Promising (S)coal pipelines, but no full-fledged digitization yet

Flags for coding in secondary schools. Budget investment in teachers' skills. Stockholm will have a programming commission. However, we are still waiting for a full-fledged digitization initiative, which includes substantial efforts for both teachers' and principals' digital skills and programming on the schedule throughout the school.

In recent days, the government has made some exciting announcements about school digitalization. During the government and industry talks on Friday, Minister for Upper Secondary Education Aida Hadzialic said that an IT strategy for schools was underway, which would include coding at least at upper secondary level (verbally, she said that primary schools would also be covered). Yesterday, Tuesday, the government presented much-needed investments in teachers, including one in special education skills. In a debate article this morning, Minister for Enterprise Mikael Damberg and Karin Wanngård, Mayor of Stockholm, highlighted investments being made in Stockholm as a start-up city, including a programming commission that will investigate how programming can be given a greater place in school education.

So, there is a lot going on, but it is still quite fragmented. What we need to see is a comprehensive digitization strategy that covers both the digital skills of the entire school organization (not only teachers, but also school leaders and teacher training) and the knowledge content, in the form of programming and digital creation. It is hoped that the government will take the opportunity to present such a strategy now for the budget bill.