DN Debate. S self-critical review of skolpolitiken is an example.

Last year sounded the then gymnasieministern Anna Ekström and LO president Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson announce that the social democrats have reason to be self-critical of parts of the school policy they have brought in recent decades. They said that they do not have sufficiently stressed the importance of the study environment, subject knowledge and the teacher's role as kunskapsförmedlande authority in the school.

It was a welcome announcement. In the quest to create an equal society is a high-class kunskapsskola crucial. When a school is failing its kunskapsförmedlande mission is the students ' home environment, which will have a crucial impact on how long they can take.

Ekström has thus a unique chance to apply their self-criticism into concrete action. In what has come to be known as januariavtalet found wordings that shows on the ambitious goals as regards the re-establishment of Sweden as a knowledge nation. The goal is to improve school performance, strengthen studieron in the classroom and creating more equivalence in the school system.

Despite the fact that it has been more than a quarter of a century ago friskolereformen was carried out we have not seen the promised kvalitetsförbättringarna or cost efficiency initiatives.

We are convinced that there are good goals, but there are several parts of the skolpolitiken in the agreement concluded between the governing parties and the liberal parties, which threaten to stand in the way of a successful reversal of the current skolpolitiken.

first, it contains the agreement to a writing that the curriculum ”shall be revised in order to strengthen the emphasis on knowledge and factual knowledge”. It is commendable, because the current curriculum focuses too much on skills and too little on knowledge of the subject. Also the requirements have been criticized for being too abstract. The problem is that you hand over the assignment to improve the curricula to the national agency for Education, despite the fact that it is precisely the authority which is behind several of the issues that the agreement addresses.

1 We believe that a more effective way to improve the school's documents would be to put together committees of experts with a mandate to develop proposals on how the emphasis on subject knowledge in the curriculum can become more prominent. in Order to facilitate the work of the should international expertise be engaged. In both the Uk and the USA, there are many qualified researchers who are specialized in designing so-called ”knowledge-rich curricula”. To give the agency the exclusive right to change these important documents is no accessible route.

the effort to strengthen studieron in the school will in agreement to the expression by, for example, a write operation to simplify the suspension of students who ”threatened or subjected to other violence”. Unfortunately, the risk measure to be toothless, because it is not law as of the day seems to be the main reason that principals do not take disciplinary measures. Nine out of ten principals report that they know their powers. Instead, it is about that many school principals simply do not believe that it is desirable with disciplinary measures, such as detention and suspension.

In a survey, it transpires that they prefer ”conversation, support and prevention work”. Even if it of course can be good, it is hardly enough, given the increasing number of complaints of violence in the school.

2 to get through their willingness, the government should instead go forward with a proposal to make it compulsory for principals to take disciplinary action when breaches of the law or repeated violations of school rules. the Requirement for pupils to be with and develop a code of conduct should also be abolished.

3 to enable the intention to re-establish the importance of the kunskapsförmedlande the teacher, it is also crucial that teacher education is strengthened. That there are several requirements for the reform of education in the agreement is not enough, then it already has been reformed several times over the last few decades without success.

in Order to really create teacher education where prospective teachers learn effective teaching methods is more needed than a reform. What is needed instead is a completely new teacher training for students who already possess the facts and data, training programs that only extends over one or two semesters. Such training courses will equip aspiring teachers with modern cognitive science, the practical methodology and basic knowledge of assessment and grading. In order to avoid a repetition of past mistakes should, therefore, not the educational institutions involved in the design of the new teacher training.

4 , Last but not least, the relevant regulations must be adapted to the school today is a kvasimarknad with a variety of competing actors and forms of organization. Despite the fact that it has been more than a quarter of a century ago friskolereformen was carried out we have not seen the promised kvalitetsförbättringarna or cost efficiency initiatives.

The Swedish model of school choice, and different providers – including for-profit company requires that the curricula and school authorities both affirms that knowledge can be measured and are prepared to determine what should be measured. Today, there is not a defined system for this, which should be something that concerns all parties in the agreement.

All the reforms, however, risks becoming toothless unless the emergency lärarbristen be addressed. Although it is not the lack of tens of thousands of teachers in the agreement. More lönesatsningar not solve the problem. First, there is no money for this, and partly due lärarbristen in the first place on the unattractive working conditions.

, but a proposal that all parties (and also, they both lärarfacken) should take into account seriously is a reintroduction of the so-called undervisningsskyldigheten, USK. The regulated teachers ' instructional time before it was taken away in the year 1995, which proved to be a huge mistake.

today, employers can impose on teachers, in principle, how many of the lessons at any time. On top of this is added then the demanding mentorsuppdraget, in which included in many cases very extensive communication with the parents and the management of pupils ' social problems. This overload of the service content inhibits both the quality of teaching and the cause of great mental ill-health among the teaching staff.

at the same time, it is clear that action is required to reverse the Swedish school's development, which is the minister of education responsibility. Correspondingly, the long-awaited review of its school policy should be seen as a good example. Now, the more parties swallow their pride and re-examine their policies to enable long-term and blocköverskridande collaborations in the school campus.

We are convinced that a deflection of the Swedish skolpolitiken in the way we have featured in this article is the single most important measure in the long term, to break the current development in terms of inequality, segregation and exclusion.