Inadequate efforts to ensure equity and equivalence in preschools

Preschool is the second largest school form, with over 500,000 enrolled children, costing over SEK 90 billion annually. Preschools’ capacity to accommodate children’s varying conditions and needs is crucial for their continued development and learning.

Therefore, the Swedish National Audit Office has examined efforts by the Government and school authorities to promote equity and equivalence in preschools. The audit shows that preschools have been given limited space in the work of the Government and school authorities. The National Agency for Education’s support and monitoring has been inadequate and the Swedish Schools Inspectorate’s examination and checks on preschools have been barely existent in recent years.

“The central government has an important responsibility to promote equity and equivalence among preschools. It is important that central government support contributes to high-quality preschools, but also that there is functioning monitoring and supervision so that deficiencies are rectified,” says Auditor General Christina Gellerbrant Hagberg.

One of the greatest shortcomings is that the National Agency for Education does not work effectively enough to reach out with its school development support and to ensure that support is relevant and meets preschools’ needs. The National Agency for Education’s monitoring has, to a small extent, highlighted preschools and, in particular, the state of equity and equivalence within them.

“To promote equity and equivalence in preschools, it is important to regularly illuminate differences in conditions between preschools, and over time. The National Agency for Education needs to take greater responsibility in this respect,” says Tove Ahlsten, project leader for the audit.

The audit also shows that the Swedish Schools Inspectorate has barely performed any supervision or quality inspection of preschools in the last five years. The fact that the Inspectorate is to conduct supervision mainly at governing-body level means that they rarely visit schools, which limits the scope of its supervision. For example, preschools’ work to provide accommodate children with special needs is not included in the Swedish Schools Inspectorate’s supervision.

In the assessment of the Swedish National Audit Office, the supervisory system, in which responsibility is shared between municipalities and the Swedish Schools Inspectorate, needs to change. Municipalities’ means for conducting supervision vary, while central government guidance is incomplete.

One way to improve uniformity and due process in preschool supervision is to task the Swedish Schools Inspectorate with inspecting municipal preschools at the operational level, while increasing central government guidance for municipalities’ supervision of independent preschools. Another approach is to transfer the entire responsibility for supervision to the Swedish Schools Inspectorate.