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1 Education System

Sweden’s education minister, Jan Björklund, said the PISA results were “the final nail in the coffin for the old school reform” and speculated that the central government could take over running schools from Sweden’s municipalities. (Adams 2013)

Trust in the Swedish education system was dealt a harsh blow late 2013, when the latest PISA report comparing 15-year-olds’ achievements in education in different countries was published. Sweden scored the lowest results among the 11 countries in this report and below the OECD average in all subject areas. Further heightening anxieties, the trend reflected downward. Since the first PISA assessment in 2000, Sweden’s performance has declined the most (Skolverket 2013b, p. 8, own translation). In addition, ‘an increasing number of students in Sweden perceive school as a waste of time and feel little affinity with their school’ (ibid, p. 9) (Box 9.1).

Box 9.1: Sweden – The Basics

  • 9.6 million inhabitants

  • Capital: Stockholm

  • Constitutional monarchy

  • 21 counties

  • Social-democratic/green minority coaltion in power

Sweden scored the lowest PISA results of all countries in this study

These realities led to a big discussion in Sweden, partly about who is to blame and partly about necessary changes. The opposition leader at the time (and current prime minister) Stefan Löfven even called the results a ‘national crisis’ (Kärmann 2013). In a publication in The Economist (2013), the discussion was summarized: ‘[Education Minister] Björklund blames the poor results on the period when the Social Democrats were in charge. Others say poorly paid teachers are at fault. The profession, once highly regarded, has seen salaries fall far behind other jobs requiring a higher-education degree. The student demand for teaching programmes is so low that almost anyone applying will be accepted’ (see also IBE 2012; Regeringskansliet 2010).Footnote 1 The government immediately asked OECD researchers for an in-depth analysis of the results, which was provided in a report in February 2014 (OECD 2014). It documented that relatively many students are in schools where ‘teachers’ low expectations of students hinder learning’, Sweden has ‘the highest proportion of students who arrive late for school among OECD countries’ and that ‘students in Sweden report lower levels of perseverance to learn than students in most other countries’ (ibid, p. 18–24). All these findings are not very helpful for an excellence strategy (Box 9.2).

Box 9.2: Education in Sweden

  • Free at all levels

  • Compulsory from age 7–16

  • Integrated primary and lower secondary school in 9-year grundskola

  • Three-year upper secondary education at gymnasieskola

  • Municipalities run state system of primary and secondary education

  • Independent private friskolor exist alongside state system

  • Higher education admission based on grades, national test and other criteria

  • Ministry of Education and Research ultimately responsible for all levels of education

Discussion started about changes in the educational system, which is firmly rooted in the Nordic tradition of egalitarianism, but has undergone a big reform starting in the early 1990s. Since then, private schools (friskolor) have gained a prominent but also much-criticized position in the system (see Box 9.3; more info can also be found in Bunar 2010; Wiborg 2010; Adams 2013). In the same reform, municipalities gained a central position in primary and lower secondary education. They employ teachers, organize school activities, and are responsible for allocating resources to schools (See Helgøy and Homme 2006, p. 148Footnote 2).

Primary and lower secondary education are integrated into one school: grundskola, with nine grades.Footnote 3 All students follow the same national curriculum, with limited possibilities for schools to vary, and also limited options for children to choose subjects. The grundskola period is usually not entirely spent in one school. In grade six or seven, pupils often change to a bigger school with different teachers per subject. At the end of grundskola, almost all pupilsFootnote 4 continue in upper secondary education called gymnasieskola (see Fig. 9.1). Pupils’ academic performance, measured by gradesFootnote 5 determine if they can continue in a study program geared towards higher education preparation, or towards vocational education. Students must apply for places in upper secondary schools. In many municipalities all students will get their first choice, if they just have the passing level. Other schools have a certain amount of places available and the pupils with highest grades get in (See Orange 2011 for further explanation of this system). In upper secondary schools, students can follow different programs, but a wide range of compulsory subjects exists (see Skolverket 2013a and Eurydice 2014, chapter 6).Footnote 6 There is no central examination. Students receive a school leaving certificate (Slutbetyg från Gymnasieskolan), stating the subjects they took and the grades they received. However, national tests have been introduced in the school year 2013/14 in science in year 9 in the compulsory school, and also in social studies in years 6 and 9 (Ministry of Education and Research 2013, p. 15).

