The Swedish Teachers’ Union and the Swedish Association of Teachers invited Statistics Sweden to research to what extent students in years 7 to 9 are taught by properly trained teachers.
The basic qualification requirement is a teaching degree. According to the Swedish National Agency for Education, 84% of teachers in secondary school have the degree – but the unions’ report points out that this figure does not show whether their training is in the right subject.
In Mathematics 49% of teachers are fully qualified – both for the right age group and the right subject. 50% of English teachers are fully qualified, compared to 57% of Swedish teachers.
When it comes to Spanish, however, only 23% of teachers are suitably qualified.
When researchers focused on the subject, they found that 56% of all teachers in Mathematics, the sciences and foreign languages had the right training for their subject.
A higher proportion, 65%, of Swedish and social science teachers were trained in their subject.
Clear differences were found between state-run and independent schools. In the independent sector a higher proportion of teachers were lacking the appropriate training for their subject.
There were also regional differences. In some areas, 90% of teachers had the right training for their subject, compared to just 20% in other regions.
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