The government's school digitization strategy: Fourteen pages worth a round of applause

On Thursday, the government presented the long-awaited national strategy for the digitalization of the school system. The result is a 14-page, clearly formulated list of goals, where we who represent working life are particularly pleased that the role of the outside world is so clearly highlighted. There are a few loose ends, especially regarding the need for resources for skills development, but with these nine target points behind us, it should be possible to sort out the digital skills of the future generation.

Finally, the government's national digitization strategy for the school system has arrived. The result of a long process that, for the IT&Telecom companies, began with the Decision Book in 2013, where we, together with the Computer in Education Foundation, presented five proposed measures to improve school education. Of course, we have not been alone in the persistent advocacy work we have conducted since then, we have had good company from actors such as SKL, Academedia, the Digitization Commission, Swedsoft and not least from the hundreds of teachers and principals who, often in strong headwinds, have had to fight to give digitization as rightful a place in school as in society in general.

The government's 14-page strategy document concentrates on nine goals divided into three areas: digital skills, access to and use of digital tools and resources, and research and follow-up. Those of us representing the world of work would particularly like to applaud the objectives on digital skills. They provide a clear and comprehensive description of the many dimensions of digital literacy; that it is about much more than access to computers or being able to program. What is even more gratifying is that the section is permeated by the fact that skills development must take place in collaboration with working life and the outside world in general. The gender factor is also highlighted; the strategy states that a higher degree of digital literacy among all students will eventually provide a more even gender distribution in IT education, which we certainly need in the industry.

The fact that the strategy is a target document, focusing on what is to be achieved, naturally opens the door to criticism that so little is said about how the targets are to be achieved. What is particularly missing are decisions on the resources that will be needed for principals and teachers to achieve the goals of "adequate competence" stated in the introductory competence section. The goals in the strategy are set until 2022, so we must assume that the government will provide the National Agency for Education with adequate funds in the coming years to be able to make various "lifting" efforts to realize the strategy.

One area we addressed in the Decision Book is strangely absent from the strategy document, namely teacher training. As an outsider, it is always sensitive to criticize the inner world of schools, but when it comes to teacher education, most of the evidence (both formal indications in the form of various reports, as well as informal through various testimonies) points to the same thing: teacher education is substandard. Unlike schools, teacher education is actually something the government controls directly, so it is difficult to understand and a shame to say the least that they have not taken the opportunity here to also set goals for the important role of teacher education in the digitization of schools.

With the strategy behind us, we, or rather the Swedish National Agency for Education and the Swedish Schools Inspectorate, now have the clear tool we need to act as a blowtorch for all schools and their principals. And as I said, we are pleased with the clear place of working life in the strategy. It commits us, and we in the IT industry have more to do to be an effective partner. Much is already being done: study visits, programming camps, inspirational evenings and competitions for school students. However, much is happening under the radar and more coordination is needed to involve all schools. Examples of broader initiatives include Next Up, a competition in which ten schools in western Sweden compete to develop digital solutions run by Universeum in collaboration with IT&Telekomföretagen, and Stockholm IT Region, which has brought together a number of IT stakeholders to jointly encourage schools in the Stockholm area to become "demo schools" for digital development.