Minister proposes elite high school classes
Published: 17 Aug 10 13:55 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/28418/20100817/
Sweden's education minister Jan Björklund on Tuesday proposed the establishment of elite high school classes to enable select pupils to pursue upper secondary classes and the study of a chosen subject in depth.
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The classes are designed to allow talented pupils a freer hand to study as many upper secondary school (gymnasium) courses as they can, in advance.
If the proposal is passed into law the classes will be established from the autumn term 2012.
Björklund underlined at a press conference announcing the plan that entrance examinations are of core importance - well-educated middle class parents will not be allowed to use their contacts and persuasion to secure a place for their child, it should be the pupil's talent alone which decides, he said.
The minister conceded on Tuesday that in fact the elite classes are nothing new and already exist within subjects such as music and sport.
"I don't understand why it should be taboo to also have specialised education for talented pupils in academic subjects in high school."
Björklund blamed the previous Social Democratic government for perpetuating the Jante Law within Swedish education, referring to the generally applied sociological term to negatively describe an attitude towards individuality and success.
"We have had a Social Democratic Jante Law casting a shadow for decades over initiatives such as this within Swedish schools policy. It is a Jante Law that we want to leave behind us," Jan Björklund said.
The Swedish compulsory schooling system consists of nine academic years from the age of around 7-years-old. The nine years are divided into three blocks of entitled low, middle and high "stadium" and are followed by a three year upper secondary education which is not compulsory and typically offers more specialisation.
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just go and study applied physics at uni, or do two studies at the same time, before that; enjoy your childhood. The smart ones have enough interests outside school to keep them challenged.
What is the problem here anyway? Does sweden think they have a not so highly educated population? Most countries would be jealous.
Nowadays every parent thinks their chilc is a prodigy......will get busy in the admissions office of such a new elite school. :)
Embracing the individual and aiming for sucess are the ways in which new ideas and concepts are formed, the way people evolve and the way a country progresses.
Swedes have been brainwashed for far too long into believing that it's a bad thing to want something more out of life than what if spoon-fed to them by their government.
For example, my nephews in upstate NY went to a regular high school but attended "advanced" math courses at a local college. When I was a teacher, our school received funding to launch a "gifted and talented" program, which meant that kids who had varying disabilities could participate, if, for example, they were talented muscians, artists, athletes, etc. The word "elite" never crossed our lips.
If you have contact we swedish student you will find that they lack the basic knowledge because of to much independent studies and not enough core classes.
They should focus on basic education instead as even swedish studies have shown student today know less than from 5 years ago.
This is really strange that we using outsider doctors and engineers as taxi driver, and finding quality with creating elite class student.Why not we use resource that we have already. Proper use of resource will make a good balance in system.
It's not about ELITE...
It's not about SELECT PUPILS...
It is about creating an environment for the gifted and talented students to be challenged to their fullest--so they don't leave the country due to the "lagom" nature of the school system within which the fast kids are told to wait until the slow kids catch up, where parents and educators say "it's good enough" rather than "strive to excel" and "dare to be different".......
What's wrong with challenging smart kids?????
Thank you Jan Björklund--you have my vote.
Shame on you The Local--you could have done a better job. I have 2 children in the system. It is good but it could be so much better with just a little tweaking such as the proposal put forth. It is not about elite education--it is about better education. Report this stuff honestly next time!
And shame on you S party--all you do is keep coming up with lamebrain ideas like Butlers in the Subways instead of ideas for improving the schools.
Yesterday we saw a plan for seperate lower paid jobs for immigrants.
Today it's a seperate education plan for the more gifted ones......
Not criticising,..only asking.
"Equal opportunity" should be the standard. Anybody who wants to work/study hard should be encourage to do so and advance in what they love. Forced equality is the wrong way. We are all different with varying degrees of knowlege and motivation.
"Generally used colloquially as a sociological term to negatively describe an attitude towards individuality and success claimed to be common in Scandinavia, it refers to a supposed snide, jealous and narrow small-town mentality which refuses to acknowledge individual effort and places all emphasis on the collective, while punishing those who stand out as achievers." (Wikipedia)
This is sad, real sad, this "Jante Law." Suppression of achievement is just so sickening to me that I pray that it will be abolished soon in Sweden.
I just did a wiki search on the jante law thing, these are apparently the ten laws:
The ten rules state:
Don't think that you are special.
Don't think that you are of the same standing as others.
Don't think that you are smarter than others.
Don't fancy yourself as being better than others.
Don't think that you know more than others.
Don't think that you are more important than others.
Don't think that you are good at anything.
Don't laugh at others.
Don't think that any one of us cares about you.
Don't think that you can teach others anything.
It like something from the breaking down bit of a bad brainwashing movie.
This is not a liberal idea, it is just more socialism.
A truly liberal educational system gives everyone equal opportunities to become the elite regardless what the subject matter is. It gives everyone an equal share of the educational resources. It treats each individual child as unique without judging or condemning anyone to fall behind. It does not bundle everyone into the same class because they are black or white or because they were born the same year. It lets every child experience the wealth of knowledge we as humans have gathered for millenia and it lets each child traverse the educational pyramid at their own speed and leisure, coached not only by teachers but most importantly by parents who care about the child rather than just looking forward to keep their offspring in containers called dagis, preschool or "school"...just so that they can go off and work to pay bills.
There is nothing liberal about folkpartiet. It is a socialistic planning economy friendly party and this is another step in that direction. Just like Sabuni they will not stop until the whole country is in ruins. And don't get me started on the other lot, they are even worse.
It would be in favour if it would be the case that each kommun gets at least one elite class - but this was not the way it wooked out with the 'elite' gymnasiet classes - We were promised that the elite gymnasiets would give the gifted opportunities - but only 8 or 10 kommuns out of 290 were given the go ahead in the whole of Sweden - all in wealthy areas - most rural Counties didn't even get 1 in the entire county - let alone one in each kommun.
Raising the standard of the majority of schools is not an expensive undertaking. Some limited investment and organizational undertakinf can do the job. The needs of gifted students can be catered with special sessions could be organized within an existing upgraded school structure.
It was never really equal in Sweden and it will only get less equal in the future as mass immigration of people with different cultural norms transforms the society. Just look at a simple issue of two household incomes vs one. If women work then the family has two incomes and a higher income and living standard. Or children, if the parents stay involved their kids will benefit some cultures and people don't value this as highly. The number of children per family is an issue. Children require help and support which is not all supplied by the state the more children you have the less of the parents time they get.