The classes are intended for students with significant learning difficulties and who disrupt the teaching.
These are students who exhibit extremely strong norm-breaking behavior that disrupts in such a way that it ruins both for classmates and teachers, says Education Minister Lotta Edholm (The Liberals) to Ekot.
Observation classes, obs-classes, existed in the 1960s and 1970s, but were abolished, among other things, because they were considered stigmatizing. Edholm refers to the special classes she wants to investigate as help classes.
This is supposed to be help classes with well-educated special teachers. Not a way to push aside students who have major problems, she says.
The Swedish Teachers' Union writes in an email to TT that help classes must not replace the need for extra teaching or opportunities for half-class teaching.
"I see a great risk there", says the union's chairman Anna Olskog.
The Swedish Teachers' Union believes, however, that the proposal for help classes can be good if the thresholds are low for students to return to regular class teaching.
"All research shows that it is of great importance for low-achieving students to learn together with higher-achieving students", says Anna Olskog.
