What happened
In the spring term of 2025, approximately 32,000 students who are new Swedes participated in instruction in Swedish or Swedish as a Second Language in grade 9. Of these students, 84 percent received a passing grade in one of the subjects, according to new statistics from SCB and Skolverket. For students who have lived in Sweden for more than ten years, the proportion passing was 91 percent, which is the same level as for students born in Sweden with foreign-born parents. Among students who have lived in the country for less than five years, barely 50 percent passed. At the same time, 90 percent passed among students whose parents have post-secondary education, compared to 71 percent for students whose parents have pre-upper secondary education.
Our analysis
Figures from Skolverket show that 91 percent of students who have lived in the country for at least ten years achieve a passing grade. The standard school debate often portrays new Swedish students as a uniform problem, but misses that the grade gap almost entirely disappears with time and resources. Neither the Ministry of Education nor the school organizers have adapted support to the group where needs are greatest: students who have been in the country for less than five years and whose parents lack higher education. In that group, only 39 percent pass Swedish today, a difference of 28 percentage points compared to newly arrived students with highly educated parents. Moving forward, the government and the municipalities must direct resources directly to Swedish language instruction during the first years instead of talking about stricter requirements.
Explained
SCB uses the term students with a foreign background for students who were themselves born abroad or who were born in Sweden with two foreign-born parents, which corresponds to the newspaper's term new Swedes.