Fig. 9.1
figure 1

Structure of the Swedish education system (Eurydice 2014) see Fig. 3.1b for standardized legend

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Admission to higher education depends on upper secondary grades and a national admission testFootnote 7 that students can take voluntarily. A numerus clausus principle applies to all higher education study programs, meaning that there is a great deal of competition for seats in the most popular programs (Nuffic 2012, p. 7). One third of the seats at HEIs are usually distributed on the basis of grades and one third on results from the aptitude test. For the remaining third, universities and university colleges have the right to decide on criteria for selection, for example, prior learning and experience, proficiency in specific areas and interviews (Eurydice 2014, chapter 7.2.1). More and more Swedes apply for places in higher education and this also means more applications need to be turned down: in the 2012 autumn semester 59,800 students were admitted from 126,000 new applicants (Universitetskanslersämbetet 2013, p. 26).Footnote 8

Higher education and research in Sweden mainly takes place at 14 state universities (universitet) and 21 state university colleges (högskolor),Footnote 9 which are autonomous agencies under the auspices of the government (Ministry of Education and Research 2013, p. 8). The oldest universities in Sweden are Uppsala University, founded in 1477, and Lund University, founded in 1666.Footnote 10 The highest scoring institutes in international rankings are the universities of Uppsala and Lund, Stockholm University, and the Karolinska Institute, a medical university in the Stockholm area. In research, the universities have different excellence centres and/or excellence strategies. This does not apply to the education side, where no differentiation is made.

2 Culture and Policy Towards Excellence

No-one must believe they are special. It is improper to feel pride in oneself. These words catch the basic ethos by which individual excellence has commonly been viewed in Sweden. (Mattsson and Bengmark 2011, p. 81)

Sweden has a long tradition of focusing on equivalence and equality. The principles of the Jantelagen Footnote 11 are upheld. Striving for equity and equal opportunities is also official government policy, ‘Quality, equivalence and high accessibility are the foundations of the education system’ (Ministry of Education and Research 2013, p. 5).Footnote 12

While equivalence was and is seen as a positive factor by most Swedes (Englund 2005),Footnote 13 it is heavily criticized by scholars of gifted education, such as Jönköping university professor Roland Persson. He states about the Swedish school ‘its raison d’etre is to bring all students to a minimum level of knowledge and competence; namely the level that is considered to enable all members of society to lead well-functioning lives (…) The responsibility of the school system ends once students have reached this minimum level. Every student reaching further than the set minimum level is more or less left to fend for him- or herself by systemic default’ (Persson 2010, p. 539).Footnote 14

Researchers Mönks and Pflüger (2005, p. 137) concluded that ‘high achieving students have never been the subjects of special educational provisions’ and researchers Stålnacke and Smedler found ‘little heed is given to the high-ability group, which remains largely unidentified’ (Stålnacke and Smedler 2011, p. 901). In a 2009 European survey, Sweden ranked as the only country where ‘they reject in principle the idea of identifying pupils as “gifted’’’ (European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education 2009).Footnote 15

Advocacy for gifted education shows increase in recent years (see Mattsson and Bengmark 2011). In the new general school law in force since 2011, an implicit reference to talented students is made: ‘Students who easily reach the minimum knowledge requirements which shall be reached should be given guidance and stimulation to come further in their knowledge development’ (Skollag 2010, p. 800, chapter 3.3, translation from Mattsson 2013, p. 14). In the 2011 curriculum for the compulsory school, it explicitly states teachers should stimulate pupils to use all their abilities (Skolverket 2011, p. 16).Footnote 16 Interestingly, the word talent, which is widely used in Denmark, is not used in Sweden at all. Instead, if any references are made, they mostly have the word ‘elite’ in them (see Box 9.4).

Box 9.4: Local Terminology

The word ‘honors’ is not used in Sweden. Local terms used to refer to (programs for) talented and gifted students include:

  • spetsutbildningar (cutting edge programs or advanced placement programs, literally: peak programs)

  • begåvade barn (gifted children)/särbegåvade barn (highly gifted children)

  • elitutbildningar (elite programs)

  • elever med särskilda förmågor (students with specific abilities)

  • talangfulla elever (students with talent)

Terminology about these programs and students is a very political issue in Sweden. Programs may therefore also be marketed as ‘for those who like to be challenged’ or in similar terms.

