Foreign-born pupils less likely to get into upper secondary schools
While more ninth-graders in Sweden are making the grade for upper secondary school, there is still a gap between pupils with foreign and Swedish backgrounds.
According to a new report from the National Agency for Education, 15.6 percent of pupils in ninth grade – the final year of compulsory schooling – fail to get good enough grades to enroll in upper secondary school. That is an improvement on last year when 17.5 percent were ineligible.
The National Agency for Education report also shows that some students are more likely to fall behind than others. Newly arrived immigrants or those who arrived in Sweden at an early age, for instance.
Anna Österlund is head of a department at the Agency for Education that focuses on newly arrived pupils. She tells Radio Sweden that each group needs to be examined separately in order to understand why they are falling behind.
