At last, perhaps there will be grades in primary school!

The last general election in Sweden gave the country a new government, the Centre-Right Alliance. One of their major issues before the general election was education. They wanted to reform school because they thought the Swedish school was a muddled one, thanks to the Socialist government that has been in Sweden for many years. As soon as they got elected they started to change things in school, among other things they decided that parents have the right to receive written reports of their children’s academic progress, each semester from 1st degree. These written reports may look like grades. That’s up to every school to decide. New for this academic year are goals that students should have attained in the third degree in Swedish and mathematics and there are also national tests in these subjects. One proposal is that school student will receive grades in 6th grade but there has been no decision about it yet. I say; thank God for this proposal and I really hope that the Parliamentary will say yes to it.

First of all, the Swedish Curriculum and Syllabuses for compulsory school are based on goals. There are two kinds of goals, goals to aim for and goals that pupils should have attained by the end of the fifth and ninth year in school. These goals have teachers not been very good to talk about earlier. Neither the children nor their parents have had knowledge about them, or very little, despite that we have had this Curriculum since 1994. If the politics decide that there will be grades from 6th degree (and I hope so) it will force teachers to clarify the goals to parents and children, the goals then the grades are based on. Since schools now have national tests in the third degree it contributes to the effort to clarify the goals must start early, already in 1st degree. I have seen these tests and I have also experience from national tests in the 5th degree and I can tell you that the tests from third degree are much more detailed then the tests in the 5th degree and my belief is that when we have a new curriculum it will be much more detailed compared to the one we have today.

On the other hand I believe that grades also help students who are in need of special support. If a student may fail getting his or hers grades, the teacher must notify the parents and put into action all the way to help the student in getting his/hers grades. My experience of this is that school often wait far too long before students get extra help, in fact there are studies which shows this. School believes that students will be mature in their individual pace when in fact, for many students, there isn’t a maturity issue but a learning difficulty.

In fact, investigations shows that students wish to have grades earlier than today and that is another aspect why I want grades in earlier degrees. Furthermore, I think that students want grades earlier because then they will become aware of the goals they are supposed to study to. They think no different than grown ups on this issue. If you don’t know why you are doing what you are doing then it’s very likely that you feel confused which doesn’t facilitate knowledge learning.

However there are other methods which already today help teachers to clarify student’s academically progress. I have already mentioned the written report but there is also a document that each student should have, not just the students who are in need of special support. This document is called IUP (individual development plan). According to me, all methods which clarify students´ learning are good but despite that I’m convinced that grades in 6th degree will support students´ development better, because grades have a greater value comparing to other methods.

Finally, I believe we should ask ourselves the question, why we have schools? Is it not in order for students to learn?