The original article requires translation.
The then Minister of Education Anna Ekström (S) decided in 2018 that the amount of national tests would be reduced in upper secondary school. The change meant that it would only be mandatory to have national exams on the programs' final courses that were mandatory. Before that, almost all courses in mathematics, Swedish and English, in the various high school programs, had been completed with a compulsory national test.
The change came after years of criticism that the focus on national tests had become too great and threatened to displace teaching. The tests were also considered to lead to an unreasonably large workload for teachers and stress for students.
A majority continue to use the samples
The teacher's survey shows, however, that the rule change did not have any significant significance in upper secondary school, even though there was a certain reduction in the number of national exams ordered in certain courses. A majority of Sweden's schools continue to order the non-compulsory national tests that the National Agency for Education produces.
The statistical data that the Teacher has requested that the National Agency for Education should produce over how many national tests that have been ordered since 2017 in mathematics, Swedish and English in different courses show, for example:
• the number of national tests in mathematics 1b decreased from 46,200 ordered tests in 2017 to 40,500 in 2022
• the number of national tests in Swedish 1 has decreased from 101,100 ordered tests in 2017 to 72,500 in 2022.
• the number of national tests in English 5 has decreased from 110,700 to 84,000 tests by 2022.
It is the principal of the upper secondary schools who has the mandate to decide which tests are to be carried out and not the teachers. In 2018, the Government decided that all national tests must be taken into account in grading. This also applies to the non-mandatory ones. The tests aim to increase the equivalence of the assessment. And politically, the debate about equality in Swedish schools has increased in recent years.
Equality is a hot political issue
Anders Boman, head of the national tests unit at the National Agency for Education, believes that this may be an explanation for the schools continuing to use the national tests that are not compulsory.
- The government's reason for removing a number of national tests was mainly to reduce the workload for teachers, but since then, equivalence in grading has become a hot political issue, he says.
He estimates that a large majority of the teaching staff appreciate taking support in the national tests when grading.
- Even though many teachers think that the tests take a lot of time from the teaching, those who prioritize the tests still seem to think that the tests work well based on their purpose and may be the only thing that supports them in the grading.