In the new syllabus developed for compulsory school, the National Agency for Education proposes that the history of antiquity be removed from secondary education. This was announced by the National Agency for Education on Thursday, and Anna Westerholm, head of the curriculum department, has been hot about her ears ever since.
"Totally overloaded history topic"One of several critical voices is Jenny Wallensten, a researcher in ancient culture and social sciences at the Swedish Institute in Athens.
"If you have no knowledge of the ancient, you can have no respect for the future either," she told Svenska Dagbladet.
Anna Westerholm is not surprised.
- The criticism was expected. We were not in any way surprised. But we have a totally overloaded history topic. There is a great deal to be accomplished in just 75 hours throughout high school, she says.
Why is history more congested than other topics?
- It is a very popular topic and a very important topic in the time we live in. They have simply been put in one after the other. There is such a pressure to bring things to school but very few ideas about what one would need to remove.
"Like choosing between plague and cholera"One of the consequences, according to Anna Westerholm, is that it is often the post-war period that is allowed to strike. But those who are critical of the Swedish National Agency's proposal have questioned why the post-war period would be more important than antiquity.
- It's like choosing between plague and cholera. But one of the purposes of teaching is history consciousness, to understand how earlier eras affect the present, and then the post-war period is very, very important. So from that perspective, it is somewhat more important than, for example, ancient civilizations. This does not mean that we think they are unimportant. But if all goes well, you have to give this topic more hours.
The National Agency for Education's proposals will be made available for referral and in mid-December, the Directorate General of the National Agency for Education will submit a final proposal for the Government to take a position on.