Inger Enkvist: Ny speciallärarutbildning är rätt väg – men inte nog

The Liberals and the education minister are presenting a new proposal to bring in more special education teachers through a new special education training program Is this the right way to go Yes and no but it's a reform that goes in the same direction as many others The system starts from today's setup and then makes improvements Here it's clearly an improvement to have special education teachers instead of special pedagogues All the arguments made by the two ministers and stated in the guidelines are entirely correct I think the teachers will applaud this That part is completely correct What can you do then it should be more practical It should be practical-oriented teachers They will get practical instruction All of this is very good First of all those who will be working in regular primary schools Then there are some who will be working in special schools and that is a slightly different matter This part is very good Then one might possibly be somewhat less happy that they have not addressed the issues with the school If we now have as many as 20-25% who cannot read after ninth grade Then it's a bigger problem than not having given more support than we have already given You don't take that part with you At least not here Instead you leave behind the bigger and more important question It is certainly much more work to take a step with the basic problems It seems that today many students are leaving high school without complete grades We see that the PISA results are really bad for Sweden More than half of those who leave ninth grade without a certificate have not received help from special teachers or special education teachers This is the problem they want to address They want the help to arrive earlier What is the fundamental problem then It's because the idea of school maturity has first been removed This means that the student should be ready to start first grade when entering school We have removed that Now we have many students who are not calm enough to sit still and they lack knowledge of Swedish So we have removed what made it possible to keep the class more or less together We also do not have any form of grouping since students have very different needs There are students who speak excellently have a large vocabulary and may even be able to read They should be placed in the same group as people who do not have these prerequisites You should support those who cannot catch up with the others It is extremely difficult especially if there are many students in the group with the same problem You can apply as much support as you want without reaching your goal There is nothing wrong with the goal It's just that if you don't organize the framework so that all students do their best This may sound a lot but if we have a school where students start in their first grade What will be in the sixth year Students are expected to be present We have compulsory education in Sweden but not everyone comes If all students came if all students had the obligation to try If needed one should actually be able to read a little at home It doesn't hurt at all and even at the elementary level one can sit with a textbook and read over and over again to read more fluently If we dared I would say we dared because it's clear that we know this If we dared to say here that the student themselves has responsibility for what the student does If we are even so advanced that we dare to say that the student is now If the child is six or seven years old maybe the parents could take responsibility for sitting with the student for a while and practicing reading Then the need for support we call it would decrease There are more effective ways to do it than pouring money into special teachers and support Then I go back to the beginning It's clear that if we don't want to do this And they are not even daring to do this which may require many more specialists It is very important and the government is on the right track I think that's a plus for them doing this It's the right way Did men find it even better that they looked at the school's way of functioning in a more general way You're in now on what's called the balancing mission To be able to attend school regardless of background and still receive a good educatio There people come out well regardless of their socioeconomic background Getting parents involved in their children's lives is not something everyone can do Not everyone can speak or read Swedish How much responsibility can be placed on parents It depends on what one means by "can " I have looked at a lot of statistics from other countries If we take the USA which has a lot of statistics it's that many immigrant parents For example those from China have a very low level of education They are going to the United States so the children can have a better future They don't speak English and many of them have none at all They don't have a high school equivalent or anything like that The thing they bring is a will for the children to do well They value education and they see it as a great benefit So it's not that they are sitting with the children and the textbook but they say something like this Here we have a quiet little corner and we won't disturb you We won't turn the TV on full so you can read your homework And someone might ask have you read your homework Oh man he's happy about the child when things go well So it's not like you can't help your child This is why you can't just do this content It's a misunderstanding The government wants to address the problems you mention by introducing a ten-year primary school School will become part of the compulsory schooling One also wants groups where students who have problems can be placed We separate the groups and teach them there What do you think of those measures It's not wrong We start with school at six years old Many countries have school starting at six years old Rather it is more common There are countries that have school starting at five years old So it's really no remarkable action It just goes a bit against our tradition which has served us well so far So it's something one can choose to do or not do I don't see it as any significant reform But why not As it stands today the cost of primary school is the biggest expense for the municipalities The municipalities have had a very tough economic situation in recent years due to inflation and the rising costs especially pension costs So what do you think about the funding of the elementary school as it is today I'm not familiar with all the details here I can easily imagine that all the municipalities say exactly this Then we are almost back to the same topic again With the circumstances we have today and with all the regulations For example the right to support in different contexts for different diagnoses different accommodations different things that we have So it becomes very expensive in relation to the result we get Men it is certainly possible that we could achieve equally good or better results with less money Because we actually use the money in a different way I have not only come up with this myself but I can refer to The report on mathematics in Stockholm where extra money was given Schools that do not have problems receive a regular amount And schools that have major problems and many students with special needs get significantly more money What the economists did in this case was compare whether schools that received this much extra money became better They don't It depends on how one works it depends on whether the students come whether they try hard and many other things The money spent on education is not necessarily what determines how good this will be Perhaps other things require students to be present that have more effect We can take a small example that is easier to understand If we start a summer school for students who have failed or have weaker results They don't come to summer school It's not getting better it costs money Why hadn't they taken advantage of the instruction they had received during the year We are so careful that we do not ask if they have taken advantage of the education they have received before we provide support I mean that we should raise our standards and be a bit tougher You can't make students learn if they don't participate themselves The poor PISA results and the worsening PISA results for Sweden have led to major discussions about the school system Budget cuts as well The latest survey from the SOM Institute at the University of Gothenburg It showed that around 60% want to see a state-run school How do you see it I'm trying to interpret what they want Yes they want more order in the school That's what they want Maybe they also believe the propaganda that it would be the free schools Some would be a problem Then there is a doubt here because you could make the municipal school state-run It doesn't mean you are abolishing the free schools That's something else Not many understand that The school is already very largely state-run Because teacher education is state-funded the distribution of money in a bag is state-funded A set of regulations is state-funded Even if it were state-owned as it was before it should still be applied at the local level in each individual city Then you still have a local level The change isn't that huge It is mainly about being able to spend more money locally on a hockey rink instead of on the school There was another thing before in the world before 1990 It was according to merit that the teachers were appointed in a bureaucratic manner It was about which studies they had and how many positions they had That is how one could determine who would get a position It had many advantages Sometimes it had a disadvantage in that a person who was not very suitable got a job It was a way that encouraged teachers to study more It also showed a certain appreciation for teachers who had worked in the profession for a long time It was a possibility that it brought more stability to the school Now the individual municipalities and individual principals have more influence on this Teachers may feel more vulnerable to non-professional influences It can be more personal Do you see privatization as a solution to the problems in the schools Unfortunately not We have problems with among others the Swedish National Agency for Education and all possible central authorities The government is now trying to do something about this They are developing a new curriculum and have created some new rules All of these rules have in common that they point in the right direction That must be said All of these central authorities as well as the government are central authorities When they don't make the best decision if we're talking about suppor or truly requiring students to fulfill their school obligation It doesn't help to talk about it being more nationalized It's the state itself that is allowing this to happen right now I understand what they want which is federalization but they haven't really seen what is decided at different levels