In 2013, mathematician Linda Mattsson wrote a thesis titled ‘Tracking mathematical giftedness in an egalitarian context’, which contains a list of six elements on which development is necessary to provide successful education to mathematically gifted students. It is worth replicating these here, as they seem applicable not only to mathematics, but also to the broader Swedish education context (Mattsson 2013, p. 3–5)Footnote 17:

  • gifted students need to get legal recognition in the national policies;

  • the gifted mathematics students need to be identified;

  • introduction of gifted education during the Swedish teacher education;

  • a need to strengthen the connection between research and implementation of gifted education;

  • a need for coordinating measures for development of gifted students; and

  • attend to the social and emotional needs of gifted students.

This list may seem basic at first sight, but it provides a snapshot into the current state of affairs in Sweden.

Still, in recent years more focus has been placed on talented children, usually without naming them as such. This trend follows the developments around the free schools, which has led to more choice for parents and more public debate about the education system.

For talented children, there are a few possibilities for early start and acceleration.Footnote 18 In 2008, a law was passed that allowed a number of gymnasieskola to experiment with a special program for high-achieving students in a number of subjects. Students taking part can follow part of their education at a university or university college. These are officially called spetsutbildningar (SPETS, literally: peak programs), but are also referred to as elitutbildningar (elite programs) in the media or in everyday talk. This pilot project runs until 2016 (Skolverket 2013d). The program strives to ‘provide students from across the country the opportunity of depth and width in the discipline or in the subject area in which SPETS is directed. The subject areas of SPETS are mathematics, science, the social sciences and the humanities’.Footnote 19

Since 2011, similar programs are also possible in grundskolan. The aim is to provide pupils with ‘the opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills as far as possible, for example, by starting to study upper secondary school courses while in the compulsory school’ (Ministry of Education and Research 2013, p. 15).Footnote 20

Evaluations have been done on a few aspects of some of these programs. But according to Mattsson (2013, p. 5–6), ‘nowhere in these evaluations are the “most important conceptual foundations of a gifted program” discussed; that is, “the theory of giftedness that undergirds the program”’.Footnote 21

In addition to the spetsutbildningar policy, top programs exist in arts, for example ballet (Box 9.5).Footnote 22

Box 9.5: Key Players in Excellence

No national coordination of efforts in the in the field of talent and excellence in education exists in Sweden. The most important players are:

  • Ministry of Education and Research

  • The Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket) – central administrative authority for the public school system

  • Swedish Council for Higher Education (Universitets- och högskolerådet)

  • Swedish Higher Education Authority (Universitetskanslersämbetet)

  • Association of Higher Education Institutions

  • Individual researchers on talent and giftedness, most notably Roland Persson

The system of friskolor, described in Box 9.3, has led to a situation where a number of these schools refuse to take weaker pupils (Sandelin 2013) and some become de facto schools for extra talented youngsters because they use very high entry grades (see Orange 2011).Footnote 23 However, the schools do not use terms like ‘gifted’ or ‘talent’. Some universities have programs in which they cooperate with secondary schools, but these programs do not explicitly target talents. Overall, the Swedish tendency not to use words like ‘talent’ or ‘giftedness’ makes it hard to identify programs.

A specific policy targeting talented students in higher education was not found. Again, this might be due to the difficulties in use of terminology. However, there is explicit policy not to differentiate. Sweden was the only country in a survey of 24 European countries that chose ‘not to categorize pupils according to different abilities or disabilities’ (European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education 2009, p. 22).Footnote 24 According to Roland Persson, this represents a deliberate political choice: ‘It might be good to know that the terms giftedness or talent are almost never used. In connection with the [spetsutbildningar program], pupils are not even referred to as high achieving. They are referred to as “Pupils who like to be challenged” – this is a very political and intentional choice of word. (…) The politicians of the knowledge economy desperately want high ability in terms of innovation potential, but they cannot term it “giftedness”. The only reason is that “giftedness” is a word signifying the segregation of ability and potential. No politician would gain any public confidence if they promoted policies for special groups and discussed them as in any way better or different than other groups no matter how factually correct the issue at hand. So fact stands against strategy. This is presumably the case everywhere in Europe and elsewhere, but it is particularly sensitive in egalitarian cultures such as the Scandinavian’.Footnote 25

3 New Developments

Three interconnected developments may be an incentive to change the Swedish approach towards excellence in education in the near future.

