The Swedish Schools Inspectorate will withdraw the licence of Katolska skolan av Notre Dame in Gothenburg after the New Year. The authority says the operator has failed to meet duties required under school law. About 350 pupils will need new placements, making a workable transition a central consequence of the decision.
Dagens Nyheter reports that approval for the operator, Vår Fru, is being withdrawn. The Inspectorate cited serious and far-reaching shortcomings involving confessional elements, teaching time and degrading treatment. The authority said it had received reports that staff had subjected pupils to degrading treatment.
This is not an isolated intervention. DN reports that the school received a warning in February, backed by a potential fine of SEK 750,000 if it did not correct the shortcomings. It had also faced criticism in 2018, when the Inspectorate found that violence and degrading treatment meant the environment could not be safe for all pupils. That record makes the withdrawal understandable. In our view, a licence cannot become an indefinite reprieve where core school responsibilities repeatedly fail.
Closure does not end the public obligation. Around 350 children will need to change schools after the New Year, and families need practical information about places, timing and the conditions of transfer. Those details are absent from the material reported by DN. It also does not say whether the operator will appeal or what effect an appeal could have on the timetable.
Closure can be deeply disruptive for children and families with long ties to the school. That is why pupil placement must be treated as a central consequence of the decision, rather than an administrative afterthought. The disruption to families does not make persistent failures of school responsibility acceptable. Pupils’ right to a safe and functioning education must outweigh the operator’s continued permission to run the school.
Sources
- Dagens Nyheter · Source date: 2026-11-10
Independent editorial content. WUA is not affiliated with any political party. 2026-11-10