The proportion of students who graduated ninth with a grade of A in several subjects was twice as high in 2021 compared with eight years earlier. It shows a review from the magazine Ämnesläraren.
The magazine has, topic by topic, compared how many graduated from primary school with the highest grade in 2013 and last year. In physics, for example, the proportion with the highest grade has increased by 100 percent, in the subjects chemistry and technology the increase was even greater.
– Grade inflation erodes the credibility of the grading system, says Anna Sjögren, economist and researcher at the Institute for Labor Market and Education Policy Evaluation, to the Subject Teacher.
Sjögren says that the grades in the core subjects as well as the SO and NO substances may have increased extra much during the pandemic as no national tests were held. But at the same time, the proportion of grades A in mathematics increased by almost 10 percent, the clearly lowest increase between the comparison years.
– In mathematics, there is not the same room for subjectivity in the assessment of students’ knowledge. In Swedish and English, for example, that space is larger, says Anna Sjögren.