The Swedish National Agency for Education states this in a new report that describes the situation for privately run preschools. More than 100,000 children attend a privately run preschool, and the proportion has increased from 19 to 22 percent over the past ten years.
It is the municipalities that are responsible for supervising privately run preschools, but the Swedish Schools Inspectorate has pointed out that municipalities have different prerequisites for conducting inspections. There is a risk that they do not have the capacity to perform ongoing owner assessments – an important tool for preventing criminals or other unsuitable actors from running preschools.
The municipalities must now strengthen their supervision, according to the Swedish National Agency for Education. Weak supervision "risks leading to children in preschool not receiving the education they are entitled to", writes the Swedish National Agency for Education.
The number of private operators running preschools is over 1,900. Almost all private operators running preschools are small – nine out of ten have only one preschool. The largest is the Academedia AB corporation, which in 2023 had 145 preschools with a total of 11,000 children.
As the number of children decreases, increased competition is expected between operators and closures of preschools in certain parts of the country.
