The historical significance of education on high literacy in Sweden
“In Sweden they have a very different approach. There, preschool children are encouraged to play and relax without any structured learning for the first six years of their lives. They go for nature walks every day, even in the bitter Scandinavian winter. They are not taught to read until they are seven years of age, yet by the age of ten, Swedish children consistently lead European literacy rankings.”
– Goldie Hawn
Introduction
I did my literature review on the historical reasons as to why Sweden has such a high literacy rate. I focused especially on the historical significance of education in Sweden since I believe that research into historical context, can significantly improve our chances to solve or identify contemporary issues such as low literacy. Therefore, I chose to do my literature review on this topic, as I believe that these historical causes can give us great insight and perhaps solutions for the present-day issues of low literacy which are plaguing many countries to this day. I hope that this blog post will shed some light on the policies and historical reasons for Sweden’s high literacy rate.
The high literacy in Sweden can be explained by several key factors. Firstly, the literacy campaigns that took place in Sweden during the 17th and 19th centuries. Secondly, the historically positive attitude shown towards literacy by the Swedish population and government. Thirdly, the way the Swedish school system was structured.
Literacy Campaigns
The first factor is of particular interest since it was rare for states to have major literacy campaigns in the 19th and particularly in the 17th century. The first major literacy campaign was in the early 1700s and was organized by the Swedish church. The church did this because they believed that everyone should be able to read and understand the word of God, this was not a common attitude at the time. Literacy was reserved for the upper classes and the clergy in most other European nations around this time. For example, the difference between the literate elite and clergy and the illiterate poor in England did not change significantly between 1580 to 1700. This is a sharp contrast with Sweden where the church made it mandatory for churchgoers to be taught to read and write from 1686 onward.
The second major literacy campaign happened during and after the 1850s, this campaign was focused more upon schooling and directly correlates with the structure of the Swedish school structure in the present day.
Historical attitude
The positive attitude shown towards literacy in Sweden can be traced back to preindustrial times, long before the school system was established in Sweden in 1842. It is even so that before 1842 most of the adults in Sweden were literate, which can be traced back to the literacy campaigns by the church. A census done in 1930 showed that even adults with no access to schooling could read and/or write. This can be attributed to the fact that children would learn literacy through their parents due to the long positive attitude towards literacy.
Swedish school system
The third and most important factor is the Swedish school system, and how it was constructed. As mentioned before the official school system in Sweden was established in 1842. But how did it become so successful and how was it structured? Starting in 1842 it was required and expected that children were already able to read as they enrolled in primary school. In 1858 however, reading became an official part of the school curriculum. Before this time, it was expected that children learn reading and writing through their parents, this expectation was very much realistic since most adults were literate and it was culturally the norm to teach your children to read and write.
The structure of the Swedish school system has not changed since 1858 although its curriculum has. Compulsory education starts when the child is 6 years old and includes 10 years of compulsory schooling. Almost all the schools in Sweden are public schools, and all teachers follow a government implemented master plan. Furthermore, the variation in schools is low compared to other European countries. This means that the variation in the quality of teaching is relatively the same across the board and that the socio-economic background of students has almost no influence on the quality of the education. This is very interesting to me, and I hope for most of you since this, shows that the Swedish school system has been more successful than other countries, in eliminating disparities among students from different backgrounds. Further research into the correlation between the Swedish education system and reducing disparities would be of great interest as these policies could be implemented in other countries.
Present day
Currently, Sweden has one of the highest literacy rates in the world, in part due to the three historical factors that I have discussed. Below are several statistics to showcase the state of Swedish education in the present day.
Hi! I enjoyed reading your blog, thank you for making it easy to read.
Even though we can understand that the Swedish history has had a big influence on the importance of literacy in the population, how can we explain that not all (EU) countries look up to Sweden and try to make their school systems as effective and as inequality-free as in Sweden? This question could probably be answered in a long academical paper but I wondered if you had some information about it.
Thank you!
Hello Marie! Thank you for the compliment.
It is hard to say. One issue of course is that Sweden’s history helped shape their school systems the way they are and other countries have all had different histories which might make it so that their school systems are wildly different. Other than that I do not know why other countries do not implement the Swedish school system and I sadly cannot seem to find any information on this.
It is an interesting question though, and definitely something which deserves its own academic paper.
Hello, your blog post was very interesting and easy to follow. Following your stream of thoughts I could understand that Sweden has a very long history when it comes to fighting illiteracy, and this can be reflected by the fact that nowadays Sweden is one of the best performing countries in Europe for literacy. Since this cannot be said for many other countries in Europe, I wanted to ask you if you think that such a good level of literacy was achieved because it is a process that started way earlier than in the other countries or if you think that it has more to do with modern reforms? Thank you!
Thank you! Looking at the information I have, I would say these levels of literacy were mainly achieved through the reforms which happened in the past. Fighting illiteracy can be a long process. Nevertheless, I think that if other countries would now take over some of the Swedish education policies, their level of literacy would improve, albeit slowly.
Hello! 😊 Since I myself focused also on literacy levels of a country, Spain, I found it interesting to compare our situations! In the blog you mentioned the success of literacy campaigns and the Swedish model, but also the attitude of people towards the government as a fundamental ingredient of high literacy levels in the country. However, are there special characteristics that distinguish Swedish society from he rests of Europe? is there more to this secret formula in your opinion?
Thank you!
Hello! Thank you for leaving a comment!
This is a very good question, but unfortunately one I cannot answer in full. I am personally uncertain if there is more to this success than the causes I have already mentioned. I have an interesting article about the Swedish school system and the more recent developments which shows the Swedish people’s focus on equality and quality in their education system. I hope this sheds more light on it!
https://sweden.se/life/society/the-swedish-school-system
I really enjoyed reading your blog, and think it is a very interesting topic. With regards to the method of teaching, you mentioned the government has a ‘master plan’ that schools have to use. Do you know anything about the method of teaching that is used in this plan, for example if they use more formal ways of teaching, or if there is also use of more creative methods, and for example reading for pleasure, which I wrote about (https://blogs.fasos.maastrichtuniversity.nl/EUS2516/lowliteracyineurope/2021/11/14/lezen-voor-plezier-en-motivatie/)?
Hello Julia! I am glad you enjoyed my blog. I have several sources I will link in my reply if you find it interesting to read up on the topic further. From what I have gathered, the Swedish primary schools allow for students to be more creative, and they also ease children into education, which has seemed to work to their benefit.
https://blog.thepienews.com/2019/09/how-scandinavian-teaching-at-a-primary-school-differs-from-british-methods/
https://www.simplylearningtuition.co.uk/advice-for-parents/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-swedish-education-system/
Hi! I really enjoyed reading your blog, it was very easy to follow the arguments and I especially liked the introduction part. If you were to implement some of their best practices into our education system which one would you tackle first?
That is a very good question! I would say that easing children into education goes a long way to promote more interest in learning and by extension reading, which is something that the Swedish school system is known for. Furthermore, I would tackle the cultural perception of literacy in other countries. If literacy is as highly valued culturally in other countries, I think there is a high possibility that the rates of literacy among children and teenagers would increase, as parents would promote reading and writing more towards their children.