themselves in such a way about our university students.

No, this is not a complicated question. Over 10,000 children have died in Palestine. It is over 10,000 children who have been bombed. We have the evidence. There are several journalists in Gaza who have reported with picture after picture of the murdered children. It is not a complicated question, but this is a question about human rights and how one enforces international law.

Students have always been an important backbone for how we develop society forward, which democratic pillars we shall have and which values we shall follow. Students must therefore be allowed to show their disgust when such things happen.

This is a long-standing conflict, and I truly hope that it reaches an end soon so that the Palestinian people can live in freedom and the children there can grow up and go to school, just as Swedish children do.

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Robert Stenkvist (SD)

Madam Speaker! What I criticized was that the students demanded that the university should take sides and make statements. They are absolutely allowed to express whatever opinions they want, but what I criticized was precisely that they are starting to demand what the university should do and what the rector should do. They are there as students. It is the students who are supposed to learn things, not those who are supposed to teach the rector things. That was exactly what I criticized, not that they are allowed to express themselves.

It is terrible for the population in Gaza. But what would Israel have done after the horrific attack when 1,500 women and children were practically lust-murdered? Would they have gone to the UN and criticized the horrific attack?

What responsibility does Hamas have? Could Hamas have calculated that Israel would respond in that way? Still, they attacked. Did Hamas expect to win the sympathy of the Western world already when they planned the attack?

One must think a bit further, and one must look at what Hamas is doing. Hamas has remarkably large support. According to surveys, Hamas has a worryingly large support in the Gaza Strip, and now they are starting to get support in the West Bank. We are getting a one-sided picture. Above all, I do not think that students should run our state-funded, tax-financed institutions and dictate what the rector shall or shall not stand for.

(Applause)

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ANDRE VICE TALMANNEN

I just want to remind that the subject of the debate is Expenditure Area 16 Education and University Research.

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Lorena Delgado Varas (V)

Madam Speaker! I note that Member Robert Stenkvist is an expert on what the people of Gaza feel and think, which is strange given the situation. And I assume that you have not been there and spoken with people.

Speaking of the demands on the principals. We have a situation in the near future where many principals spoke out about a war, namely Ukraine. I expect that if one expresses oneself humanely about one people, one can also express oneself humanely about another people.

At this moment, over 10,000 children have been murdered in Gaza. We still do not know how many more. These are figures that have come from, among others, Israel. This is a serious situation where the government took over 60 days to even utter the word ceasefire. It is clear that it is worrying. It is particularly worrying for a young person today who studies at a university and sees that society is moving towards a more authoritarian thinking, which is negative for human rights.

I believe it is positive that the students dare to do this - despite the climate. It has been a harsh climate in Sweden for quite a long time. On one hand, we are changing laws, which makes our society less democratic, and on the other hand, we are scaling back the economy, which means that people do not feel completely secure in what they do.

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Lili André (KD)

Madam Speaker! I would like to begin by expressing my support for the committee's proposal in the report.

We Christian Democrats clearly take a stand for quality and excellence in higher education and research, and we therefore stand behind the national research policy goal.

Sweden has historically been a leader, but now we are taking action so that Sweden can once again be one of the world's leading research and innovation countries and a leading knowledge nation, where high-quality research, higher education and innovation lead to the development and welfare of society and the competitiveness of the business sector and respond to the societal challenges we face both in Sweden and globally.

The year 2023 has been characterized by concern over skyrocketing electricity bills and high food prices, increasing inflation, insecurity at home as a result of shootings and gang crime, insecurity in Europe as a result of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, as well as a serious situation regarding Israel-Palestine.

This budget is being presented in a tough time when economic tightening is required. Many households and companies are affected by high inflation and high prices, and municipalities and regions are witnessing savings. In that situation, the government chooses to prioritize the most important things, namely welfare, healthcare, school, and care, together with investments to support the hard-hit households and measures to dampen inflation.

Madam Speaker! As a Christian Democrat, I am also proud that we in the government prioritize resources for higher education and research. Research and innovation are of the utmost importance so that we, as a country, can respond to the challenges we see today and in the future. Sweden's prosperity has historically rested on a strong innovative power among individuals and in the business sector.

