Excerpts from introduction
The preschool is part of the school system and rests on the basis of democracy. The Education Act (2010:800) stipulates that the purpose of education in the preschool is to ensure that children acquire and develop knowledge and values. It should promote all children’s development and learning, and a life-long desire to learn. Education should also convey and establish respect for human rights and the fundamental democratic values on which Swedish society is based.
Every single person working in the preschool should promote respect for the inviolability of human life, individual freedom and integrity, the equal value of all people, equality between women and men, girls and boys, and solidarity between people. No child in the preschool should be subjected to discrimination on the grounds of the gender, transgender identity or expression, ethnic origin, religion or other belief, disability, sexual orientation or age, of the child or any person with whom the child is associated, or to any other abusive treatment. All such tendencies should be actively counteracted.
Education should be undertaken in democratic forms and lay the foundation for a growing interest and responsibility among children for active participation in civic life and for sustainable development – not only economic, but also social and environmental. Both long-term and global future perspectives should be made explicit in education.
The preschool should reflect the values and rights expressed in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Education should therefore be based on what is deemed to be the child’s best interests, that children have the right to participation and influence, and that children should be made aware of their rights.