Primary and Secondary Education in Sweden, 1911
There are few countries in which education is as free as in Sweden. From the grammar school to the university, in all its stages, the cost is defrayed entirely by…
Location: Sweden
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Swedish Life in Town and Country by Oscar Gustaf von Heidenstam, 1911.
There are few countries in which education is as free as in Sweden. From the grammar school to the university, in all its stages, the cost is defrayed entirely by the State or the parish. Education is thus not a privilege of the wealthy, but a benefit common to all. In the elementary or people's school (Folkskola), maintained by the parish under the direction of the School Board, and the close supervision of the State, instruction is compulsory as well as gratuitous.
Between the ages of seven and fourteen, every boy and girl must attend a public school, unless the parents can show that their child is receiving equivalent instruction elsewhere, in a private school or at home. No exception or compromise is allowed, and no "half-time" system or "rush" through the school to suit the convenience of the factory or the farmer.
For seven years, during eight and a half months of the year allowing for summer, Christmas, and Easter holidays and thirty-six hours per week, every boy and girl in the kingdom receives instruction and goes through the same curriculum.
The School Board, which has the direct management of the schools, is elected by the parish, and women are eligible to it. The State which controls the whole system of education, from the ABC class to the college and university, maintains alike its unity and its efficiency, and sees to the strict enforcement of the law. Parents who try to evade it, through malevolence or neglect, may even, after due warning, be deprived of their children, who are taken over by the community during their school years.
In thinly populated districts, the school may be "ambulatory," held now in one part of the district and now in another, so that all may attend it in turn. In such cases, the schooling is reduced to four months in the year. But there is no district, however poor or thinly populated, without its Folkskola. There are nearly 12,000 of these in the land, attended by 742,000 pupils, and employing 16,270 teachers of both sexes, and they cost the community twenty millions of crowns yearly, that is, 3.97 crowns (4s. 4d.) per head of the population.
No more conscientious, hard-working, and respectable class of men and women can be found than the teachers. Eight years' study, first in a special seminary (Skollärare, Skollärarinne Seminarium) and then in a training college, has taught them their profession both in theory and in practice. They are convinced of the importance and dignity of their office and are respected accordingly.
Socially, the general type of the school teacher is a superior one. There are at present in the Riksdag, occupying seats as Members of the Second Chamber, no fewer than eleven teachers in elementary schools, twelve teachers in secondary schools, one inspector of schools, and one university professor.
In the rural community, the schoolmaster is somewhat of an authority. Most of the members of the parish have “sat under him” at school in their early life, and owe to him most of what they know. For years, he has been diffusing knowledge around him and has been looked up to as the fountain of book learning. He is the local parson's great coadjutor in parish matters, and, being a ready speaker, is of no mean influence in the parish assemblies.
The dark spot in the existence of these school teachers is that they are miserably paid, even for the Swedish standard of life. They receive 700, 800, 900, or 1000 crowns (£45 to £55) a year, according to the importance and estimated cost of life of the district in which they are placed and their years of service, and they are secured pensions in old age.
In Stockholm and other large towns, the highest rate of pay is in exceptional cases 1200 crowns with 300 crowns in lieu of rent. Their ambitions are thus limited to the hope of rising from the lower to the higher degrees in the service, with a proportionate advancement in the scale of pay.
Life is, however, cheap in the rural districts, and these teachers, who are drawn generally from the rural and indigent classes, are accustomed to frugality and economy. They are lodged free of rent in the schoolhouse or a cottage attached to it, and are allowed firewood and other small perquisites. They generally have a small garden or potato ground to cultivate, and can keep a cow and a few hens. They often add to their modest stipend by extra work, such as teaching in the evening classes, playing the organ in church, and writing or handiwork after school hours.
The curriculum of the Folkskola comprises reading, writing, arithmetic, geometry, history, natural sciences, "Christianity," singing, drawing, and gymnastics, to which in most schools are added sloyd or slöjd (carpentering, etc.) and gardening for the boys, and needlework and cooking for the girls. In the latter case, the food cooked provides the midday meal for the poor pupils who are unable to provide for themselves. In some cases, it is distributed to the poor.
What is called "Christianity" means reading and commenting upon the Old and the New Testament, Luther's Catechism, and the Swedish Hymn-book. The religious teaching is thus simple and undenominational as far as Protestant pupils are concerned, whether they belong to the State Church or the so-called Free Churches, representing the different sects of Non-conformists.
There are not many Roman Catholics in Sweden and but few Jews, and none at all in the rural districts. Thus the religious difficulty which arises in countries of mixed religious denominations, like England and Germany, or where irreligion is raised to a political dogma as in France, does not exist here. Non-Protestant parents whose children attend the public schools are, however, allowed to have them exempted from the religious teaching, on the understanding that they will provide for it, in their own faith, by other means.