The government is making several important investments in education and research in the budget bill for 2024. It is about meeting the existing competence needs, investing in technical education and making it possible for Sweden to take the lead in the green transition.

Madam Speaker! We need to provide education for professions where there is a shortage. We need more engineers, not influencers. In order for Sweden to stand strong and competitive in the face of the future and continue to develop as a knowledge nation, the supply of competence is crucial. It is a matter of improving the matching on the labor market and creating good conditions for growth in the economy. Educational institutions should therefore, to an even greater extent, use their resources to offer education where there is currently a shortage of labor and where there will be great needs in the coming years.

The Government therefore proposes a targeted investment to expand civil engineering programs in the coming years. With more trained engineers, we can meet the need for competence resulting from the industry's green and digital transition for Sweden, as well as the large company establishments and expansions taking place across the country. In 2024, 62 million kronor will be added, including student grants, and additionally, an investment is made in basic year training covering 31 million kronor including student grants.

In order to stimulate an educational offer that is more flexible and targeted towards professionals, the institutions' work with lifelong learning needs to be developed. The Government therefore proposes an investment in courses for professionals, which can contribute to a particularly qualified educational offer that, in the long term, can be provided as commissioned training or credit-bearing higher education.

Furthermore, a broader investment in several educational institutions is proposed with 93 million kronor, including student grants, to permanently expand education at the advanced level. The Government also proposes an increase in the compensation amounts for education within natural sciences and technology, as well as a strategic investment in increased research grants from and including 2024.

After having been greatly influenced by the covid-19 pandemic for several years, large parts of the activities at universities and colleges returned in 2022 to how they were before the pandemic. Universities and colleges have had large and demanding tasks in conducting extensive core activities despite the challenges that the pandemic has entailed. But the higher education institutions have shown great capacity for adaptation.

Madam Speaker! The needs of research are characterized by long-term perspectives and stable conditions, which places demands on purposeful resource allocation to universities and colleges. Sweden is a small country with limited resources, and we cannot afford to only distribute resources equally among the institutions of higher education. Excellence shall be the driving force.

Sweden is one of the countries in the OECD that invests the most money in research in relation to GDP, and we have significant funding from the private sector. Sweden is a country with a high proportion of researchers, a high proportion of scientific publications per inhabitant, and a population with high trust in research. Unfortunately, we have fallen behind when it comes to the quality of research, which is reflected in the proportion of highly cited publications.

That is why it is important that the government has now, during this autumn, decided to task the Office of the Chancellor of Higher Education with further strengthening quality and promoting excellence in the national quality assurance system. In dialogue with the higher education institutions, proposals shall be developed on how the national quality assurance system can be developed. The assignment shall be reported in September 2024.

As the Research Council describes, the research being conducted aims to increase our knowledge, meet societal challenges, and strengthen the competitiveness of the business sector. We need to increase the impact and quality of the research, so that we can better respond to society's challenges and better deal with climate challenges, medicine shortages, and future solutions to societal problems.

One way to prioritize the quality of research is to reduce the administrative overhead. The Government considers it unreasonable that researchers spend too much time on burdensome reporting. Their time should be freed up to focus on conducting world-class research and building outstanding research environments.

Madam Speaker! The reform that we Christian Democrats have championed for a long time regarding a state ownership for health and medical care has now been initiated for realization. That the state takes a primary responsibility for healthcare enables better conditions for research and development by allowing competence and resources to be gathered and cooperate in a purposeful manner. Our Minister for Health and Social Affairs, Acko Ankarberg Johansson, has now appointed a parliamentary committee that shall produce decision-making bases making it possible to introduce, step-by-step and in the long term, a full or partial state ownership for health and medical care.

For Sweden as a knowledge nation, the development of new knowledge of high quality is central for us to be internationally competitive. Research plays a decisive role for growth and development and ensures welfare in the long term. This is particularly tangible within health and medical care. Today's medicines and treatment methods are yesterday's research.

Madam Speaker! I vote in favor of the proposal in the report.

(Applause)

The deliberation was hereby concluded.

(A decision was to be taken on 19 December.)

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