S-politician on criticized preschool motion: "Misunderstanding"

It was on the fifth of October this year that the motion for an "open, compulsory and fee-free preschool" was submitted to the Riksdag.

Behind it stood eleven Social Democrats from different parts of the country.

The motion states, among other things, that they want to "review the possibility" of making preschool compulsory from the age of two.

Today, there are no such requirements - it is only when compulsory schooling begins to apply at the age of six that children have a statutory obligation to attend school.

Madeleine Lidman, a moderate leisure politician in Solna, started a petition to protest against the proposal for a compulsory preschool.

She says that many became very upset when they heard about the exercise.

- Parents have been desperate.

Even parents who have children in preschool from 12 months also do not think that you should force others to do the same thing, she says.

Responds to criticism

Anna Wallentheim, Social Democratic Member of Parliament and high school teacher, is one of the authors of the motion.

She now tells SVT that the motion has been misunderstood.

- I understand that it can be misinterpreted.

It is pointed.

What we want is to raise the preschool in the debate, on the political agenda, she says.

But do you want compulsory preschool from the age of two?

- What we mean is that you need to research and investigate more about preschool than we do today.

So you back away from the proposal?

- No, we are behind the exercise.

But these are not sharp proposals.

And there are also no sharp proposals from the government, says Anna Wallentheim.

Minister: More children should go to preschool

Minister of Education Anna Ekström says in a written comment to SVT that the government has no plans whatsoever to introduce compulsory preschool from the age of two, but says that she thinks that more children should go to preschool.

"Studies show that children who have attended a high-quality preschool succeed better in school," she says, adding:

- This especially applies to newly arrived children or children with tough upbringing conditions.

Anna Ekström further states that the government has therefore commissioned a special investigator to submit proposals aimed at increasing participation in preschool for girls and boys aged 3–5 years, an inquiry that will shortly present its proposals.