The school situation for young people in socially deprived areas

Children and young people in schools in deprived areas show worse school results than in other areas in Sweden. This is shown in a study by the Swedish National Board for Youth Affairs.

The situation young people find themselves in and circumstances around their childhood and adolescence vary in Sweden. The report Fokus 08 - The living conditions of young people in socially deprived neighbourhoods in Sweden highlights the situation in four socially deprived housing areas in Sweden: Araby in Växjö, Hjällbo in Göteborg, Husby in Stockholm and Rosengård in Malmö.

The results show that young people living in socially deprived housing areas show worse school results than in other areas in Sweden. Young people growing up in these areas have an inferior starting point, compared with students living in more affluent areas.

Earlier research shows that pedagogic work in the school, the mix of students in the school, the parents’ level of education, their position in the labour market, immigrant background and which area the family lives in, decisively affect both school performance and decisions about school and education.

Proportion of students qualifying for national programmes
We have studied four primary schools in socially exposed housing areas, and while the proportion of those students qualifying for national programmes is fixed on around 90 per cent in the country at large, it stays at around 60 per cent in three of our four schools in socially deprived areas.

How long a young person has been living in Sweden affects his or her educational results. Insufficient Swedish will affect the chances of profiting from the teachings. Many parents often have deficient Swedish too, which makes it difficult for them to help with school work and other issues which have to do with school and education.

The success of the students cannot always be measured in pass grades, and this is a cause of frustration for teachers and headmasters. The work teachers and schools do, and the students’ individual progress do not show in the statistics. They call for a tool that measures and illustrates the progress for students and parents.

A good teacher is extraordinary important in socially deprived areas. One criterion, according to research, of successful schools is competent teachers with high and positive hopes on their students.

About the socially deprived areas

• Distressed neighbourhoods have a young population.


• The proportion of young parents is considerably higher in the four studied areas compared with the country at large.


• There is no great difference in the proportion of students in the deprived areas and the country at large.


• The number of people between 18 and 64 years of age who receive long term income support was considerably higher in the studied areas, between 8-21 per cent, while the number in the whole country was 1,5 per cent in 2006.