Unqualified and unsuitable teachers in schools – despite teacher certification
The teacher certification system has not led to the intended results. The proportion of unqualified teachers remains high and the system does not effectively prevent unsuitable individuals from teaching, according to the Swedish National Audit Office’s audit.
The certification system, introduced in 2011, aimed to improve the quality of the teaching staff, increase legal certainty for pupils and make the teaching profession more attractive. The Swedish National Audit Office finds no indications that these ambitions have been achieved.
The proportion of teachers with a higher education teaching diploma is roughly similar to before the reform. In addition, many of these teachers teach subjects or in school forms for which they are not qualified. In total, almost 30,000 teachers (converted into full-time equivalents) are currently not qualified for the teaching they conduct, regardless of whether or not they are certified.
“There is a large variation in qualification between different school forms. For example, fewer than one in five teachers in school forms for pupils with intellectual disabilities are qualified for the teaching they conduct,” says Keili Saluveer, project leader for the audit.
The fact that the system has not led to more qualified teachers is partly because the teacher shortage has turned out to be greater than expected. The Government has addressed this by introducing several exemptions from the certification requirement which, in turn, has led to a particularly low proportion of certified teachers in certain disciplines.
The Swedish National Audit Office also notes that the National Agency for Education does not perform a record check or any other assessment of a teacher’s suitability as part of their certification application. This, in turn, is because the Government has not granted such powers to the authority.
“The system is not adequately designed to prevent unsuitable teachers from working in schools. These shortcomings are present both in legislation and in government agencies’ responsibilities and powers,” says Auditor General Christina Gellerbrant Hagberg.
The audit also shows that there are certified teachers who have been convicted of serious crimes relatively recently. The reason they are still working may be that the courts have not informed the Swedish Schools Inspectorate about the ruling, the employer has not checked the record extract, or the teacher was considered suitable despite the ruling.
At the same time, checks performed on non-certified teachers are even poorer. For example, the courts have no mandate to inform the Swedish Schools Inspectorate of such teachers’ criminal convictions. The same applies to disciplinary actions, in which the Swedish Schools Inspectorate only has instructions to investigate filed reports concerning certified teachers. If a report is filed concerning a non-certified teacher, it will not normally open a case – despite the fact that, had the teacher been certified, it would most likely have led to the matter being reported to the Teachers’ Disciplinary Board.
Recommendations in brief
The Swedish National Audit Office’s recommendations to the Government include:
- regularly evaluating exemptions from the certification requirement
- enabling the National Agency for Education to check criminal records
- expanding record checks on school staff
- introducing requirements for education providers to report serious cases of unsuitable and unskilled teachers to the Swedish Schools Inspectorate
- reviewing disciplinary actions to include non-certified teachers and preschool teachers.
The teacher certification system
To obtain teacher certification, applicants must have a higher education teaching diploma. In addition to the diploma, the certification specifies in which subjects, school years and school forms the teacher is qualified to teach. A teacher’s qualifications depend on what they have studied and any professional experience. Since 2011, the National Agency for Education has issued approximately 360,000 certifications to teachers and preschool teachers.