Published: Less than 50 min ago
Education Minister Lotta Edholm (L) assesses that school fees may be lower for independent schools than for municipal ones.
And she wants the school money to be able to be claimed back if it goes to other than school activities.
– We have seen examples of schools that use money for things that have nothing to do with the school at all, says the newly appointed education minister in an interview with TT and mentions schools that “sent money to other countries.”
An investigation that the former S government set up this summer into requirements for independent schools is to receive new directives, for example on how the school money may be used.
– It must review this and tighten the requirements for independent schools, says Edholm.
She does not want to comment on whether the independent school group Thoréngruppen’s extensive sports sponsorship is what she would describe as school activities. Or if the school giant Academedia’s goal of distributing 30 percent of the profit to shareholders is properly used school money.
– We have never said that there is a big problem with profit distribution, if you meet the quality requirements. The biggest problem is when students don’t get the education they are entitled to, says Edholm.
To be investigated
Her first year seems to be characterized by writing directives to and starting investigations. In addition to the one on rules for independent schools, an investigation into a national school fee standard must be launched. It will be one of the keys to creating a more equal school, according to Edholm.
– Equality is one of the biggest problems in the school, that there are such unequal conditions because the municipalities invest so different amounts of money in the school.
According to the minister, the two investigations that already exist in the matter are not enough to make a law. It is about the much-debated report on equivalence that Björn Åstrand came up with a few years ago. It came up with proposals for scrapping queues for independent schools and deductions from school fees for independent schools, since the municipal schools have overall responsibility for the school and accepting students. Recently there was another investigation.
Lower school fees
TT: You have said that the independent schools’ compensation should be reviewed, that the municipalities have a greater responsibility, an overall responsibility. Do you have any idea what the compensation would be in relation to the municipal ones? 70, 80, 90 percent?
– It is impossible to say, it must be taken into account in the investigation into the national school allowance standard for an assessment.
TT: But it should be lower?
– Yes, to the extent that the municipalities have higher costs for compulsory schooling. And there are many indications of that. The National Audit Office has shown that, says Edholm.
In the budget that the new government has presented, 685 million is proposed for an investment in textbooks.
– We do this because you get a deeper understanding of reading when you read books compared to reading on a screen. It makes it easier for the students to get a structure of what they are going to learn, says Edholm, and adds that the teachers then also don’t have to stand at the copier and make learning materials.
Been blue-eyed
She is happy that the debate about reading tablets and screens at school has gained momentum. Blue-eyedness and a lack of knowledge about reading comprehension existed when digitization began. The investment in printed textbooks now is a consequence of seeing “effects of digitization that we might not have really anticipated.”
– Those of us who were a little blue-eyed, it was because we didn’t have the knowledge we have today, about deepened reading comprehension or that too much screen time leads to children moving too little.
The government is proposing a multi-year investment of SEK 600 million in the first year, which will give students in need of special support more help, including through more special teachers.
One reaction has been: Where will the municipalities, in the current teacher shortage, find them? A teacher who is continuing his education leaves a hole in the schedule that must be replaced.
– The ministry is now sitting down and thinking about how to find a design that will make many people interested in taking this further education, says Edholm.
She believes that a system of part-time jobs and education can be a way.
Disputed directly
Lotta Edholm’s ministerial post was contested from the start. The day she was appointed, she left the board of the independent school group Tellusgruppen and sold her shares. She had then also for a few years been a partner in a consulting agency that assists in contacts and cooperation between politics and business “… right up until the law is changed, the deal is settled or the crisis is averted.”
– I was aware that the criticism would come, I’m not blind-eyed, says Edholm.
– I can only try to do my job as well as possible.
But can knowledge from more than 20 years as a school politician in Stockholm and in recent years from the independent school world be wrong, she wonders?
She believes that the debate about independent schools lacked nuance.
– It should be highlighted more often that we are one of the few countries in the world where you can choose a school regardless of how big the parents’ wallet is. And it is not allowed to charge fees, that is what is really revolutionary about our school system.
Facts
Lotta Edholm
Minister of Education since 18 October.
Responsibility for preschool up to and including high school.
Born 1965 in Västerås, one child, lives in Stockholm.
Bachelor’s degree in political science
From 2020 to the appointment consultant at an agency that works with and wants to facilitate contacts between politics and business.
Before that, among other things, a school and municipal politician in the city of Stockholm, from 1998 to 2020.
Source: Government Office
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