The new Pirls survey shows that the reading ability of Swedish ten-year-olds has deteriorated since the last survey five years ago. This also applies to the Nordic countries and the OECD average. The study is aimed at students in year 4 worldwide and is conducted every five years.
For Sweden, it is a loss of eleven points. The deterioration is seen most clearly among students with poor resources.
Education Minister Lotta Edholm is concerned about the results of the survey, saying “The study shows that we have a reading crisis in Sweden, above all for the resource-poor students who perform significantly worse.” She now wants the school to go back to the basics and focus more on reading.
The percentage of students who performed below or at a low level has increased from 12 percentage points to 19 percentage points. “If this trend continues, we risk a generation of functional illiterates in Sweden. We have to take this very seriously,” she says.
Lotta Edholm wants to reform the governing document for teacher education to bring in more reading and writing. She also wants more students to receive support earlier, something researchers and teachers have emphasized for years.
In order to reverse the development with the large gap between resource-poor and strong students, Edholm says “It is through a good school that segregation can be achieved in the long term.” She also wants more professionally designed books and less online searching for information.
The deteriorated result is an indication of the pandemic, according to Edholm, but she also points out that it is due to digital teaching aids pushing physical books aside. The Minister of Education is now setting up an investigation that will give principals greater powers to relocate students and create peace in classes.
The Minister of Education also wants social services to provide more support for students who have high absenteeism.
