pic: sydsvenska.se
One of the 73 points of the January agreement, pushed through largely by the Liberal party, strangely, was that the government would work towards prohibiting the establishment of any new primary or secondary school with a religious focus (konfessionell inriktning). A formal investigation into the matter was to be the first step (see point 57 here). Yesterday, the report from the investigation was handed to the Minister for Education, Anna Ekström, for consideration.
There are 72 schools in Sweden that have a religious focus, SvD reports. The vast majority of them are Christian, about ten or so have an Islamic orientation, and there is one school with a focus on judaism. According to Skolvärlden, however, these numbers are very inexact: It is up to the school to report if they have a religious focus or not, and neither Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket) or the Swedish Schools Inspectorate (Skolinspektionen) have any definite numbers.
Despite the Social Democratic party being decidedly against the establishment any additional religious schools, there can be problems implementing a ban with both the European Convention, in which parents have the right to choose an education for their child in accordance with their religious convictions, as well as with the freedom to conduct business guaranteed by the Swedish “Basic Laws” or constitution (grundlagen). The report was of the opinion that a prohibition would survive a legal examination, but even the Minister for Education said it would be “legally tricky” (juridiskt trixigt).
Attention to religious schools has been particularly intense in conjunction with the closing of Vetenskapsskolan in Göteborg, due largely to IS adherents returning to the school from fighting abroad, and with Nya Kastets school in Gävle whose leadership has been connected with persons the Swedish Security Service consider a terror risk and where the worry was that children ran the risk of being radicalised and recruited.
Neither of these schools had registered as religious schools, which is a blind spot that one of the suggestions from the report is meant to address, DN reports.
In principle, religious schools are to be run, and to have the curriculum, exactly like regular municipal schools during school hours. This includes not segregating boys and girls in physical education class or having segregated seating on the school bus. After and before school, however, it is allowed to have religious elements such as prayer and religious study activities on school grounds.
Many people wonder, including the editorial board at DN, if the government is spending a little too much ammunition shooting at easy targets when the real problems are elsewhere. Only about 1% of Swedish school children attend religious schools, while 16% of Swedish school children don’t qualify for secondary school (gymnasium) education. The report itself states that religious schools work very well as a rule, and that they also work well in comparable countries. Penny wise and pound foolish, one might say. Or in Swedish terms, the government could be said to be filtering gnats but swallowing camels (silar mygg men sväljer kameler).
But symbolic politics – signalpolitik – is always a popular handhold when other things aren’t going so well. SVT’s Novus poll results show that only 8% of LO members (the Swedish Trade Union Confederation), the traditional backbone of the Social Democratic party, think that the government’s policies are good, while 57% think they’re bad: The results are a camel that the Social Democrats should be careful not to swallow.
