The Swedish National Agency for Education is canceling the digital national exams this spring, the agency wrote in a press release.
The reason is that several serious shortcomings have been discovered, including students' personal data being leaked to teachers who should not have access to it.
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The Swedish National Agency for Education is canceling the digital national exams this spring, the agency wrote in a press release.
The reason is that several serious shortcomings have been discovered, including students' personal data being leaked to teachers who should not have access to it.
The Minister of Education calls the information very serious and has summoned the Director General of the National Agency for Education.
The Swedish National Agency for Education takes what happened seriously.
– We at the National Agency for Education must take our responsibility. Students' personal data has a special protection value, and we must be completely sure that we can carry out the important national tests in a secure manner and with high quality. I do not see that this is the case now, and I have therefore made the decision to close the test service in the spring of 2025 to ensure that we have a well-functioning solution for the country's schools, says the National Agency for Education's Director General Joakim Malmström in the press release.
This month, students in grades 6 and 9 and upper secondary schools were supposed to have taken digital national exams simultaneously and extensively via the Swedish National Agency for Education's exam platform. But now, according to the National Agency for Education, students will instead take substitute exams with paper and pencil or on the schools' own platforms.
No forecast
The Swedish National Agency for Education has no forecast for when the testing platform can reopen, and regrets the announcement.
– Many principals, teachers and other school staff have put a lot of time and commitment into preparing for the digital national exams. It is therefore extremely regrettable that there will be a delay in the digitalization of the exams and that this announcement comes so soon after the exams, says Anna Westerholm, head of the authority's curriculum department, in a statement.
Education Minister: The data is very serious
SVT News has contacted Education Minister Lotta Edholm (L), who refers to a comment she made to the news agency TT.
"The information that has come in today is very serious. I have already called the Director General of the Swedish National Agency for Education to question me about what happened and what measures they are taking in the short and long term. Now it is obviously even more important to hear how they plan to act in the future, and I am not ruling anything out at this time."
I fully share the frustration that many principals, teachers and students feel. It has been eight years since the Swedish National Agency for Education was commissioned to develop and provide the digital national exams. Despite that, we are here today.
Now I expect the National Agency for Education to urgently ensure that all principals receive clear information and that they ensure that the national exams can be carried out in a different form.”