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Sweden will be short of 45,000 teachers in 15 years, school chiefs warn

In 15 years, Sweden will be lacking 45,000 qualified teachers if current trends continue, according to the National Agency for Education.

Published: 10 December 2019 13:46 CET
Updated: 10 December 2019 16:16 CET
Sweden will be short of 45,000 teachers in 15 years, school chiefs warn
The forecast isn't quite as bleak as it was two years earlier, but Sweden remains in need of teachers. Photo: Alexander Olivera/TT

By 2033, a total of 188,500 teachers and preschool teachers will need to qualify in order to meet the forecasted demand. But if the levels of people starting the qualification and the proportion of students qualifying remain stable, only 144,000 will become qualified teachers in that time. 

The area with the greatest shortage is expected to be subject teachers specializing in grades 7-9 of primary school, primary teachers specializing in grades 4-6, and vocational teachers. 

Almost half of the required teachers are needed in the three major metropolitan areas: Stockholm, Västra Götaland (home to Gothenburg) and Skåne.

“We are seeing a positive developments in the Swedish school system. We want to strengthen this further, but for that it's necessary for students to have access to qualified teachers,” the agency's general director Peter Fredriksson said, referring to the recent improvement in Sweden's Pisa ranking.

The Pisa results did however show that inequality between schools in privileged and disadvantaged areas was a continuing problem, and Fredriksson said a teacher shortage could exacerbate this. 

“Large differences in access to qualified teachers mean that not all students are given the same conditions. In the wake of teacher shortages, there is also a risk that well-educated teachers will move away from schools in vulnerable areas. The teacher shortage risks making the lack of equality in schools worse,” he commented.

The good news in the agency's forecast, published on Tuesday, was that the estimated teacher shortage had fallen compared to a previous forecast in 2017. The earlier forecast had predicted that Sweden would be short of 80,000 teachers within 15 years.

The main cause of the decrease in the predicted shortage is a fall in immigration, which means the population increase is expected to decline. Most of the teachers who are needed will be required over the next five years, due both to a population increase in recent years as well as the number of teachers expected to enter retirement.

But another reason for the slight improvement is that more teachers are choosing to stay in the profession.

“In the data we can see that more people are returning to the teaching profession and that a larger proportion remain in the profession. It's gratifying […] More than 90 percent of Swedish teachers are satisfied with their work, a large international study showed,” Fredriksson said. 

He also highlighted measures being taken at national and local levels to help retain teaching staff and to ensure those working in schools could use their time and skills most effectively, such as hiring more school staff including teaching assistants and social workers.

Detailed forecasts for specific roles and different geographic areas can be found (in Swedish) here.

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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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