Lack of premises and equipment, scheduling clashes and internships that do not measure up. SVT's investigation shows that the Thoren Group has failed to give students the education they are entitled to under Swedish law.
"Students have the right to a good education and I cannot stress enough how actively we work with supervision to ensure that it does not look like this," says Helén Ängmo, Director General of the Swedish Schools Inspectorate.
Unable to act sufficiently
In the supervisory reports from the Swedish Schools Inspectorate that SVT has taken part of, it appears that the problems in some of the Thoren Group's upper secondary schools have been recurring, even after the schools have been placed to remedy the shortcomings.
The agency has not previously had a mandate to act strongly enough on recurring problems, according to Helén Ängmo.
"If we have seen a deficiency and a school has corrected it, we must close the case. If there is a shortage again, you have to start a new case, says Helén Ängmo.
Change has taken place
The Swedish Schools Inspectorate called for stronger legislation to overcome the problem, which has also happened. Now the authority has the opportunity to close schools if deficiencies recur within two years.
"Now we have a stronger mandate and we must be able to try that first," says Helén Ängmo, emphasizing that it is about what they can do in general.
She points out that the Swedish Schools Inspectorate has had good opportunities to handle individual situations and there have been regular inspections and unannounced visits to the Group's schools. There have also been corrections from the Thoren Group in connection with these.