In the last week, DN has published a number of reports that described a gloomy development. In two decades, Sweden has become one of the Western European countries where young adults – people between the ages of 20 and 34 – die the most.
One of the factors behind this may be the school. Together with Statistics Sweden, DN has been able to show, among other things, that the risk of dying young is seven times higher among students who have only attended compulsory school compared with those who have post-secondary education.
– It is a huge failure for society, says the Social Democratic Minister of Education Lina Axelsson Kihlblom when she receives at the Ministry of Education. The minister has reacted, among other things, to the report about Sandra, a girl who during her high school years did not receive the right support at school and after a period of abuse ended up in a fatal car crash.
– I recognize this type of stories from my time as principal, Axelsson Kihlblom continues. When the school blames a vulnerable child, it is assumed that she is being tricked.
Over 70,000 Swedish students is estimated to have some form of neuropsychiatric disability, such as autism or ADHD. Since a new school law was introduced in 2011, the goal is for as many of these as possible to be incorporated into regular teaching. Some say that in practice they have been denied the necessary support. But how things really go for this broad group of students has been difficult to capture, as there has been no national accounting, something that has long been criticized by both parent groups and interest groups.
– They are absolutely right in their criticism, I want as soon as possible proper statistics, says Axelsson Kihlblom, who has now been commissioned to review the type of data that may be collected, and how it can be used.
The Minister of Education wants to investigate also other changes.
Around 14 percent of the students in primary school do not succeed in passing all core subjects – Swedish, English and mathematics. The consequence for the student who receives the grade F, failed, is that it does not become eligible to apply for any of the upper secondary school’s national programs.
The Minister of Education sees a risk that young people will be excluded from both education and the labor market at an early stage, and has therefore just appointed an inquiry to investigate, among other things, whether the system should be abolished.
– We have a system today that is based on competition, competition, exclusion. There are many who feel stupid, outside. When you with the same demands picture could have asked the question in a different way and made more people feel okay.
Facts. The Government’s grading study
The inquiry, which will examine a number of new ways for young people to get between school and working life, will be reported to the Ministry of Education in two years, in the summer of 2024. A special investigator is Joanna Giota, professor at the University of Gothenburg.
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The current system was introduced in 2011 and the increased eligibility requirements were, according to the Minister of Education’s view, part of the then bourgeois government’s market logic.
– There was a myth that children were lazy. By stressing and creating fear, they would be awakened. The threat of being knocked out would make everyone sharper.
Fredrik Malm, school policy spokesperson for the Liberals, is astonished at the school minister’s criticism.
– If you are going to jump high jump, you must have a bar, he says on a sofa in the Riksdag building. You must have measurable goals that mean something, otherwise we can just as easily remove the grades.
In the background, a fundamental difference is perceived in the view of children’s needs and learning.
– We must have high expectations, students perform better when they have more to strive for. It has nothing to do with market thinking, the development of all mankind is based on the fact that we want to develop.
Fredrik Malm is worried that the investigation appointed by the government may turn out to be a charade, an attempt to dope the numbers.
– We all want to find more ways to jobs for young people, but it must not happen at the expense of the knowledge requirements. In four years, the government wants to be able to point to the statistics, say that we have now halved the 14 percent who were not eligible. The problem is that you then just push the problems in front of you, in reality the students have not learned more.
It’s too soft, too nice?
– It’s not nice. If you say: you have not reached the goals, but you can move on anyway – then you are doing these young people a disservice. Then it will instead be in high school that the problems end up. Better education already in primary school is the core.
The Minister of Education has gone out to the sun on Drottninggatan, surrounded by the strolling tourists.
– Each student should receive feedback that points forward, she says. No matter what happens at school, you should have a place in the system, a context.
It sounds like in a few years we may not have the F-grades anymore?
– Then it can be. I do not want to precede the investigation, we must start from research and experts. But everything that knocks children out of their education, we will try to remove.
She marks with her hands, eager now.
– We must have a school that is for everyone, we should not count anyone out.
Read more:
Unusually many young people die in Sweden
Sandra did not get the right support at school – ended up in a fatal car crash
Gabriella saved the man on the train track – then life changed