Anna Ekström (S): So we should be inspired by the countries that have better school results

Today's knowledge requirements at school have received a lot of criticism and have led to confusion among teachers, parents and students. Now they should be revised and simplified, the Minister of Education believes.

Her goal is to bring about a new reform by autumn 2020, together with the Center Party and the Liberals.

- But I will not make proposals until they are sufficiently elaborated. Teachers and students deserve well-developed knowledge requirements, she says in Aktuellt.

These criteria have been around for eight years, and the criticism from students and even teachers has been very harsh. Why has the government not changed this before?

- We have made sure that the National Agency for Education has an assignment to constantly review the syllabuses, and I think that is the most important thing, she says.

Anna Ekström believes that Sweden has had a tradition of exchanging the entire curriculum and the grading system every fifteen years. But that's something she wants to change.

- The countries that have better school results than we often work with constantly reviewing the knowledge requirements and adapting them to what works in school and what is needed in school. That way I think we should go, she says.

But the criteria have not changed in eight years and you have been in power for five years. Why hasn't this been adjusted more in the past?

- The first evaluation of the knowledge requirements and the new way of grading came in the spring of 2016. Soon after, the Swedish National Agency for Education had this opportunity to have this rolling review. We have also made sure that they do that review, Ekström says, pointing out that the January agreement was signed that the government, together with the Liberals and the Center Party, wants to ensure that the syllabuses and curricula are revised.

- I think it is very important that before we embark on such a review, we should have a good evaluation where the voices of the teachers and students will emerge, she continues.