The final grades in the ninth grade continue to drop

Published 26 September 2024 at 19.38

Domestic. The percentage of ninth graders eligible for the high school national program fell by 1.5 percentage points in one year. 83.7 percent of the students who left primary school this spring were qualified, compared to 85.2 percent in 2023, the Swedish National Agency for Education's new statistics show.

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Of the roughly 122,000 students who finished the ninth grade this spring, almost 20,000 students lacked eligibility for upper secondary school.

– It is worrying that the grade results in grade 9 are falling. More students must pass primary school, not fewer. Not passing primary school is a major risk factor for both unemployment and social exclusion, says Anna Castberg, head of department at the Swedish National Agency for Education.

It is 12.8 percent of the students who do not reach the goals in mathematics, and receive the grade F or dash. This corresponds to roughly 15,600 students. Last year, 10.9 percent of the students did not reach the targets in mathematics, the proportion has thus increased by 1.9 percentage points.

– For many students, it is a passing grade in mathematics that is missing in order to you must qualify for upper secondary school. The school system needs to focus on teaching mathematics, says Anna Castberg.

“Socio-economic background”
Regardless of the students' gender or migration background, the parents' level of education has great significance for the grade results. Just over 91 percent of students whose parents have post-secondary education are eligible for some national program in upper secondary school, compared to just under 73 percent of students whose parents have at least upper secondary education. The same pattern is also found in the international studies. The difference between the groups in the spring of 2024 is the largest that has been measured during the last ten-year period

– The students' socio-economic background has a large – and increasing – importance for the grades. In other words, the school today does not succeed in compensating for students' different conditions, says Anna Castberg.

That it would be “socio-economic factors” that explain this pattern has, however, been questioned by modern DNA research that shows that intelligence is a hereditary trait. Because people do poorly in school because of low intelligence, it is likely that their children with low intelligence will also do poorly in school for that reason.