First, in the last few years, more discussion about the needs of highly gifted children has appeared in Swedish media. Researchers, especially in mathematics education and psychology, have published about the merits of gifted education and participated in discussions.Footnote 26

Second, discussion intensified after the bad PISA results were announced in late 2013 (see Sect. 9.1 above). They came as a shock to many observers in- and outside politics. Since then, debate has focused on the effectiveness of the current education system. In late March 2014, the government set up an ‘education scientific council’, consisting of 12 professors from different fields, to act as consultants to the government in school matters (Regeringskansliet 2014). In September 2014, just before the national parliamentary elections, the government announced a new policy, requiring the development of special teaching materials for talented pupils in primary and secondary education (Regeringen 2014). However, the ruling coalition lost its majority in the elections and at the time of writing, it is unclear what this will mean for the talent policy.

Finally, researchers interested in talent support and excellence in education in the Nordic countries started the Nordic Talent Network in 2013. Swedish researchers take part in this initiative. Dr. Linda Mattsson at the Blekinge Institute of Technology establishes a national mathematics network to support identification of and development of mathematical giftedness, funded by the influential National Center for Mathematics Education.Footnote 27 Besides, she also tries to set up a national e-mail list in order to reach out to all persons interested in the field of gifted education in Sweden (across all education levels). She intends to create a national network to share experiences and knowledge. In the light of all developments above, these initiatives might form a platform for lobbying and a discussion partner for politicians.

4 Honors Programs per Higher Education Institution

No honors programs at Swedish higher education institutions have been found. Some Swedish universities do take part in the Nordic Master Programme, Erasmus Mundus programs or other networks of international cooperation for talented students. Table 9.1 presents an overview of the higher education institutions in Sweden, ranked by student numbers.Footnote 28

Table 9.1 Universities and university colleges in Sweden
Full size table

Some Swedish HEIs offer provisions to talented students on an individual basis. For example, at the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences (GIH), a special scholarship is available to talented students.Footnote 29

At the medical university Karolinska Institutet, a special program prepares students for research careers. The program’s mission is not to offer extra opportunities to talented students, but to ‘stimulate recruitment for graduate studies among medical students’.Footnote 30 To this end, an introductory research course for medical students runs parallel with the regular medical study program. The course “Research Introductory Course for Medical Students” is divided into two courses over five semesters and also includes two summer projects.Footnote 31 The number of student places is limited to 25 and admission is based on research interest and a motivation letter.

Little development in honors education in Sweden is seen, however, there might be change on the way following the results of the 2012 PISA report.

How is the situation in a country that usually does very well in PISA reports? Finland is the focus of our next chapter.

Box 9.3: Free Schools and Education for Profit

Apart from the government-supported ‘state’ schools, independent schools generally known as free schools or friskolor are also available since the early 1990s. A law reform allowed privately-run institutions to apply for state funding for each student, provided they also stick to the national curriculum and are also free and open to all. If parents decide to opt for another school than the nearest grundskola, they receive a voucher representing an amount of money their children can take with them to another school.

Since the introduction of this system, there have been clear tendencies towards a marketization of education funding. Some of the friskolor are run by private companies, which is controversial and has led to intense debate. Although actual effects are unclear, critics say the principle of profit-seeking by definition puts quality at risk. In 2013 a number of for-profit companies running free schools have been in financial difficulties and some in fact went bankrupt. The state had to step in to find a solution for the students. Another discussion ensued when a TV program revealed that ‘privately-run schools were prepared to bend selection rules [for gymnasieskola] to admit bright pupils’. This critique, combined with the worrying PISA results, has led the government to indicate in late 2013 that ‘private-equity funds will no longer be welcome owners’. At the time of writing, no measures to change the system had been taken yet.