What we can learn from Swedish schools | 63
REGULATION OF INDEPENDENT
SCHOOLS IN SWEDEN
Unfortunately this is not quite the end of the story. Independent
schools in Sweden do face a considerable degree of regulation,
particularly when it comes to the two-stage process of registering
for a National Agency of Education licence, which is required in
order to receive taxpayer funding.24
Stage one evaluates the suitability of the proposal for a school.
The application has to demonstrate, among other things, that at
least 20 students are willing to attend the school, how the school
will obtain suitable premises and start-up funding, how it will get
qualified teachers and follow the national curriculum, and how its
admissions policy is fair.
The second stage evaluates the likely effects that a new
independent school will have on municipal schools in the area. To
pass this stage, the proposed school cannot have too great a
negative effect on the local municipal schools ie. it can't attract
too many pupils from them. Municipalities do have a right to
appeal at this stage, although the decision of the National Agency
of Education is final.
These two stages take at least 18 months, but regulation does
not stop once approval of a new independent school has been
granted. The school is approved on the basis of the profile,
capacity and curriculum it has set out in its initial application and
is not allowed to deviate from this design without re-applying for
permission. To ensure this is the case, the school has to remain
open to inspection by the National Agency of Education and the
local authority.
This adds up to quite an onerous regulatory burden. As Nick
Cowen of the Civitas think tank puts it:
"It is through this application process that the Swedish
Government keeps a tight rein on the independent school sector, and
the fact that part of the process is explicitly designed to protect
already existing schools brings into question how much this system
could be described as a competitive market."
But there are some rays of light. Firstly, the national
curriculum, which independent schools have to follow, is less
burdensome than in the UK. The government sets the objectives
� what pupils should know by a certain stage � but unlike the UK
does not stipulate how they should be achieved.
Secondly, independent schools are not restricted to employing
only teaching staff who have a degree in education at the
government-run teaching colleges. By contrast, British state
schools have had enormous problems employing successful
teachers (or even headteachers) from the independent sector who
have not ticked all the regulatory boxes.
Thirdly, while independent schools are not given start-up
capital grants, the costs of entry are reduced significantly by
limited central regulation of the standards that school premises
have to meet. The creation of small schools is also encouraged,
For further discussion of regulation in the Swedish education system, see Cowen, N., `Swedish Lessons: how schools with more freedom can deliver better
ucation', Civitas, June 2008; Cabinet Office, `School Reform: a survey of recent international experience', June 2006

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