The government is now proposing that 82 million kronor be allocated to schools in the upcoming spring budget, as compensation for the extra work that arose when the spring's intended digital tests instead had to be done on paper. The proposal is based on an agreement between the government and the Sweden Democrats.
And it is the taxpayers who will have to foot the bill.
Yes, that's how it is with all state expenditures, they ultimately come from taxpayers, says Minister of Education Lotta Edholm.
Lotta Edholm notes that the spring's failure was a setback in two ways. Not only did the digital national tests not take place, but also a already heavily burdened professional group had to endure unnecessary stress and work.
It is also a failure that teachers have been subjected to a great deal of extra work at many schools, says Minister of Education Lotta Edholm.
It is clear that it is something we regret, really.
Ongoing since 2017
It was in early March that the Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket) pulled the emergency brake after several serious errors were discovered in the digital test platform. Skolverket has been working since 2017 to digitize the national tests in a nationwide test platform. The work has so far cost nearly 700 million kronor, and by 2025, the costs are expected to rise to an additional approximately 150 million kronor.
But Lotta Edholm does not want to acknowledge that the work is a "major failure".
I think it's a failure that the digital tests had to be cancelled. Of course, it was no one's hope that it would happen, she says.
Wants to await investigation
It was a system update that caused the error in the platform. But Lotta Edholm does not want to give any guarantees that Skolverket's digital test platform will work without problems in the future. She does not want to discuss whether there is a pain threshold for when one cannot put more money into the work.
One must await Skolverket's investigation before drawing any conclusions about the future.
Edholm emphasizes that Sweden needs centrally corrected digital national tests. Above all, to get a grading system that "is fair".
It was in early March that Skolverket decided to cancel all national tests in the agency's digital test platform. This after several serious errors were discovered.
First, it was the spelling and grammar control that did not meet the requirements. Then it became clear that in some cases, student names had been accessible to teachers other than those who should have access to them.
It was supposed to have been a system update that lay behind the latter case.
The plan is to hold digital national tests in Skolverket's platform in the fall.
