According to a Liberal Party working group, elementary students in Sweden with foreign backgrounds should no longer be allowed to study math in their native language. “We are very skeptical toward the experiment taking place around Sweden right now, with maths being taught in Arabic. The risk is that it will worsen students’ development of Swedish language skills,” said Christer Nylander, member of the liberal Riksdag association.
However, the Green Party has argued that allowing pupils to learn math and other subjects in their mother tongue is effective in encouraging students to take their studies seriously. “The goal still must be to have more students leave elementary school with passing marks in maths, Swedish and English. There are no rational grounds for taking a measure as coercive as a ban,” said a party spokesperson.
According to 2007 statistics from the National Education Agency, more than 18,000 elementary school students in Sweden receive lessons in Arabic, more than any other foreign language. Second most common is Spanish, with 5,000 students being taught, followed by Albanian, Bosnian, Somali and Persian.
