Swedish lessons

摘要

The word "Sweden" was much in evidence when the shadow schools secretary, Michael Gove, addressed the Tory party conference on September 30th. That country's free-market education reforms, he said, would immediately be copied in England were his party to gain power. In the 14 years since Sweden's government started paying private schools to educate children at the taxpayer's expense, 900 new schools, teaching 15% of all children, have opened. Mr Gove conjured up visions of innovative entrants "selling themselves to parents" and driving up standards to previously unimagined heights.