From grundskolan to gymnasium: Education reform in Sweden Available to Purchase

Until recently in Sweden there were seven years of compulsory schooling, commencing at the age of six, with opportunities for a voluntary additional year. There was also a somewhat complicated system of voluntary secondary education in general, technical or commercial gymnasia. As long ago as 1948 a special committee made recommendations for reform and 1949 saw the introduction of experimental nine‐year schools in various parts of the country. By 1962 these had been so widely established that half the children of Sweden were attending them. In the latter year a new education act made nine years of education compulsory for all children from the age of six and, on the basis of what had been learned in 14 years from the experimental schools, established a new school structure. The compulsory school is sometimes referred to in English writings as the comprehensive school, but since it is both primary and lower secondary it is better called by its Swedish name, the ground school (grundskolan). Extension of compulsory schooling is being introduced gradually and will not be completely established until the academic year 1972–73. A simplified system of gymnasium (higher secondary school) education is also being introduced. The extension and reorganization of compulsory education is partly an attempt to provide a firmer foundation for further education and to make possible a reorganization of the latter. The ground school, therefore, is divided into three departments, each covering three years of school life. In the lower department the foundations of learning are laid, with basic studies in Swedish, arithmetic, religion, local history, music and gymnastics, with handicraft introduced in the third year. In the middle department English is commenced, as being an accepted lingua franca, essential to a small nation if commerce and industry are to be developed. Boys and girls alike receive tuition in textiles, woodwork, and metalwork, with domestic science in the sixth year.