The old syllabuses are revised to improve the quality of teaching and grading easier. But the National Agency for Education also wants to make changes in the content of the school subjects, and as part of this, the teaching on the history of antiquity disappears. This is reported by Svenska Dagbladet.
- We have done a fairly thorough examination of how content and hours match, and we know that the subject of history must carry too much. You have squeezed in too much. The hours are not enough, says Anna Westerholm, head of the Swedish National Agency for Education's curriculum department, to the newspaper.
The topic "ancient civilizations, from prehistoric times to about 1700" is taught today at the high school, but it disappears completely when the new syllabus comes into force. The reason is that the teaching hours are too few in relation to the amount of knowledge to be taught. Instead, more time should be given to post-war teaching.
Several historians criticize the decision on the grounds that knowledge of the past is needed to understand both later history and the present.
- If you have no knowledge of the ancient, you can have no respect for the future either, says Jenny Wallensten, researcher in ancient culture and social science at the Swedish Institute in Athens.