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Sweden moves forward with proposal to add three-year limit for SFI studies

For Members Immigrants studying Swedish for Immigrants (SFI) courses will under a new proposal only have three years to complete their studies before losing the right to take part in classes, Sweden's minister responsible for adult education has said. Advertisement Lotta Edholm, Sweden's Minister for Upper Secondary School, Higher Education and Research, highlighted the fact that many immigrants withdraw from SFI classes early ‒ in 2023, almost half of all SFI students did so. "Many of them have almost certainly had a plan to come back to studies after a while, but that's difficult and the risk is that they lose their Swedish language when they're gone," Edholm told press at a summer fika for journalists. SFI classes have received criticism in recent years for a poor standard of teaching, lack of resources and a failure to fully cater to people with different educational backgrounds. The government, she said, believes that more intensive, more well-coordinated SFI studies are needed for better results. Advertisement She added that it should be possible to extend the three-year limit by another three years if there are special considerations, for example in case of illness. The proposal has been submitted to Sweden's Council on Legislation (Lagrådet) for comment. The council will make sure that the law does not conflict with any existing laws, such as the constitution. Its comments are not legally binding, but are usually followed. Although this specific proposal is the result of a collaboration between the Liberals, Moderates, Christian Democrats and Sweden Democrats, it was originally put forward by the previous centre-left government in 2020. It originally had a proposed implementation date of January 1st, 2025, with an additional three-year transition period for people who are already enrolled on an SFI course. The new proposed implementation date is January 1st, 2026.