The Government's cultural policy objective for children and young people is to promote opportunities for children and youth to participate in cultural life and to exercise their own creativity and self-expression. The national cultural policy objectives adopted by the Riksdag in 2009 state that the right of children and young people to experience culture should receive special attention.
According to the curriculum for the compulsory school system, preschool classes and out-of-school centres, creative activities and play are vital components of active learning. Drama, rhythm, dance, musicking and creativity in art, writing and design must be elements of schools' activities to enable pupils to develop their own creative abilities.
The Government is investing in creative schools
The Government's long-term Creative Schools Initiative aims to offer all children, regardless of their circumstances, good opportunities to experience professional cultural activities and develop their own creativity, as well as to achieve better goal fulfilment at school. Since 2011, the Government has provided SEK 150 million per year, targeting all years of compulsory school (grades 1-9). Compulsory school, compulsory school for pupils with learning disabilities, special school and Sami school are included. Virtually every municipality has applied for funding at least once.
Funding can be sought for:
purchasing cultural activities, such as performances or guided tours at museums,
activities that promote individual creativity as part of the learning experience, a teacher of the arts of other professional cultural operators to be involved in the efforts, and
initiatives that promote improved structures for long-term collaboration between the various grades 1-9 of compulsory school and cultural operators which may include costs for joint seminars or conferences aimed at strengthening the cooperation between schools and cultural life.
Examples of activities include animation, architecture, storytelling, circus/contemporary circus arts, dance, design, drama, film, photography, handicrafts, cultural heritage, literature, media, museums, music, comic strips, craft, writing, singing, theatre, visual arts.
Creative Schools Initiative has improved pupils' access to professional cultural activities
The Swedish Arts Council allocated SEK 156 million to 252 municipalities and 126 independent schools in 2012, involving over 620 000 pupils in grades 1-9 throughout all the nations counties. According to a follow-up on the Creative Schools Initiative by the Swedish Arts Council for the 2010/2011 school year, pupils in 80 per cent of cases were involved in planning the projects. School organisers are of the opinion that the initiatives have improved the cooperative environment in schools and strengthened pupils' self-esteem and self-confidence.
Cultural institutions develop child-specific strategies for their activities
The Government has tasked state-owned cultural institutions with integrating the child's perspective into their activities. In the policy document from 2011, 26 state-owned cultural institutions were instructed to design strategies for their child and youth activities for 2012-2014.
The strategies submitted to the Government reveal that the institutions have based their activities on the cultural policy objectives and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The strategies describe forms for young people's influence and participation, as well as the parties that are responsible for follow-up and implementation. Examples of activities include school competitions, experiential environments that inspire children, and efforts to actively market the activities to children and young people. The Government will follow up implementation of the strategies on a yearly basis in dialogue with the institutions.
The Government wishes to promote reading among children and young people
Several studies indicate a negative trend in reading comprehension, reading and interest in literature among children and young people in recent years. The Government has set up an Inquiry on Literature (Ku 2011:4, ToR 2011:24), which will analyse and propose ways to strengthen the interest of children and young people in reading, writing and literature. The Inquiry is to present its final report on 1 September 2012. The Government will later present proposals for improvement measures.