The original article requires translation.
Digital national exams would reduce teachers' administration. They are a prerequisite for implementing the new grading system – one of the building blocks of investigator Magnus Henrekson's task of reducing grade inflation.
But so far, the Swedish National Agency for Education's testing platform has given teachers more problems, rather than fewer.
– It's an F for the Swedish National Agency for Education. Not a dash, because they are trying. But don't continue to expose the school to these experiments, says Josefina Garcia Hultqvist, chief safety officer for the Swedish National Agency for Teachers.
In March 2025, the Swedish National Agency for Education stopped the exams after a security leak.
At short notice, school staff were forced to copy the test onto paper, a time cost equivalent to 5,000 hours.
The warning – a year earlier
There has been no shortage of warning voices.
In October 2024, experienced teachers raised the alarm about the shortcomings. But the idea is that the digital national exams will be implemented in their entirety in the exam platform in the spring of 2026 – despite problems quickly arising during Thursday's test run.
– The teachers were unable to assign the test to all students. In some situations, the teachers were able to distribute it, but the students did not enter. Students who had completed the test and submitted it entered the test again, says Josefina Garcia Hultqvist.
According to the Swedish National Agency for Education, 17,000 students logged in, and about half completed the entire test.
The whole country is affected
The reports come from all over the country, according to Ekot, among others .
Josefina Garcia Hultqvist does not think that the Swedish National Agency for Education takes teachers seriously.
– The stress this environment creates before and during the actual test is not reasonable. And the students risk carrying the experience of the test with them to the real test. They may not be able to perform and it will not be a legally sound assessment, she says.
Now there are also political demands on the government.
– Abolish the current platform. It won't work. The entire new grading system is based on the Swedish National Agency for Education learning to build test systems, says Niels Paarup Petersen, the Centre Party's education policy spokesperson.
“Draw conclusions too soon”
Maria Bratt is responsible for coordinating the digital national exams at the Swedish National Agency for Education.
She says it is too early to draw any conclusions about what happened and how many people were affected.
The idea was that more than the 17,000 students who logged in would take the exam, but at present the National Agency for Education cannot provide more concrete information.
– It's far too early, I want to wait for the analysis of the test implementation to find out exactly what happened, and how many people were possibly unable to get in and what the problems were due to, says Maria Bratt.
Can the system handle this many users?
– The platform has the capacity to handle what we did yesterday, we need to understand through our analysis what made it slow. Some experienced problems with logging in, others that it was slow when they had to change questions, she says.
What would you like to say to those who want to scrap the testing platform?
– We have a government mandate to digitize the national exams. The chosen exam platform will continue to be further developed. I think it is a bit early to draw any conclusions after yesterday's exercise, says Maria Bratt.
We Teachers are seeking Minister of Education Simona Mohamsson for a comment.