Swedish Digitalisation Strategy for school systems led to results
The second follow-up of the national digitalisation strategy for the school system has recently been presented. The report provides a current picture of the situation in the school systems and its relation to the strategy’s initial goals.
The report is based on a survey aimed at teachers and school heads that Statistics Sweden carried out on behalf of the National Agency for Education, in the spring of 2021. The national digitalisation strategy for the school systems, adopted in 2017, contains three focus areas:
- Digital competences for all in the school community
- Equal access and use
- Research and follow-up on the possibilities of digitalisation
The results of the follow-up show that the digitalisation in schools already came a long way, but there is still areas to improve to achieve the goals set out in the initial document. In this context, the main conclusions are:
- Access to digital tools is generally good but should to be further improved for students in need of support measures. For example, 20% of teachers in compulsory education refer limited access to the digital tools necessary to design the class content for students who need support measures.
- School heads need to develop and follow up the digitalisation process of the schools. This allows a comprehensive overview of competence development needs in digital skills and how digital tools and/or teaching materials integrate this process.
- Students need to be given better conditions to develop digital competences in specific areas such as: how to search for the relevant data, analyse, interpret, and critically evaluate the information and digital content. The conditions for collaboration between teachers and school staff need to be improved.
- Covid-19 accelerated the digitalisation of the school systems. Remote and distance education increased and as well as the use of digital teaching materials.
More information:
- https://www.regeringen.se/4a9d9a/contentassets/00b3d9118b0144f6bb95302f3e08d11c/nationell-digitaliseringsstrategi-for-skolvasendet.pdf
- https://www.skolverket.se/getFile?file=9385
Source: Eurydice Unit Sweden
