From Thursday Stockholm’s city authority is bringing in tougher rules, designed to stop parents keeping their children out of some classes.
Now only the head teacher can decide to allow a pupil to skip a subject such as sex education. And if a child doesn’t take part in this subject this will mean they’ll have gaps in their qualifications when they finish school.
“It is very dangeous to live in Sweden and not know how to swim” (5:56)
Lotta Edholm is a liberal party politician on Stockholm council
“Head teachers need to inform the parents that this might mean that their children won’t be able to go to upper secondary school, if there is a lack of knowledge in certain subjects.”
She also says that 12-13 per cent of Stockholm’s children are currently not allowed by parents to take part in lessons such as swimming and sex education - and that this is due to their parents’ religious and cultural beliefs.
But she is also optimistic that this can change with enough discussion - since she sees that many of the parents do not really understand what the subjects contain.