Education in Sweden
By: Trinity, Jordan, and Cailey
It is mandatory for Swedish students to go to school from when they're 7 to their 16 years old. Wouldn't that be nice? But think of this; Swedish schools are severely lagging in technology education. However, there are many pro's and con's to education in Swedish schools. Take a look at Sweden's national standards, grading and homework, and technology use.
As we all know, different countries have different standards for schools. In sweden only registered teachers are able to be permanently employed, and if they are not then the headmaster is in charge of grading their students papers and such. If a parent where to be unemployed and has a child in preschool, they are required to work 15 hours in the school they are enrolled in. With saying thats children are only required to go to school from when their 7 till their 16 birthday and a total of 178-190 school days per year. Also in schools children only need to be tested every few years to see if they have any special needs. The requirements for schools are quite different from the ones in other countries.
Grading and homework play a great role in schools in sweden. Grading is a way to show a students progress and learning throughout school. Homework helps to show what a student can accomplish on their own time, outside of school. In primary school, they use letter grades to show the students progress throughout that class. They have six letter grades. A for exemplary, B for excellent, C for good, D for adequate, E for acceptable, and F for Failed, not passed. These grades help the teacher know what materials the students are understanding and not understanding. Homework in sweden is a interesting topic. Swedish teachers are not using homework correctly by not checking with the student the next day on what they were supposed to accomplish that night. Teachers scored very poorly on following up with homework in mathematics, especially in the last few years (The Local).
Despite being ahead of America in international tests, Sweden schools are far behind other countries in technology use. Why is that? One Sweden has the answers. "Money is not the problem. Free education from primary school to university has long been a pillar of Sweden’s welfare system, and public spending on education is among the world’s highest, according to the OECD." (The Economist). Another theory on the poor technology resources could be from the period when the Social Democrats were in charge. They messed with the education system, and ended up morphing it. Now, people are focusing more on educational segregation, rather than supporting the children with proper materials.
As exclaimed earlier, there are many pro's and con's in Sweden's education. They have very limited technology use in school, a different system then American schools for home and grading, and moderate standards when it comes to schooling. However, this doesn't make Sweden a terrible education system; they just have a different way of doing things.