School | The development of schools that was feared in Finland is commonplace in Sweden – Segregation is already visible in preschools

When students in different parts of Sweden in the last weeks of August walk through the school gates, at the same time they step on the altar of a lengthy political topic.

The Swedish school has been complained about and debated for a long time. The country is an extreme example of “school shopping”, where the schools of transnationally owned joint stock companies are allowed to make profits with tax funds.

A development for which Finland’s recent Minister of Education Anders Adlercreutz says he is particularly worried, is already far away in Sweden.

“School Segregation”, skolsegregationenhas become its own concept. Actually, there is segregation, i.e. differentiation according to the income and education level of the regions examined visible in Sweden already in preschools.

It is a societal and social problem that has been combated in Finland, for example, by zoning. The neighborhood school system, which is different from the Swedish system, also protects, but the risks exist here as well.

What can we learn from Sweden’s mistakes?

Investigator Arniika Kuusisto says directly that the school system in Sweden is “smuggled” in terms of the business model. According to him, the profits should rather be invested back into the use of schools, but for example the curriculum is really good.

Ways have been found to influence the development of segregation.

According to Kuusisto, the extensive announced in 2018 Swedish study shows that school climate plays a significant role between the “segregation profile” of schools and students’ school success.

In other words, the atmosphere in the school can influence how well the students do in school and thus even out the situation.

With segregation, the importance of the school atmosphere is emphasized. According to Kuusisto, its focus is building the cohesion of every child and young person in the school community. Through it, the experience of inclusion can also be built in relation to society as a whole.

Hex tree is a professor of education at the University of Helsinki, a visiting professor at Karlstad University and an honorary researcher at the University of Oxford.

In the years 2018–2022, he worked as a professor of childhood and youth studies at Stockholm University and trained future teachers and principals.

Kuusisto lived in Sweden with his children and through them got first-hand information about the everyday life of the local school system, also from a parent’s point of view.

School shopping was liberalized in Sweden in 1992. The aim was above all to increase individual freedom and equal opportunities.

Independent free schools in Sweden are financed with tax money. For example, a foundation, association, religious community or company can maintain an independent free school and generate profit with tax funds.

Free schools follow the same school legislation and curriculum as municipal schools.

Kuusiston one of the children was in a municipal and the other in a so-called free school. According to him, the family was very satisfied with the school choices and would choose the same schools if the choice had to be made again.

“Both had a lot of good and high-quality teaching,” says Kuusisto.

The youngest of the children attended a municipal community school in the family’s residential area in Alvik.

The district located in the northwestern part of Stockholm could be described in the apartment advertisement as peaceful and close to nature. The shores of Lake Mälaren surround it from three directions. Alvik is about a 15-minute subway ride from the T-Centralen in the city center, and demographically the area is middle-class.

According to Kuusisto, the municipal school was “giant”. There were more than 1,000 students from preschool to middle school.

Kuopus attended elementary school in the nearby school and, in Swedish, “mellansstadiet”, which covers grades four to six. At the end of the fifth grade, it became clear that none of the teachers had noticed, for example, that the child hadn’t properly learned all the multiplication tables by then.

Except for the ten English words that the children had to learn every other Friday, the teachers gave almost no homework during the entire elementary school, says Kuusisto.

“It is based on the ideal of a community home and thinking that this is the most equal, because only some homes have the opportunity to help with homework.”

Kuusiston the family’s first child was in the English language free school in the Vasastan district.

During the first weeks of the sixth grade, the first-born was already given a homework assignment, which, according to Kuusisto, was so challenging that he could have shared it with his classmates studying at the university.

The sixth grader had to make a ten-minute podcast episode about how the thinking of the Greek philosophers affects today’s society.

The first-born sat at his homework for hours every day after school anyway.

Although the ultimate purpose of no homework in neighborhood schools is to foster equality, the end result is almost the opposite at the municipal and national level. With free school choice and the development of differentiation, there are also huge differences in school practices.

According to Kuusisto, the attitude towards homework boils down to the differences in both the level of requirements of schools and the values ​​of families in relation to academic learning.

With the development of segregation, the importance of home values ​​and school requirements is also emphasized.

In segregated areas, it is even more important that teachers ensure an atmosphere in early childhood education schools that creates “horizons of possibility”, says Kuusisto.

Teachers can influence the fact that every student, regardless of background and area of ​​residence, feels that they have the opportunity to learn and progress in life as far as anyone else.

Kuusiston according to the Swedish free school system also makes it possible. There is a huge amount of focused teaching available even in socio-economically weak areas.

Kuusisto tells about a school friend of the first child who was good at basketball, and found his own line for the sport in high school. There are lines for almost every departure.

“And it doesn’t cost a penny if your child goes to a super school.”

According to Kuusisto, schools also actively market themselves with brochures distributed to homes, so that they reach families as widely as possible. However, not everyone has knowledge, let alone an understanding, of the opportunities that school choice brings.

in Sweden “compensatory” activities have been developed, i.e. club and hobby activities that balance inequality, in which everyone has the opportunity to participate.

Kuusisto praises, for example, the Swedish afternoon club, which is safe for everyone from 6 to 13 years old.

“Fritids hem, which operates in connection with schools, offers a wide range of play and hobby opportunities during the afternoons, which also supports children’s peer relationships and attachment to society,” says Kuusisto.

According to him, the activity prevents loneliness and increases the feeling of security, when small school children do not have to spend afternoons at home by themselves.

In addition, there is a “Kulturskolan”, a music and cultural school, in almost all Swedish counties, in many different residential areas, whose tuition fees are determined according to the family’s income level.

Basically, all children have the opportunity to get involved in activities that suit their interests, such as music, theater or art, thanks to Kulturskolan.

In addition to these, the youth organization Fryshuset organizes a variety of youth activities, from basketball clubs to exit programs for young people who have drifted into crime.

Hobby activity does not correct, but replaces the inequality and the feeling of outsiderness caused by segregation. According to Kuusisto, it can be used to strengthen peer relationships and the feeling of belonging to the school and thus to society as a whole. In Finland, the same could still be used as a preventive measure for the development of differentiation instead of a corrective measure.

“Supporting the well-being of children and young people in the long term is significantly cheaper and more effective in society compared to what it would be to correct an already escalated problem later.”

Correction 23.8. 10:14 a.m.: In the article, the Swedish 4th-6th grades were mistakenly referred to as mellanskolan, when the correct term is mellanstadiet.