As to rationalism and materialism, they do not obtrude at all in official life. They may be vented in literature and the Press yet guardedly and in measured terms, for any overt attack on the Church or on Christianity is an indictable offence but they find no echo whatever in the schools.
The physical training of the children is on a par with their mental development. Gymnastic exercises on scientific principles are attended to daily, and drill is part of the school plan. The Swedish invention sloyd, which has become almost a national attainment, develops mechanical practice and general handiness. Scholars' excursions connected with the study of botany and geology are often undertaken, providing a free day in the woods, welcome to pupil and teacher alike. Bathing in the lake is almost universal in summer, and bathrooms are provided in most schools for the winter, where the children are seated in tubs in a circle and soap and scrub each other in turn.
At fifteen, after seven years' assiduous attendance at the Folkskola, the boy and girl have "finished" their education, as far as compulsory instruction goes, and they are free to begin work on their father's farm, in his shop or his trade, or to take service elsewhere and to shift for themselves.
They may, however, if they like, pursue their studies further in the continuation schools, or in the evening classes provided in most parishes, or repair to a college or gymnasium in town, if they elect to enter the Church, the liberal professions, or the service of the State. But they have first to be confirmed. It is here that the definite religious instruction is given.
The preparation for confirmation, which entails a much longer and more advanced course of religious instruction than is usual for confirmation in England, is independent of the school and takes place in church, parents being allowed every liberty in the choice of the clergyman who performs this office for their children. English readers who are acquainted with Longfellow's admirable translation of Tegner's beautiful poem, The Children of the Lord's Supper, are aware of the importance of this ceremony in Swedish social life. It is the great turning-point in the existence of Scandinavian youth.
The boy and girl emerging from it leave boyhood and girlhood behind them. Knee-breeches and short frocks have given way to trousers and long skirts. The boy sports his first watch and glories in his first shirt-front. The girl discards her long plaits, and wears her hair in a top-knot. They have made their profession of faith in public, have been examined in regard to it, and have had to answer for it in the presence of the whole congregation. They have assumed henceforth the full responsibility of their acts. In the eyes of the Church, if not yet in the eyes of the law, they are free and responsible members of society.
The secondary schools are maintained by the State, and are confined to the towns. They comprise nine forms in seven classes, of which the last two have double forms. The first three correspond to the curriculum of the primary schools. Scholars who have passed these enter in the fourth form. They are generally divided into two branches, the classical and the modern (latinlinie, reallinie), according as classics or languages predominate in the curriculum, which comprises religion, Swedish composition, history, geography, philosophy, Latin, Greek, German, English, French, mathematics, zoology, botany, physics, chemistry, and drawing.
After the fourth form, pupils must declare, with the written approbation of their parents or guardians, whether they will follow the classical or the non-classical branch, according as they intend to qualify for the universities or the technical high schools. The vexed question of classical versus non-classical education is, therefore, solved by the choice being left to those primarily interested in it, and decided by the requirements of the career to be followed by the pupil.
The universities require Latin; for through them must be entered the professions and the Civil Service; while the technical high schools, which turn out engineers and architects, and the military school, which leads into the Army, must be entered through the modern or non-classical branch, languages and mathematics holding there the first place.
Not all the pupils who attend these secondary schools complete the full course and pass the final examination. More than half those who mean to devote themselves to trade, agriculture, or industry, and those who have not developed the capabilities necessary to confront the severe final test of the “maturity” examination leave the school on attaining the upper forms.
During the last decennial period, the average number who thus left before completing the nine years' course was 1883 per annum; of whom 531 were employed in trade, 225 in the industries, 246 in agriculture, and 85 in the navy. The Royal Navy must be entered at fourteen, with a severe course of six years at the Naval School in order to pass as officer. In the merchant service, it is also necessary to begin early, as the special examinations for passing as mate and master are based on practical knowledge and experience in navigation.
To those who intend to enter the professions, the civil and military service, and the Church, the full course of the secondary school is necessary, the "maturity" examination certificate being the only open sesame to the universities, the special colleges, and the technical high schools. To obtain it and to don the white cap, which is the outward and visible sign of university membership, and the dignity of civis academicus acquired by it, is the first great step in life of ambitious youth. Of the 850 pupils who in 1900 passed their "maturity," 491 had followed the Latin or classical branch, and 259 the modern section of their school. Of these, 369 went to the universities, the rest being divided between the medical, veterinary, and pharmaceutical institutes, the military college, and the technical high schools.
