Published 2014-05-16

SvD helps young people improve reading and writing skills

SvD has launched a new website to stimulate interest in reading and writing and to aid teaching.

The deterioration in Sweden’s upper-secondary school pupils’ reading and writing skills is causing general concern and has added further fuel to the debate over education in schools. SvD is therefore launching a new website called – SvD Läs och skriv [SVD Read and Write].

The site provides teachers, parents, and pupils with useful tools to stimulate interest in reading and writing and to aid teaching.

It also contains guides to journalism for teachers to use in the classroom. Many teachers devote a lot of time to finding the right kind of original texts for their pupils to use in connection with writing columns or news articles. SvD now offers simple, easy-to-use manuals in PDF format.

The site also provides links to current debates on educational issues as well as SvD’s new interactive series called Skolresan, which highlights good examples of texts and where readers can chat with SvD’s reporter on education issues Maria Sundén Jelmini.

“Our aim is to aid teachers in their everyday work and to inspire pupils. If we can contribute something towards raising young people’s self-esteem and motivating them academically, we will have moved a step closer to reaching that goal. Launching this site is our way of sharing our knowledge of reading and writing with parents, teachers, and pupils,” says Gunilla Asker, SvD’s CEO, adding:

“This is essentially an issue of democracy in the sense that reading and writing skills are the cornerstones of democracy. Our experience is that the issue of school education is currently attracting a lot of interest, not least among our readers. It’s vital that our young people can read and write without difficulty, and for us to be able to contribute to that feels important, inspirational, and fun. You could say that this is closely related to SvD’s trademark.”

SvD’s Editor-in-Chief Fredric Karén says:

“The debate on schools is and will remain the most important election issue, and we will be devoting a lot of editorial space to it. It therefore feels good to be making a contribution and to sharing our knowledge in this way. Reading comprehension is the basis of all learning, and reading widely and often enhances your ability to view issues from different perspectives, to have the confidence and ability to participate in debates and express your opinion. This is important for all pupils, both now and in the future.”

Here is the link to the website