Concerns are growing over literacy rates in Swedish schools, with recent data revealing a significant number of students are struggling with fundamental reading comprehension. The latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study, a global knowledge assessment conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), showed that one in four ninth-graders do not have a basic understanding of what they read. This decline in reading skills coincides with a concerning trend: between 2014 and 2025, tens of thousands of students have failed national reading comprehension tests.
The challenges extend beyond reading, with reports suggesting a broader “writing crisis” is unfolding. Educators are observing a decline in students’ writing abilities, characterized by inconsistent capitalization, frequent spelling errors, disjointed sentences and a lack of structure in their work. These findings highlight the importance of strong foundational skills for academic success and future opportunities.
Eva Lindgren, a professor in the Department of Language Studies at Umeå University and a researcher in writing didactics, has been closely following the debate surrounding these issues. “I think that reading often gets more attention than writing, and this is not a new phenomenon, but has been the case in curricula since the mid-1800s,” she said.
Lindgren emphasizes the importance of both reading and writing, stating, “But writing is likewise crucial, and in many different ways, not just for learning but also from the perspective of freedom of expression and democracy. I often say, simply put, that reading is about being able to absorb information and knowledge, while writing makes it possible to create information and knowledge.”
Teachers Raise Alarm About Writing Crisis
A recent survey conducted by the Swedish Teachers’ Union, Ämnesläraren, revealed that a large proportion of teachers believe students are not mastering basic writing rules or spelling at an age-appropriate level. The survey, which gathered responses from nearly 2,500 teachers in primary and secondary schools, found that 84 percent of respondents believe today’s students write worse than when they began their careers.
Lindgren believes the discussion about the writing crisis is closely linked to societal developments. “We live in a text-based society, but the text and communication landscape has changed with short text messages, more images and videos, abbreviations and emojis, and writing technology that autocorrects,” she explained.
She added, “If you write with a pen or without autocorrect on your phone or computer, you are less used to, for example, starting a sentence with a capital letter. It’s not necessarily a lack of ability, but also habits.”
Lindgren noted that there have been no systematic studies over time that have followed students’ writing skills, making it difficult to definitively conclude whether writing skills or writing methods are worse than they were 20-30 years ago. “I don’t think the picture is unambiguous, and it doesn’t become easier to get a good picture when there are no systematic and long-term investigations. But many teachers testify that writing competence has decreased, and this is something we require to grab seriously.”
PISA May Obscure the View
In addition to the fact that writing has more or less always received less space than reading in curricula, Lindgren points out that political factors may contribute to writing tending to be overlooked. PISA is one example. “They measure calculation and reading comprehension – not writing ability. They do point out that writing is important, but also that it cannot be measured in a credible way. PISA has had a great impact on education policy, not just in Sweden but globally, and this may contribute to the fact that writing skills are somewhat forgotten.”
The Benefits of Being Able to Write
Just as reading is a crucial tool for knowledge acquisition in almost every subject, writing skills are essential, Lindgren emphasized. “When you write, it involves a fairly slow process, especially with a pen, but even when writing on a computer: you start writing something, think, change, rewrite, and so on. In this way, you can process the content, organize and structure your thoughts, and consolidate knowledge.”
However, Lindgren believes the democratic importance of writing skills is often overlooked – that it is a tool for making your voice heard and taking a place in the public conversation. “It can range from being able to formulate a suitably angry note in the laundry room or job applications to being able to communicate with authorities or debate on social media. There is often too much focus on correctness, while the perspective of freedom of expression gets little space: why you should be able to write.”
Unnecessary Emphasis on Correctness in the Debate
During the interview, Lindgren mentioned writing researcher John Hayes’ model “A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing,” which was launched in the 1980s and argues, among other things, that writing is also based on intrinsic motivation and goal setting.
“That the grapheme-phoneme connection sits, that you can write the rules and that you can write by hand, all of that is of course very important. This automates basic skills and frees up working memory for, for example, the content, the recipient or the style. By mastering the writing rules, you also become more confident in your writing identity and confident that you can express yourself in different contexts without fear of being judged,” she said, adding, “I want to challenge the idea that writing must flow completely automatically before you can work with content, purpose, recipient and genres, because relevant content contributes to both meaningfulness and motivation, which are aspects that are also included in Hayes’ model.”
A Complex Process – Which Becomes More Difficult with Concentration Difficulties
Recently, Special Nest reported on new research that has shown a link between the apply of social media and poorer concentration ability, or “brain rot” as it is now also called. And since writing is a demanding cognitive activity, it is not unreasonable to think that constant scrolling also has a negative impact on writing ability – but so far, the research community has no clear answers on that point. There are also no straightforward answers regarding so-called positive spillover effects, that is, that you can indirectly train your focus and your memory by writing. But Lindgren points out that writing is a process that is often underestimated in its complexity.
“Writing seems simple, but it involves several cognitive and motor skills: you have an idea, feeling or mental image that needs to be transformed into words, sentences and a finished text. And not just any words, but you need to be able to grade the words and understand their meaning,” she said, adding, “It is a complex task that often takes time, and therefore places high demands on cognitive resources such as attention and working memory. With a shorter attention span, it becomes much more difficult to even sit down and get that sentence or compile that text.”
Is it Best for Learning to Write with Pen or on Computer?
“Writing with a pen has many positive effects. Partly motor benefits through training fine motor skills, and partly the linguistic understanding and confidence can become stronger by forming the letters by hand. But I think the debate about ‘either pen or computer’ is unnecessarily polarized, because even if students should be able to write by hand, we live in a digital society,” Lindgren said.
