SWEDEN

Simon Parrish

MHS 2000 -2010

STOCKHOLM – AUGUST 2020

Here in Stockholm, we began to feel the effects of the crisis on the back of the February half-term which was in week nine. Many Swedes typically go abroad skiing at this time, and many returned from Italy which turned out to be one of the early hot spots for the Coronavirus in Europe. At this stage the Government urged people returning from the northern regions of Italy to selfisolate. I remember a few members of my class doing this but it became clear later on that not enough had heeded the Government’s advice. The Government later was criticised for not closing down incoming flights from hot-spot areas quickly enough and the real problem came when they were slow to protect the care homes where most of the serious (deadly) cases were to evolve. The crisis was most noticeable between weeks ten to fourteen at the school I teach at. During these weeks we probably had up to a third of students and a third of teachers absent – either due to illness or because some were taking precautions. These were the toughest weeks for two reasons.

Firstly, those of us who weren’t sick were having to cover a lot of lessons and secondly, many were anxious that Sweden was perhaps not doing enough to get to grips with the spread of the virus as country after country initiated full lockdowns. Almost 50 per cent of teachers in our school hail from countries like the UK, Australia, Canada and the US, many of whom no doubt had families going into full lockdown so it was rather unnerving to be in a situation which seemed to be almost like ‘business as usual’. Of course life in Sweden was very far from business as usual (as your data for the economic slowdown proves) but for those of us working in schools it very much felt like it.

The advice from the authorities for those with any flu-like symptoms had initially been two weeks of isolation for every family member, even if they weren’t sick, but this very quickly changed to ‘back to school’ if you were symptom free for just 48 hours. I had colleagues who got sick (presumably from Coronavirus but since there hadn’t been any widespread testing at that stage one never fully knew), self-isolated and then returned to work after two days with no symptoms.

As a school we discussed the changing climate almost daily. We gave the students a study day so that us teachers could work on preparing for distance learning, were this eventuality ever come to pass under a potential lockdown. It never did. But all school trips were cancelled as were exams and afterschool activities. We deployed other social distancing measures in school as best we could, such as by spreading the students’ desks in the classroom, limiting the number of students going into the canteen at the same time, and encouraging the students not to touch or grapple each other, as they tend to do. In reality, it is almost impossible to oversee stringent social distancing measures in a school. I understand that other schools in the country suffered similar staff shortages and many students were pooled into classes where they could be supervised but not necessarily taught. Thankfully, this did not happen in our school but as I said, we all had to put in a tremendous effort to ensure that the children’s education could continue to take place.

But as time went by, I think more and more us reached the conclusion that it had indeed been the right decision to not close schools, particularly now when we read the controversy facing governments in the UK and US, for example, who have to justify that it is safe enough to reopen schools when a few months ago it was deemed too dangerous.

It did not seem that the students were unduly worried by the crisis. If they were, or if their parents were, they tended to stay at home and they were not penalised for doing so by the authorities. Most returned after the Easter holidays and student and teacher numbers returned to almost normal. We continued to set work for those who had to (or opted to) work from home right up until the end of the academic year in the middle of June.

At this time the Swedish government relaxed the rules on how far one was allowed to travel around the country, no doubt to allow families to escape to their summer houses and remote cabins. Imagine the uproar if they hadn’t!!

Now, as the summer holidays have drawn to a close, the plan is for all schools (including gymnasiums) to open more or less as normal. Indeed, today was my first day back for staff training and there was not even a single mention of Covid 19, which I must admit was rather alarming given that we are a staff body of almost 80 and we congregated in the same room for hours with little attention to social distancing. It almost feels like people in authority are loath to tell people what to do, but as you hinted at, Swedes do tend to conform to government advice and social norms a little more readily than perhaps us Anglo-Saxons do…

I think what Sweden has been able to achieve, through constant dialogue and the following of central advice, is a sense of cautious normalcy. Work from home if you can, avoid public transport, keep your distance in public places, don’t socialise with elderly relatives but carry on your business, go to school but stay home if you are sick. It seems that most, but by no means all, are following this advice, and I imagine this is the way it will continue.

Unfortunately, the numbers in Sweden have been comparatively high (compared to our Scandinavian neighbours) preventing many of us from visiting families in the UK or US unless we are prepared to self-quarantine for two weeks first. I guess the proof will be in the pudding when the new academic year kicks off in Europe and around the world and we might learn which countries are better placed to deal with a potential second wave. But for now, a trip to visit friends and family in London still seems some way off.