Swedish schools inspector says Swedish model favoured by Tories has not worked

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

The Conservatives like the Swedish schools model so much, they’ve copied it and included it in their draft manifesto.

Michael Gove has repeatedly advocated the Swedish model, saying:

“We have seen the future in Sweden and it works…After 15 years, 900 new schools have been created and standards have been driven up. If it can work there it can work here.”

But last night, the head of Sweden’s independent national education agency – the Swedish equivalent of Ofsted – revealed that their school reforms have led to falling standards and rising segregation.

Speaking to Newsnight, Per Thullberg, general director of Skolverket, said that although students in the new schools may have better standards, it is because “they come from well-educated families”:

Watch the full Newsnight report here:

Michael Gove also claimed last night that Sweden had not seen rising segregation, but the Swedish version of Ofsted disagrees. In 2006, he said:

“Around half of the municipalities do not consider that the establishment of independent schools has led to increased segregation of the municipality’s pupils and around a third answered that this had led to increased segregation “to quite a small extent”. Almost 10% consider that increased segregation occurred “to quite a large extent” or “to a very large extent” as a result of independent schools being set up in the municipality.”

Some Tory councillors also have reservations about the Tory schools plans. Paul Carter, the Conservative leader of Kent County Council said recently:

“I’ve got enormous reservations. I’d like to talk about some of the consequences of freeing up too far. We have a duty to educate all children and if schools are going off randomly, setting out different standards, different rules and regulations, it’s very very difficult to have a coherent education system in a town, in a county the size and scale of Kent.”

Over the last 15 years Sweden has plummeted to the bottom of international league tables in maths and science. The recent international Trends in International Maths and Science Study (TIMSS) shows England was ranked several places higher than Sweden in both maths and science. In addition, between the last TIMSS report in 1995 and the most recent one conducted in 2007, the average score for Sweden went down in both subjects while scores for England went up in both subjects. In science, Sweden saw the biggest drop of any country in the study, while in maths Sweden saw the second largest drop after Bulgaria.

Labour’s schools secretary Ed Balls commented this afternoon that:

“The truth which the Tories hoped to brush under the carpet is now out. Michael Gove says he’s seen the future of schools policy in Sweden and he believes it works, but the independent head of Sweden’s Ofsted says it doesn’t. David Cameron and Michael Gove are not just ignoring the concerns leading Tory councillors have voiced in recent weeks, but are now trying to airbrush out of the picture all the evidence from Sweden about higher costs, falling standards and rising segregation.”

Last month, Ed Balls told me:

“In terms of the Swedish model, we should be careful on the judgement and the evidence of what has happened in Sweden. In Sweden all of the local groups setting up schools are doing so as profit-making organisations. They reduce standards for teacher entry, and the evidence is that they haven’t raised standards in schools – if anything they’ve led to greater difference in results depending on the income of the community, to less fairer outcomes rather than more.“

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