SWEDEN%20policy%20profile%20-%20published%2005-02-2013

26 - CHAPTER 2. WHERE DOES SWEDEN STAND COMPARED TO OTHER COUNTRIES?
Sweden’s ECEC curriculum (Läroplan för Förskolan – Lpfö 98, revised 2010) is overall a
cogent document that addresses the values and principle that guides ECEC programmes
with specific references to what is expected from centres and staff. Among its strengths are
its holistic orientation and aspects of play and child agency that are integral to the framework.
The curriculum stimulates knowledge and understanding of the national cultural heritage and
promotes democracy. Some areas for reflection and consideration are identified with
Sweden’s curriculum, mainly related to implementation or strengthening staff skills to
respond to changes in society.
Sweden’s curriculum is, as Norway’s framework plan, also a legally binding document, while
New Zealand’s Te Whāriki and Portugal’s curriculum guidelines are not. New Zealand’s Te
Whāriki has, due to its non-legal status, more possibilities to prescribe activities and
practices for staff and include more detailed descriptions of expectations for child
development and staff performance. Norway and Sweden aim at clarifying staff performance
and guiding staff through providing complimentary support materials for staff for
implementation of the curriculum.
Strengths
Continuous holistic child development approach throughout the ECEC period
Sweden, like New Zealand and Norway, has an integrated ECEC system under one lead
ministry. These three countries seek to integrate education and care in order to provide
holistic child development. This means that the development of children is seen as a
dynamic and closely interwoven interaction between their physical and mental
circumstances and the environment in which children grow up.
The integrated approach to ECEC is seen through the use of a single curriculum framework
covering children from birth until compulsory education (Figure 2.1). The school starting age
may differ: in Sweden it starts at the age of seven, while in Norway it starts at the age of six
and in New Zealand at the age of five.
Portugal operates a “split” system where the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity is
responsible for child care (zero-to-three-year-olds), while early education is governed by the
Ministry of Education (three-to-six-year-olds). Many countries with a split system have
created a learning framework for children in the older age bracket of ECEC only: from
around age two-and-a-half or three to compulsory schooling. Portugal’s Core Curriculum
Guidelines for Preschool Education issued by the Ministry of Education covers children from
the age of three until the age of six – the compulsory schooling age in Portugal.
QUALITY MATTERS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE: SWEDEN © OECD 2013