School digitalization: We have a plan, Fridolin!

National coordination of the use of IT in school education has long been a sad chapter. For eight years, we have been able to blame a certain Alliance education minister who regarded IT as something that interferes with learning and therefore has no place in schools. This when society in general, and not least the students' future working life, is completely IT permeated. With a new minister, one could hope for change.

In opposition, Gustav Fridolin joined the chorus of critics against the former minister's digital hostility, but since coming to power, things have been quieter. Now, however, we have seen indications that something is happening. A TV4 report on M's proposal for programming on the school timetable mentioned that a national action plan from the government was underway. In the printed version of Dagens Samhälle on April 23, Fridolin repeats this, and also promises that the plan will come this year.

IT&Telecom companies are one of many parties that have long demanded that the government take responsibility for coordinating the many and varied initiatives that exist at school and principal level. In 2013, together with Computers in Education, we presented the Decision Book, which contains proposals for action in five areas (knowledge centers, teacher and principal competence, teacher training and research). Since then, more water has flowed under the bridge and in the last year the importance of programming and digital creation has been put on the agenda.

From the IT industry's point of view, we see that both programming in schools and the effective use of digital methods in teaching are crucial to meeting the industry's future skills needs. In the report Acute and structural skills shortage in the IT and telecom sector that we presented in March, we highlight several proposals for action that deal with schools. And we have more detailed and well-founded proposals that we are more than happy to have a dialog with Fridolin about, now that he has a plan underway.

Because the issue is urgent. And it is a little worrying that Fridolin, in the above-mentioned TV4 report, seems to be slipping into the same mindset as the former education minister, when he says: "IT is all very well, but first the children must learn to count, read and write". As if there were a contradiction! Has the Minister of Education ever heard of the IT-based method ASL, writing to read? To take one example out of many.

Proposals for action, from the report Acute and structural skills shortages in the IT and telecom sector, page 17:

Dedicate resources to research and methodological development on digitally-based teaching methods.

Introduce teaching with digitally based methods as compulsory elements in both teacher and headteacher training, as well as provide in-service training in the form of a digital skills boost for active teachers and headteachers.

Develop an investment plan to ensure equal access to infrastructure and learning resources in all schools in the country, based on a mapping of the current situation.

Introduce programming and digital creation as a compulsory course element in the curriculum, with an associated training plan for how to teach this course element. Programming and digital creation should be clearly embedded in teacher training programs and the aforementioned digital skills boost should also include continuous training in programming for existing teachers.

Mathematics, in particular its applied parts, is an important ingredient of programming and should be made more creative and stimulating through the effective use of different digitally based teaching methods.