Compulsory preschool year for six-year-olds to be replaced with extra year in primary school from 2028
Children in Sweden are to start school at six years old from 2028, a year earlier than at present, in an overhaul of the country’s education system that signals a switch from play-based teaching for younger children.
The government has announced plans to replace a compulsory preschool year for six-year-olds known as förskoleklass with an additional year in grundskola (primary school).
The centre-right coalition government, led by the Moderates and backed by the far-right Sweden Democrats, announced the plan before the presentation of the 2025 budget, due on Thursday. The plan dates back to the previous government and is also backed by the left-leaning Social Democrats.
Weren’t they the highest rated school system in the world or something?
If it aint broke don’t fix it??
Edit: they were not
That’s Finland. Sweden has been on a decline.
Put them kids to work! Can’t have anyone enjoying life.
I disagree, kids should not work as they have no sense for quality.
We all know that what kids really want is to go to the mines
Those miners
They pine for the chimneys.
Kiddos just need a little Kaizen training. Maybe they should start school two years early.
I used to think the same, but kids are really much further ahead these days.
There’s a lot of variety of course. Even my two kids are totally different. The older one knew the entire alphabet and basic math before kindergarten (<4yo), while the second one was still catching up on that in 2.grade (8yo here). Their gross motor skills are opposite though, and the oldest might never catch up on that.
So, play is learning in one way or the other, but there’s no reason to hold back the children who are talented in one thing over the other. My oldest is being held back that way by the current curriculum. Starting school earlier might be a way of addressing this.
It’s really just a matter of task assignment between institutions. Anything pre-school (nursery and kindergarten) is focused on behaviour and play, while early school (gradually) introduces more abstract learning, which requires a different teaching by teachers with a different education. Strictly speaking, it’s a teachers problem, and there’s currently not much overlap, except for “backwards compatibility”, because schools do have employees who are educated in kindergarten levels, whereas kindergartens do not have school level teachers employed. By introducing school earlier, it is possible to widen this overlap while still allowing for kids to proceed in their own pace.
So, IMO, it makes sense, but yeah, it’d be dreadful to go to “school” for that many years. Coincidentally, kids also leave schools earlier. There’s no longer many kids in 10th grade, because almost everyone goes on to the following studies after 9th these days. (which is a completely different discussion…)
I hope this makes sense. British/American school system are wildly different, but at the end of it, the kids will be kids, no matter what box they fit into.
Kids didn’t start preschool until 6?
That’s, uh, interesting.
No they start preschool from 1yr old if the parents want, but it is compulsory to enroll at 6. The year for six year olds is also a bit different from the first years with more focus on familiarising with school routines and learning - but still lots of play
No they start preschool from 1yr old if the parents want, but it is compulsory to enroll at 6. The year for six year olds is also a bit different from the first years with more focus on familiarising with school routines and learning - but still lots of play
Six years old seems late. I started first grade as a four year old and all my other classmates but one were five. I remember first grade because things went from mostly play, naps, and some schooling to nothing but schooling, homework and tutoring.
where do you live? homework at age 4?
I’ll never forget it. It was a workbook to practice writing letters and numbers. I’m sure it was only a single page but it felt like an entire book.
To answer your question, I went to a British run private school. Think of it as a stereotypical British prep school, down to the uniform, but not in the UK. Also, they jumped me a year because in pre-school I was always sneaking into classes rather than napping or playing.
We had homework for kindergarten, age 5, here in the US. It was just workbooks where you learn things like practicing writing a letter or coloring inside the lines.
seems a bit unnecessary, is there not enough time to do that at school? not like you need to dedicate class time to lectures on coloring.
I don’t know, but when I was that age, I enjoyed the homework. It was mostly just coloring and circling things.
