Sweden is the country in Europe that fails the most students.
But this is not because the students are stupid – but because the grading model is wrong.
This is the opinion of researcher Jörgen Tholin, who was previously the government’s rating investigator.
– We knock out an awful lot of people very early. Then you have to think about whether we are making the right demands, says Tholin.
A fifth of the students who finish the ninth grade lack the right to upper secondary school, which We Teachers reported. This gives Sweden a unique position – as the worst in all of Europe.
– We fail twice as many as Estonia, which is in second place, and five times more than the rest of the EU, says Jörgen Tholin, researcher in pedagogy at the University of Gothenburg, and former investigator for the government on the grading issue.
No more stupid students
That Swedish students are less talented, or Swedish teachers worse, he completely dismisses.
– We don’t have more stupid students than the rest of the EU. We have fewer students with learning difficulties than the average, says Jörgen Tholin.
Sweden neither invests less money in schools nor has worse teachers, according to Tholin. Rather, the reason seems to be the high demands we place on the students.
– The only explanation is that we make sky-high, much higher demands on our students than any other country. The grade targets are set so high today that students don’t even have the conditions to fix them, says Jörgen Tholin.
Sacrifices young
The new assessment investigation must be reported on 21 February 2025, and the task includes comparing the pros and cons of the Swedish system compared to other countries. And Tholin thinks the requirements should be lowered.
– No politician wants to risk being blamed for lowering the requirements in Swedish schools. Instead, we sacrifice a huge group of students every year, says Jörgen Tholin.
The grading system was changed in 1994. Then failing was introduced in school. Since then, students with failing grades have increased every year.
– We knock out an awful lot of people very early. Then you have to think about whether we are making the right demands, says Tholin.
Drop the F grade
He is a firm advocate of scrapping the F grade. Something that Education Minister Lotta Edholm (L) has so far refused. And at the same time think that we should be inspired by the grading system which was between 1 and 5.
– In the past, we gave young people the opportunity to try, even though they had a grade of 1. Today we don’t even give them the chance, says Jörgen Tholin.