According to the Swedish Schools Inspectorate, several reviews and evaluations have in recent years shown shortcomings in terms of the equivalence of grades, what in the debate has been called grade inflation and joy grades.

This leads to the grades not being comparable between different schools and to students applying to upper secondary school or higher education on different terms.

 - And in high school, students realize that they do not have the knowledge that the final grade from 9 shows, says Elina Ekberg.

Shared responsibility

The responsibility for grading is shared between the school principal, principal and teacher, but the principal has the ultimate responsibility.

In a new report, the Swedish Schools Inspectorate has examined 30 school principals, both municipalities and individual school companies.

All have been selected because they are responsible for at least one school where during a five-year period there have been large discrepancies between national test grades and final grades in year 9.

The Swedish Schools Inspectorate's review shows that more than half of them need to do more to solve the problems.

Better analysis

The Swedish Schools Inspectorate is calling for better analyzes of grading to discover whether, for example, grades are set that are higher than what the students' knowledge corresponds to.

The inspectorate also wants to see more measures, including competence development, in schools where there is a lack of knowledge about grading.

Grading is difficult, but the national tests are well made and designed to be a support in grading and should weigh heavily, says Elina Ekberg.

The conclusions in the report apply to the 30 principals examined and are not intended to give a national picture.