Too many Swedish children in the class – now the school is notified

Published 5 November 2024 at 15.50

Domestic. A primary school in Lund has been reported to the municipality, the School Inspectorate and the Discrimination Ombudsman (DO) after a class division in year 4 was criticized for being discriminatory. The report is based on the fact that a majority of the students with Swedish names ended up in one of two classes.

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In one class in year 4 at Gunnesboskolan in There are only two girls with Swedish names in Lund, while the other has 13 girls with Swedish-sounding names.

This has provoked strong reactions from parents, according to Sydsvenskan.

– It is enough to reading the names on the class list to see that there was a huge division by ethnicity. I find it hard to see how it could be pure coincidence, says one parent to the newspaper.

Another parent worries that the students in the class with fewer Swedish-sounding names will be negatively affected, especially considering that several girls there speak Arabic during breaks, which can make “integration” more difficult.

Principal Pernilla Vesterlund, however, defends the school's decision and says she is surprised by the reactions. She denies that ethnicity has been a factor in the class division and emphasizes that other aspects, such as social constellations, students' knowledge results and need for support, have been weighed.