This open access book examines the challenges and issues caused by a move to a marketized education system in Sweden. The impact of declining education standards on the labor market is also discussed.

This book highlights the issues seen in Sweden and suggests policies that can improve education in the rest of the Western world as well.

1. Introduction: The Rise and Puzzling Fall of the Swedish Educational System.- 2. The Silver Age of Swedish Education.- 3. Educational Performance in Swedish Schools—What Are the Facts?.- 4. The Malaise in the School System.- 5. Two Views of Knowledge and Teaching.- 6. The Rise of “Post-Truth” Schooling.- 7. The Deinstitutionalization and Fragmentation of the Swedish School System.- 8. A Perfect Storm.- 9. The Way Forward for Sweden and Other Western Countries.

This open access book examines the challenges and issues caused by a move to a marketized education system in Sweden. Observing the introduction of the school voucher system and a postmodern social constructivist view of knowledge, the move away from objective knowledge is identified as the core reason for Sweden’s current education crisis. The impact of declining education standards on the labor market is also discussed.

This book highlights the issues seen in Sweden and suggests policies that can improve education in the rest of the Western world as well. It will be relevant to students and researchers interested in education and labor economics. 

"This much-needed new book does a superb job of showing that the post-war, post-modern version of education has been a misfortune for Sweden and for every nation that has adopted these ideas. We now know that this anti-authoritarian “child-centered” theory has led to miseducation and severe knowledge deficits, and therefore a greater susceptibility to authoritarianism."

- E.D. Hirsch, Theorist of education and professor emeritus of education and humanities, University of Virginia, author of Why Knowledge Matters

"A bold, brilliant, and controversial book, blaming the decline of Swedish school on the “post-truth” social constructivism guiding Swedish school policy since the 1940´s in combination with an extreme marketization of Swedish education."

- Leif Lewin, Professor of political science, Uppsala University, and in charge of the government commission investigating the transfer of school governance to the municipalities

"This is the book that explains why students entering top university programs in Sweden are increasingly ignorant of fundamental facts of science, unable to construct correct sentences, and helpless in face of basic mathematical problems."

- Markus Heilig, Professor of neuropsychiatry, Linköping University, author of The Thirteenth Step: Addiction in the Age of Brain Science

“Henrekson and Wennström’s masterful documentation of the decline of Swedish education provides an important lesson: What ails Western education will not be solved by simply introducing market competition through charter schools or vouchers. The crux of the problem runs much deeper. It lies in foolish ideas about the nature of knowledge and truth.”

—David C. Rose, Professor of economics, University of Missouri-St. Louis, and

author of The Moral Foundation of Economic Behavior and Why Culture

Matters Most

This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access Utilizes official statistics and policy papers Examines education trends from the 1960s onward Examines the challenges and issues caused by a move to a privatized education system in Sweden

Open Access This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this book are included in the book's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the book's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.