How Sweden’s school system can regain its old strength
by Andreas Schleicher
Director, Directorate for Education and Skills
But not long after
the turn of the 21st century, the Swedish school system seems to
have lost its soul. Schools began to compete no longer just with superior
learning outcomes, but by offering their students shiny buildings in shopping
centres, or a driving license instead of better teaching. And while teachers
were giving their students better marks each year, international
comparisons portrayed a steady decline in student performance. Indeed, no other
country taking part in PISA has seen a steeper fall. School
discipline has worsened too, with students more likely to arrive late for
school than elsewhere.
And yet, Sweden has every chance to become one of the
world’s educational leaders again. Among others, it has one asset that few
other countries in the Western world offer: The firm belief of Swedes in the
power of education to transform lives, generate prosperity and promote social
inclusion. And with that comes the
unwavering commitment of Swedish citizens and policy-makers from across the
political spectrum to do whatever it takes to provide all children with the
knowledge, skills and values which they need to succeed in tomorrow’s world.
But some things are in urgent need of change. At the top of
the list is the need to raise standards and aspirations for students. The fact
that Swedish students think they are doing fine, while their learning outcomes
are average at best, underlines the need to significantly strengthen rigor,
focus and coherence in school standards. There is a similar need to seriously
review teaching methods: According to PISA the majority of math problems which
students get exposed to are tasks with relatively low cognitive demand which
teacher then try hard to make appear as real-world problems. In contrast, tasks
requiring deep conceptual understanding and complex ways of thinking are
relatively rare.
Equally important is the belief in the success of every
child. Top school systems realise that ordinary students have extraordinary
talents and they embrace diversity with differentiated instructional practices.
The fact that a majority of Swedish students in PISA believe that success in
mathematics is owed to talent rather than hard work, suggests that Sweden must try
harder to lower tolerance for failure and raise students’ sense of
responsibility for learning. When students in Singapore or Shanghai were asked
the same question, virtually all of them said that if they work hard, they
trust their teachers to support them and that they will succeed. And they do.
Sweden also needs to revert to one of the traditional
strengths of its school system: support for disadvantage. This should include
greater focus on enhancing language skills for migrant students and their
parents; high quality reception classes; assistants in the classroom; and
improved access for disadvantaged families to information about schools. And
yet, the performance challenge is not just an issue of poor kids in poor
neighborhoods, but for many kids in many neighborhoods. PISA shows that the 10%
most disadvantaged students in Shanghai easily outperform the 10% of kids from
the wealthiest Swedish families.
Nowhere does the quality of a school system exceed the
quality of its teachers. Despite high job satisfaction, only five in one hundred
Swedish teachers considered teaching a valued profession in OECD’s 2013 Survey on Teaching and Learning. Top school systems pay attention to
how they select and train their staff. They attract the right talent and they
watch how they improve the performance of teachers who are struggling. They
also provide intelligent pathways for teachers to grow in their careers. With a new career structure, Sweden has made
first steps in that direction, but a lot more needs to be done to advance from
industrial to professional forms
of work organisation in Swedish schools
that encourage teachers to use innovative pedagogies, to improve their
own performance and that of their colleagues, and to work together to frame
good practice.
Sweden also needs to do more to grow and distribute
leadership throughout the school system. School leaders and their employers
need to prioritise pedagogical leadership and encourage greater co-operation
among teachers and invest more in professional development. A publicly-funded
National Institute of Teacher and School Leader Quality would help improve
recruitment and the quality of teaching and leadership in the education system.
Sweden has significantly increased spending in education
over recent decades, but money alone will only raise education systems up to a
point. Among OECD countries there is no
longer any relationship between spending per student and the quality of
learning outcomes. In other words, two countries with similarly high
spending levels can produce very
different results. So for countries like Sweden it is not primarily about how much they spend on education, but about how they spend their resources. Whenever Sweden needs to make a choice
between a smaller class and a better teacher, it should go for the latter.
Sweden should also review how school education is funded. The current funding
mechanisms are not meeting the objectives of improving quality while
maintaining equity. There are different options Sweden can use, including
earmarked funding, defining criteria for municipalities and schools, and
student funding formulae, to ensure equity and especially consistency in school
funding across Sweden.
Perhaps the toughest challenge is to put in place a coherent
national school improvement strategy. A school system must be more than a few
thousand autonomous schools. School evaluation and accountability needs to be
strengthened so that schools, parents and teachers obtain clear and consistent
guidance as to where they stand and how they can improve. That also means that
the Swedish Schools Inspectorate should provide much more assistance to schools
to follow up on their weaknesses and to bring about a shift in culture from
administrative compliance towards responsibility for better results.
Of course, effective
policies are far easier designed than implemented. But the world provides plenty of examples of improvements in education, and there
is no time to lose. The task for the Swedish government is to help citizens
rise to this challenge. The OECD is there to help and our report Improving Schools in Sweden – An OECD Perspective highlights some
important lessons from the world for Sweden.
Links:
OECD Press release: Sweden should urgently reform its school system to improve quality and equity
Photo credit: Getty Images International, © Duncan1890
Comments