Today marks one month since October 18, when the new government took office and Mats Persson was appointed Minister of Education. SFS was positive that the new minister had a background in the higher education sector and also experience as an economic policy spokesperson. Higher education funding is one of the most important issues for the Minister of Education to handle.
- Even before the government was formed, it was clear through the Tidö Agreement that the government wanted to increase the governance of certain higher education programs, with new detailed requirements in teacher training and social work trainingThe increasingly strict control of the content of education is a threat to academic freedom.
- On November 7, the government presented a budget with cuts in student education funding and fewer education places. The ruling parties also broke their previous promises not to raise the interest rate on our student loans. Smaller, worse and more expensive, is that what we can expect in the coming years?
- The 9th of November the minister accused students of pursuing an identity politics agenda and silent teachers. He suggested that the problem is so widespread that it needs to be mapped. In reality, however, there are no examples of students censoring teachers, but at most students who have reported incidents to the university so that the university can handle it. At the same time, the government is skimping on funding for student influence and does not list the funding of student unions at all. We would like the Minister of Education to value the student perspective more highly. After all, the Government agrees that it is the students who are the ones who provide education, right? .
The new Minister of Education has still not met with SFS, despite repeated invitations, and without talking to the students, it is not surprising if some proposals do not really match what the students are asking for. But things need to get better from now on.
It's been a month, Mats Persson, now you're no longer new to the job. We expect the Prime Minister to soon agree to a meeting so that we can talk together about what policies Sweden as an education country needs, how we can build a strong knowledge nation.