2024
Removing the requirement for digital learning tools in preschool
Increasing the reading ability of children and young people is a priority issue for the Government. Efforts are being made to reduce screen time and increase the number of books in preschools and schools. Now the government is taking a further step and instructing the Swedish National Agency for Education to propose changes to the preschool curriculum, which means that the education should essentially be screen-free for the children.
For more information (in Swedish)
More books for preschools and schools
Children and students must have proper access to books, and the Government has therefore established a new state grant for the purchase of fiction and non-fiction literature. Swedish pupils' reading comprehension is falling and over 20 percent in primary school cannot read properly. To reverse this, many efforts are needed, one of them is more books in preschools and schools.
SEK 176 million (around 15 million EUR) is set aside for the state grant in 2024 for preschool, preschool class and lower levels of compulsory school. It is estimated that this corresponds to approximately 880,000 books in total.
For more information (in Swedish)
2023
Better support for children and pupils with neuropsychiatric disabilities
Children with some form of neuropsychiatric disability may be at greater risk of failing at school than other students. The Government is now giving assignments to the Swedish National Agency for Education and the National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools (SPSM) to strengthen support for children and pupils with neuropsychiatric disability.
The National Education Agency and SPSM are tasked with carrying out continuing education in special pedagogy for teachers in preschool and compulsory school and other staff involved in teaching. The government is now changing the assignment to the authorities in the authorities' regulation letter, so that they must strengthen the content of the continuing education regarding support for children and pupils with neuropsychiatric disabilities. The aim is to strengthen support for children and pupils with neuropsychiatric disabilities.
The supplementary content must be offered to the target groups for continuing education starting with the 2024/2025 training round. The assignment must be finalized by 16 October 2025 at the latest.
For more information (in Swedish)
A reduced administrative burden for teachers in preschool and compulsory school
A special investigator will review the administrative duties of for teachers in pre-school and compulsory school and submit proposals to reduce the administrative burden. The purpose is to free up time that teachers in pre-school and compulsory school can spend on planning and conducting teaching.
The investigator will e.g. identify the type of administrative and other tasks preschool teachers and teachers in the school system perform which means that time is taken from the teaching and tasks that belong to the teaching; identify whether these administrative and other tasks are created at state, principal or school unit level; propose measures to reduce teachers' administrative tasks and other tasks so that they are given more time for teaching and tasks related to teaching.
For more information (in Swedish)
Extended state subsidy to reduce the size of the child groups in preschools
The Government changes the regulations for the state grant for quality-enhancing measures within the preschool. The grant to reduce the size of child groups can also be used to hire more staff or to develop skills for staff. The purpose is for the grant to be adapted to local needs.
The Parliament has decided to add SEK 800 million to the state grant for quality-enhancing measures within preschool for 2023. The state grant totals approximately SEK 2.8 billion. The grant is divided into two grant frames, a portion of SEK 800 million is solely intended to reduce the size of the child groups. Remaining funds can be used to reduce the size of the child group, to retain or recruit staff and to develop skills for preschool teachers and other staff.
The new regulations mean that the entire grant can be used for all three parts and that it is the municipalities (or heads of the grant-aided independent schools) themselves who can decide how the grant can best be used to increase the quality of the preschool.
The Swedish National Agency for Education is tasked with following up and evaluating the use of the state grant.
For more information in Swedish
The government invests in continuing education to deal with the lack of teaching staff
The lack of preschool teachers and teachers in Swedish preschools and schools is a big problem, and continuing education is one of several important measures to deal with it. The government is now taking a holistic approach to continuing education for pre-school teachers and teachers and is introducing the new continuing education grant that will give more people the chance for broader and deeper teaching competence.
For year 2023, SEK 673 million has been set aside for the various continuing education initiatives. The government is particularly investing in more teachers training to become special education teachers and therefore allocated in the budget bill for 2023 an additional SEK 200 million annually up to and including 2025 for continuing education for special education teachers.
The new continuing education grant replaces the five different state grants that currently exist for continuing education. The continuing education grant has a higher grant level for most courses and means an opportunity for the municipality to, in consultation with the teacher or preschool teacher, choose which of two formats is best suited based on local needs.
- A salary-based grant which assumes that the teacher or pre-school teacher is allowed to reduce working hours while they are studying.
- A study-based grant based on the number of higher education credits the teacher or preschool teacher must study. For this grant, it is not mandatory that the teacher or preschool teacher has reduced working hours.
Another novelty is the possibility for municipalities to use a certain part of the study-based grant as a salary supplement, a so-called study grant, for those who attend continuing education. It is also regulated that teachers and pre-school teachers in schools with particularly difficult conditions must have priority for the new continuing education grant.
The new continuing education grant will be able to be applied for for the first time for studies that begin in the fall of 2023.
For more information in Swedish
2022
Preschool for more children
In a government bill, the Swedish government submits proposals aimed at increasing participation in preschool, which has positive effects both for children's development and learning and for society.
It is proposed that each home municipality should be obliged to contact guardians of the children who do not have a place in the preschool through outreach activities and inform about the purpose of the preschool and the child's right to preschool. The first contact must be made before the autumn of the year the child turns three and, if the child does not start preschool, annually before each autumn and spring until the spring of the year the child turns six.
Furthermore, it is proposed that it will be mandatory for the home municipality to offer preschool to children who have lived in Sweden for a short time or who have guardians who have lived in Sweden for a short time. These children must be provided with a reserved preschool place even without the guardians having notified the request. Such an offer must be given from the autumn of the year the child turns three years old. Municipalities must also strive to provide such an offer of a preschool place to other children who need preschool for better language development in Swedish. The offer must be submitted to the child's guardian no later than three months before the date the child can be received. A new offer of a place must be submitted before each autumn the child does not have a place in preschool until the year when the child turns five.
The bill proposes the necessary amendments to the Education Act (2010: 800). The amendments to the law are proposed to enter into force on 1 July 2022 and are applied for the first time in the case of education that begins after 1 July 2023.