Sweden Bought Back 1.3 Million Textbooks In A Year

1.3 million textbooks, one grant, one year. Sweden's government called its own recent past "thoughtless digitalisation" and started buying books — 658 million kronor in 2024 and a budget line running past 2026 — while taking the requirement to use screens out of the preschool curriculum. A Year 2 teacher with a trolley of iPads and a reader of the Swedish releases run the autopsy: what was actually decided, why the reading number behind it is really an equity number, and what a country building broadband standards for 2030 can honestly borrow.

Sources: Government Offices of Sweden — Government investing in more reading time and less screen time https://www.government.se/articles/2024/02/government-investing-in-more-reading-time-and-less-screen-time/ · Regeringen — 658 miljoner för inköp av läroböcker (21 Feb 2024) https://www.regeringen.se/pressmeddelanden/2024/02/regeringen-avsatter-658-miljoner-for-inkop-av-larobocker/ · Eurydice — Sweden: more books, less digital learning tools (19 Apr 2024) https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/news/sweden-more-books-preschools-and-schools-and-less-digital-learning-tools · Skolverket — PIRLS 2021 press release (16 May 2023) · DfE — PIRLS 2021 national report for England; Academy trust handbook 2026 (digital and technology standards)

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