OPINION: The government is erasing digital competence.
Sweden’s Digital Skills Deficit: A Growing Concern
A proposed curriculum change, “Knowledge for All,” suggests removing the concept of digital competence from the core mission of Swedish schools. This comes at a time when the EU, OECD, and neighboring countries are investing heavily in digital skills, AI understanding, and media literacy from an early age. Meanwhile, international assessments show that Swedish youth’s digital skills are declining. To downplay digital competence in schools at this juncture is not caution; it is a failure to take responsibility.
When Mario Draghi presented his report on Europe’s competitiveness to the EU Commission, the message was clear: Europe must regain lost ground through innovation, technological development, and productivity. Education is central to this, where digital competence must be given the same status as reading, writing, and arithmetic.
In Sweden, however, the government has systematically chosen to sideline schools in the national governance of digital competence. Sweden’s digitalization strategy has completely disregarded the role of schools in laying the foundation for digital understanding. The STEM strategy does not address the area. The AI Commission was explicitly forbidden from proposing anything regarding schools. The digitalization strategy for the school system has been scrapped. The teacher education inquiry mentions neither digital competence nor AI. The concept has already been removed from the preschool curriculum, and now primary school is next in line.
The “Knowledge for All” curriculum proposal seeks to remove the concept of digital competence from the core mission of schools and adopts an unwarranted restrictive approach to providing all students with opportunities to develop basic digital skills.
We already know how this will play out. Children from well-educated homes will be compensated at home. But it is the four out of ten students who currently fail basic digital tasks in international knowledge assessments like ICILS who will pay the price. They lack both support at home and soon in school as well.
Our neighboring countries are investing in digital strategies and digital competence with AI knowledge in schools. The OECD and EU are launching a joint framework for AI and information competence in schools in 2026, and the EU’s goal is for 80% of the population to have basic digital competence by 2030. In Sweden, the trend is in the opposite direction; among young people aged 16–24, the proportion who cannot handle everyday digital tasks is increasing. This risks increasing exclusion and worsening young people’s chances in the labor market. It is not only serious; it is socio-economically unsustainable in a country with a shrinking working-age population.
This clashes with our self-image and even more so with the needs of the labor market. What we are seeing now is a political line that, sadly, has survived negotiations behind closed doors, rather than responsible school policy. It is self-evident that everyone should be able to read, write, and do arithmetic, but does Sweden not have higher ambitions for our schools than just ensuring that the already strong succeed? One does not exclude the other. They are not even in opposition. We believe that digital competence should have a clear place in the curriculum so that students can safely and securely handle the digital environment they grow up in from an early age. This requires clear governing documents.
Sweden is a small, export-dependent country with high ambitions for innovation, welfare, and knowledge levels. It starts in the classroom. When the government dismantles the opportunity to develop digital competence early on, we are building on a fragile foundation. If schools are to equip students to take responsibility and contribute to both society and business, the direction must be set with insight and responsibility. Because someone will have to pick up the tab.
Jannie Jeppesen, CEO of Swedish Edtech Industry
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