• Sweden edition

Best schools in Sweden's far north: survey

Published: 8 Sep 10 09:25 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/28844/20100908/

Six towns in northern Sweden ranked among the top ten municipalities with the best schools in the country, according to a ranking by the Swedish Teachers' Union (Lärarförbundet).

Arvidsjaur, a town with 6,000 residents west of Luleå, topped this year's ranking.

"This is an effect of long-term work - we focus on student welfare and children with special needs. It is paying off," Arvidsjaur school director Annette Rydén told the TT news agency.

According to Rydén, Arvidsjaur's small size also helps by making it easier to enforce a positive sense of social control.

Two more communities in the north followed in second and third place: Piteå, south of Luleå, and Vindeln in Västerbotten northwest of Umeå. Another three municipalities from the northern part of the country ranked in the top 10 of Sweden's 290 municipalities: Luleå in fifth, Pajala in eighth and Norsjö in 10th.

"Obvious investments on resources, the proportion of trained teachers and a high staffing ratio has paid off," union chairwoman Eva-Lis Sirén said in a statement.

Last year's top two municipalities, Lomma and Lund, which are both in southern Skåne, slipped to sixth and fourth respectively.

Separately, the most improved school this year was Ödeshög in central Sweden, northeast of Jönköping.

The municipality climbed to 72nd from 272nd place. Arvidsjaur advanced from 40th place last year.

The union has ranked Sweden's best school communities since 2002.

External link: Best school municipalities in Sweden (in Swedish) »

TT/The Local (news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518)

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11:47 September 8, 2010 by Rishonim
Not really that hard to be voted amongst the ten best in a region where no one practically speaks with each other. I heard a story that people in them neck of the wood will walk into their neighbour home, poor themselves a cup of coffee, sit next to the neighbour for 15 minutes and then get up, mumble something and leave..
15:47 September 8, 2010 by JulieLou40
@ rishonim: You're talking crap.
17:03 September 8, 2010 by Douglas Garner
Where is the link to the study? I want to see how my schools rank!
17:05 September 8, 2010 by Swedesmith
Minus 20 keeps the riff raff out.
03:01 September 9, 2010 by janswed
i was born in umea and rishonin is correct, at my grandfathers house people would come sit down in the kitchen observ silently for a while stand up and leave! this happened all the time , and it was not the village idiot doing this , it was normal behavior the village name is norrbystrand about 45 minutes from umea i never forgot the odd feeling off having people not saying anything.
08:43 September 9, 2010 by Rebel
What are the demographics of these regions?
23:52 October 10, 2010 by waffen
Swedesmith #20

"Minus twenty keeps the riff raff out."

That is exactly my thought on this subject.

Maybe when minus 20 stays for nine months over most of Sweden, a good deal of the riff raff will leave, and afterward the temperature will return to normal--without the riff raff.

The best part is that all of the real Swedes will survive that nine months.
04:29 December 2, 2010 by Stan the saxon
Living in the North - what a magnet! Coming from a big city in a 'normal' part of Europe I can see why school is important in the North - nothing much else to do and if you have a few good teachers the kids will go to school.

Sweden still lags behind Finland and Singapore in terms of educational excellence

Plenty of riff-raff in those coutries....
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