The course in the secondary school is long and severe, but it is not one-sided. It aims more at general knowledge than at any specialisation of acquirements. It takes the pupil nine or ten years to climb from the first to the last form, so that supposing he gets his remove every year and never has to double a form, he is nineteen or twenty when he takes his "maturity." But his mind is then stocked with as good a store of general knowledge as he could obtain anywhere.
The school has not sought to produce in him an intellectual prodigy, a mind specially moulded to philosophical speculation and classical thought or trained to mathematical abstractions, but one endowed with a clear and comprehensive understanding of most things, possessed of a solid fund of useful knowledge, and capable of further special development in any given direction. The aim in his training has been, not scholastic specialisation, but general and thorough acquaintance with languages, natural sciences, practical geography, and the lessons of history, acquired with the refinement of thought and style which a certain familiarity with classics must always give.
The teachers in these schools are all men of high standing, who have taken their degrees at the university. They consist of a rector and a certain number of masters, forming the College Council. They are appointed and paid by Government, and rank as State functionaries. Their salaries range from 1500 to 6000 crowns a year. A rector's salary is from 4000 to 6000 crowns, and an assistant master's from 1500 to 3000 crowns. Each school has its debating society and its committee of sports; and military drill, fencing, and rifle practice form part of the routine.
As in the parish or communal primary school, the whole course in the State secondary school is free. In some of these schools, pupils are required to pay a fee of 30 crowns (£1 13s.) a year; but this is more in the way of a voluntary contribution towards a fund for providing “prizes” for deserving pupils, and also special instruments in the physical and chemical laboratories, the cost of experiments, fencing apparatus, and such things, and indigent pupils are easily exempted from paying it.
The maintenance of the secondary schools costs the State 3,824,684 crowns per annum (1900), or 222.69 crowns per pupil. Including the indirect contribution of the parishes and municipalities in the way of buildings for the schools, and other items, the total annual cost of these schools may be put down at 4 1/2 million crowns (£250,000).
The communes have to provide the ground on which a schoolhouse is built. As a proof of the dimensions and luxury of these buildings, it may be stated that one of the State school buildings at Stockholm cost 842,000 crowns (£46,777), and another 783,000 crowns, without counting the value of the building ground, which was provided by the town.
The secondary school building at Gothenburg cost 542,000 crowns, exclusive of the ground, and that of a small town like Vexio 317,000 crowns. The total cost of secondary school buildings in the country represented in 1898, 10 1/4 million crowns. The number of pupils receiving instruction in them was, in 1900, 17,479, which represents 32.2 per hundred thousand inhabitants.
The private secondary schools are under Government control, and follow exactly the same curriculum as the State schools. The examinations are passed in the presence of Government censors, on exactly the same programme and schedules as the latter. The certificate of "maturity" given by them is, therefore, equally valid. They are all day schools, for such a thing as a boarding school does not exist in Sweden. The children of parents living in the country board with families in town, generally with such as have children attending the same school.
The high schools for girls are of relatively recent creation. The authority for girls to pass the examination of "maturity" and enter the university dates from 1870. The curriculum in these is exactly the same as that for boys. The right of examination and of granting certificates of "maturity" is possessed by five of them. The number of girls who have passed this examination since 1870 was in 1900, 605, and is on the increase, though as yet it is only about five per cent, of the number of boys. A certain number of them proceed to the universities, and several have obtained university degrees. There are now nine women doctors of philosophy, nineteen women medical practitioners, and one doctor of law holding an assistant professorship at the University of Upsala.
Characteristic of Sweden are the 'mixed schools" for boys and girls (Samskola). These exist not only as elementary but also as secondary schools, and the two sexes continue together as far as the examination for "maturity." No inconveniences seem to arise from the mingling of the sexes on the same school-benches, even at this advanced age, and so far from giving rise to jealousies and ill-feeling it creates a salutary emulation and a disposition to mutual assistance.
From the age of fourteen to that of nineteen or twenty, these boys and girls, already on the threshold of manhood and womanhood, sit side by side, writing Latin verses, puzzling over mathematical problems, or inditing eloquent essays on delicate points of Swedish history, and the presence of the opposite sex, instead of causing difficulties, acts as a stimulus and promotes chivalry and good comradeship. And when the great day arrives and the final examination is passed together, boys and girls emerge wearing the same white cap, emblem of equal academical citizenship, to meet their friends and be decked with flowers, as is the immemorial custom.
On examination days, any number of white-capped young men and young women may be seen walking home in the midst of smiling and beaming parents and relatives, their breast literally covered with wreaths and flowers, pinned thereon by the acquaintances who have come to congratulate them. Nevertheless, the student girl is still the exception, and the white student cap is as often as not discarded soon after it is won, as the feeling of triumph at having proved to the world the capacity to win it wears away.
Heidenstam, Oscar Gustaf von. Swedish Life in Town and Country. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1911.
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