Language teachers need qualification from Language Police Academy -

Language teachers need new qualification from the National Language Police Academy

Language teachers in Sweden will need to comply with new regulations from Skolverket (The Swedish National Agency for Education), which includes a qualification from the National Language Police Academy, it has emerged. The National Language Police Academy is an educational institute that is a part of The Swedish Police Academy.

What does it mean?

The qualification will include legal authority to correct (and in some cases impose fines on) grammatical errors, such as confusion between du and dig, du and ni, de and dem, and also writing words apart when they should be written as one word. Further proposals have been suggested. They include fines for errors in Swedish word order, incorrect verb form uses, and also not using the reflexive possessive pronouns sin, sitt and sina in a correct way. Extra large fines can be imposed if students make repeated mistakes.

The new regulations will take effect as of the autumn. A spokesperson for Skolverket said “Our main concern is personal pronouns, but there are many other areas that are in need of policing, especially now in the age of Internet and social media. We therefore feel it is extremely important to include language teachers in this effort.”

What do Swedish language teachers say?

Swedish language teacher Agneta, who works mainly online, said “I cannot wait for the ability to impose fines. I think it will be a really effective way to stress the importance of these rules to new language students. I know it is very popular to try and explain it in different ways, patiently, and give praise and encouragement. But I am more of a believer in the old ‘stick approach’. I think the fear of making mistakes and having to pay extra fines will generate some excellent study results.”

Agneta’s students have declined an interview.