According to Dagens Nyheter (DN), the Swedish Council of Higher Education has submitted a report to the government, detailing the slow rate of progress and spelling out that the deadline the government set of August 17th 2026 is impossible.
"There's not going to be any Swedish [language] test ready according to the timeline stipulated by the government," Susanne Wadsborn-Taube, a unit chief for the Council of Higher Education told the newspaper. "According to Stockholm University, there's no chance of developing a test before autumn 2028 at the earliest."
"It's a complicated process to develop a test like this as it needs to be based on research and proven experience."
The council said that Gothenburg University, which has been tasked with creating the civics test, has said it can only create a few "prototype tasks" by the deadline, which could provide the basis of at least part of a civics test in the future.
One of the issues, the council said, is that the government has not yet provided any details as to what the law will actually entail, or even put forward a proposition to give any further details, which means that it needs to prepare for multiple potential scenarios, making its task more complex and time-consuming.
The leadership at Stockholm University had previously criticised the government for instructing it to develop the test, arguing that this was a "political task" that was not part of its mandate.
Universities minister Lotta Edholm told DN that the deadline is "a challenge".
"I respect that. Now we need to analyse this report and look at what we're going to do. But it's important these tests are in place as soon as possible," she added.
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