The Swedish Schools Inspectorate, which among other things assesses applications to run independent schools, says that they follow the information in the media and take the review seriously. According to Maria Wassén, the authority's regional manager for the Southern region, an investigation will be initiated.

- It is always serious if there are signals that students do not receive the values ​​conveyed to them that they are entitled to according to the Swedish curriculum.

Since 1 January 2019, the Swedish Schools Inspectorate can conduct ownership and management tests to avoid schools being run by inappropriate people.

- If there are shortcomings of a serious nature that we can verify, we will stop the schools, says Maria Wassén.

Two schools have been stopped

Since the new legislation came into place, the Swedish Schools Inspectorate has closed two schools due to violent extremism. According to Maria Wassén, the authority works actively to control those who sit in the independent schools' ownership and management circle.

- But we can not say that a certain opinion is wrong because we have freedom of opinion and expression. What we do is to actively check that students get the values ​​they are entitled to in school.

At present, Maria Wassén does not believe that there is a need to review the authority's routines. She also points out that any investigations and inspections must be done legally.

- The Swedish Schools Inspectorate is an authority and we must follow the regulations. We must be able to verify the basis for our decisions.

Heavily criticized school in the review

In total, there are just over 50 companies and organizations that have done business with the state and municipalities since 2015, according to the review. Among them is the heavily criticized Sapphire School, formerly the School of Science, which in December 2019 was closed by the Swedish Schools Inspectorate due to links to violent extremism.

Another school group, with operations in most Stockholm municipalities and some municipalities in Västmanland, has during the period done business worth more than SEK 300 million, according to Siren.