Skipping school in Sweden

Schools in Sweden are facing a rising rate of absenteeism, which has increased after the pandemic. Why are students skipping? Schools in Sweden are facing a rising rate of absenteeism, which has increased after the pandemic. Why are students skipping?

The most recent survey from the Swedish National Agency for Education revealed in 2021 that up to 35 per cent of ninth-graders (English Year 11 equivalent), had a 15 per cent rate, and up to 3 per cent had 50 per cent absence rate from school. 

Schools across the country are confirming that the rates continue to rise.

In Sandviken, a municipality in Sweden, the authorities have spent the past few years working on projects to reduce the number of students who skip school. 

The manager, Sofia Björkqvist, stated: “Absence from school is one of the biggest problems that schools have today.” 

There are currently four attendance coordinators in the town and the authorities are concerned about the future. “Absence from school is like a symptom of how society is feeling and in addition to the risk of not reaching the goals, you risk ending up in an exclusion,” Sofia stated her concern,

Many professionals, including Malin Gren Landell, have explained the rise in absenteeism to the Covid crisis: “My picture is that the problem is very big and that the absence in some places has increased after the pandemic.” 

One of the school directors in Sundsvall, at St. Olofsskolan, Øyvind Eriksen, had agreed:  “If you are at home for a long time, even the social part becomes a challenge to achieve.”  Øyvind highlighted that communication between schools and families is essential to resolving this problem: “It is this close dialogue with the guardians that we need to achieve.”

In recent years, approximately 15 per cent of Swedish students finished ninth grade without a high school qualification (English GCSE equivalent). Will the trend continue to grow?