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Lottery system proposal for Swedish school enrolment met with criticism

Proposals from a commission set up to find ways of improving Sweden's schools have been met with a mixed reception, with the suggestion of a lottery system for enrolment earning criticism.

Published: 20 April 2017 16:50 CEST
Lottery system proposal for Swedish school enrolment met with criticism
File photo of a pupil at a Swedish school. Photo: Lars Pehrson/SvD/TT

Set up by the Swedish government in April 2015, the Schools Commission (Skolkommissionen) has been tasked with producing proposals to improve the performances of schools, lessen inequalities between them, and increase the quality of teaching.

Compiled by members of the National Agency for Education (Skolverket), university professors and representatives from teaching unions, the commission today presented its proposals to a mixed response.

Municipalities and schools should be made to work harder to achieve a broad social composition of students, it said. One suggestion provoking particularly strong reactions is the idea of introducing a lottery system for schools where the social make-up of pupils is not sufficiently mixed, and the number of applicants for enrolment exceeds the number of places available.

In those circumstances the lottery system would overrule the current selection criteria of geographical proximity between home and the school, sibling priority, and length of time spent in a queue for enrolment.

Politicians from Sweden's centre-right opposition coalition lined up to slam the lottery idea when it was presented on Thursday.

“We shouldn't have a school lottery where our students are balls in a tombola. The problem is that they're not placing the emphasis on having schools that are good. We should only have good schools in Sweden,” Moderate education policy spokesperson Camilla Waltersson Grönvall said in a statement.

The Schools Commission noted that municipalities cannot be forced to use such a lottery system in any case, due to rules over municipal self-government.

READ ALSO: Gap between socio-economically advantaged and disadvantaged students in Sweden growing

Better received however was a proposal that all guardians should be obliged to actively choose the school they want their child to be enrolled at. At present, children are entitled to a place at local school by default, should their parents not instead opt to enrol them elsewhere.

There is a tendency for better educated parents to be the ones who pick a school for their children instead of taking the place allocated to them locally. In an effort to try and break that trend and therefore increase the social mix of pupils, the commission has suggested that it should be mandatory for all parents to pick the school they want their child to be enroled at.

Sweden's Education Minister Gustav Fridolin noted that the current system does not treat all children equally.

“Queuing time is clearly a system built on whether a kid has parents who put them in the queue for the most popular school or not. That means choosing schools is not equally free for all.”

He believes that growing inequalities between Sweden's schools can largely be explained by failings regulations around how they are financed. At present, resources are allocated by the local municipality rather than by the central state, and that combined with the economic crisis has led to a growth in gaps between schools.

READ ALSO: Here are the best and worst schools in Sweden

Last year Sweden's National Union of Teachers (Lärarnas Riksförbund) reached a similar conclusion.

“Municipalities are not able to deliver equal schools. Much depends on both the economic conditions but also will and understanding of the importance of school. Sometimes I don't think people understand how important it is to invest in schools and to have competent teachers,” the union's chairperson Åsa Fahlén noted in September.

As a partial remedy, the commission has also proposed that the Swedish state pay out six billion kronor to schools, to be allocated according to the socio-economic background of students in order to help reduce class sizes and increase teacher numbers.

That's something Education Minister Fridolin sees as a positive idea:

“It shouldn't depend on the municipality you grow up in or the school you get to go to, but rather, schools should have the resources they need.”

READ ALSO: The Local interviews Education Minister Gustav Fridolin

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READER QUESTIONS

Can I take my child out of their Swedish school during term time?

Are you planning a trip abroad later in the year with school-age kids? It's good to be aware of the rules for taking them out of classes so you're not hit with a painful fine once you get home.

Published: 23 August 2024 13:19 CEST
Updated: 15 September 2024 08:26 CEST
Can I take my child out of their Swedish school during term time?

Although the summer holidays in Sweden can last over two months for some children, many parents opt to save their own annual leave for later in the year, whether that’s to enjoy better weather at their destination, save money on flights or to escape the Swedish winter. 

It’s becoming increasingly common for parents in Sweden to take their kids out of classes in term-time for holidays abroad, whether that’s to visit family elsewhere, as some of The Local’s readers may be considering, or just for some winter sun. The number of parents heading off to Thailand in particular during the winter has reached such levels in Sweden that a new word has been coined to describe it – a thaimout.

But what are the rules if you want to take your kids out of school?

School is compulsory

Sweden, like most countries, has compulsory schooling. In Swedish this is known as skolplikt – literally “school duty” – and applies from the year children turn six to the year they graduate from ninth grade (around the age of 15-16). Unlike elsewhere, this can’t be met through homeschooling either, so you’re not allowed to take your kids on holiday with the promise that you’ll keep up with the curriculum while you’re away.

Of course, there are exceptions to this school duty. If you plan to live abroad with your child for over a year, they lose their skolplikt. If you’re looking at taking a shorter, but still relatively long, break (say six to nine months) you can apply to the municipality to revoke the skolplikt.

Note that when you return you have to reapply for a place in school for your child, and there’s no guarantee they’ll end up in the same class or even at the same school when they come back.

What if we won’t be gone that long?

If you’re only taking a mini-break, say a week, you have to ask the school’s principal for permission. Depending on the school, you might get lucky. 

School policies vary with some being more lenient than others, but factors the principal could take into account are the length of the break, how important the break is, and whether they expect that the child will be able to keep up or catch up with their studies despite being off.

If you take your child out of school without permission, you could be fined. 

Solna municipality recently took a family to court and demanded 50,000 kronor after they took their children to Thailand. The parents put their children in a school in Thailand that followed the Swedish curriculum, but the school board in Solna rejected their application. 

Swedish media also reported on Facebook groups where parents share advice on taking a thaimout, and some parents admitted to ignoring rejected applications for time away from school and instead seeing the fine as part of the cost of the trip and paying up when they got home.

That sparked a major debate in Sweden about the benefits of foreign travel, the fact that many children today have roots in other countries, children’s right to uninterrupted schooling and some parents’ perceived middle-class entitlement to vacationing on the other side of the world.

What else should I be aware of as a foreign parent?

One aspect you should be aware of if you’re not a Swedish citizen is that the government is planning on tightening up the rules for citizenship and permanent residency, including opening up the possibility to revoke residency for any immigrants who show “issues with their way of life” or not granting citizenship to people with bristande vandel, essentially “leading a flawed way of life”.

The definition of bristande vandel is extremely vague, so it’s difficult to say what could be included in the future. In the government’s Tidö coalition agreement, written in collaboration with the Sweden Democrats, it lists one example of bristande vandel as “lack of compliance with rules”, and the government has also said that immigrants may need to show that they live by Swedish values.

It’s possible, but not certain, that not complying with skolplikt could be considered as falling into this category.

There are also currently rules in place that prevent you from becoming a citizen if you have any outstanding debts or have committed any crimes. Being issued a fine by the school board doesn’t mean you’ve committed a crime, but being unable to pay the fine and going into debt could cause issues for you down the line.

It’s also important to be aware of the fact that extended periods of time outside of Sweden (usually around three weeks or more) can affect future applications for residence permits or citizenship in Sweden. Essentially, you’ll need to prove you were legally resident (had hemvist) in Sweden for a specific amount of time, and trips abroad that are longer in duration than a standard holiday may need to be subtracted from this.

Of course, you are allowed to travel, whether that’s for a holiday or for a trip back home to visit family, but bear in mind that a normal Swedish holiday is usually around three to four weeks. If you were away for months at a time, then you may not be able to count that as time spent living in Sweden when you apply for a permit renewal or for Swedish citizenship.

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