- The reductions in teaching materials in the Swedish school have led to many teachers manufacturing their own teaching materials, according to the interest organization Läromedelsförfattarna.
- This worries the former Minister of Education, the environmentalist Gustav Fridolin, who is currently investigating the issue of teaching materials for the government.
- “It is time that could otherwise go to the direct contact with the students,” says Gustav Fridolin.
– It is time that could otherwise go to the direct contact with the students and what is required to prepare teaching and make sure to have that extra motivating conversation with the student who needs it, says Gustav Fridolin (MP).
Gustav Fridolin is tasked by the government to investigate and propose measures to strengthen the position of teaching aids in schools. On 15 August, he will present his conclusions.
It is about both digital textbooks and traditional textbooks. Today, there are no provisions on teaching materials in the Education Act and that expenditure item has decreased by two thirds since the 1980s.
Åsa Fahlén is chairman of the National Union of Teachers and critical of the fact that the production of teaching materials has become a task for teachers.
– Manufacturing is very much about sitting and writing and you do exercises yourself and that you sit and make compendiums and so on. And this is actually, unfortunately, a culture that has been cultivated and rewarded a bit in schools. It is considered a little nice to sit and make your own. Yes, it is even encouraged.
– This is in many ways an economic issue. It’s really nice if the teachers sit and produce themselves, so you don’t have to buy in, says chairman of the National Union of Teachers Åsa Fahlén.
Both Åsa Fahlén and Gustav Fridolin believe that the choice of teaching materials is a task for the individual teacher. In a survey, conducted by the interest organization Läromedelsförfattarna, 86 percent of the teachers surveyed state that they do not have the opportunity to purchase the teaching materials needed in teaching.
– Digitization risks leading to the power over the purchase of teaching aids, once you buy teaching aids, being moved to a more central level, says Gustav Fridolin (MP).
Source: ICELAND NEWS