Students who fail school subjects far more likely to end up in prison, report finds

Students with failing grades in Swedish schools face significantly higher odds of later being sentenced to prison, according to a new report published by Sveriges Lärare, the Swedish Teachers’ Union, as reported by SVT Nyheter.

The report, titled “F som i fängelse” (“F as in prison”), analysed data from 600,000 students who completed year nine, Sweden’s final year of compulsory schooling, and tracked whether they were later convicted and sentenced to prison up to the age of 30.

The findings show a clear link between failing grades and the risk of imprisonment. Students with even a few failing grades have nearly four times higher odds of being sentenced to prison compared to students who passed all subjects. For students with no more than eight passing grades, the odds are around nine times higher. Students who left school without any final grades face odds up to 14 times higher, and up to 20 times higher odds of being convicted of a violent crime.

In total, 1.4 percent of students covered by the report were later sentenced to prison. In 2025, 28 percent of year nine students had at least one failing grade, and one in five had failing grades in two or more subjects.

Anna Olskog, chair of Sveriges Lärare, described the findings as a systemic failure. “This is nothing less than a major failure of society,” she said. “Behind every statistic is a young person. Getting drawn into crime at a young age is not acceptable.”

Olskog stressed that grades represent access to opportunity. “It is about having the chance of employment and a good life,” she said, adding that teachers could play a preventative role. “We can do more, better, and above all earlier. We teachers can function as a vaccine.”

The report notes that school failure can have multiple underlying causes, including mental health problems, weak attachment to school, and socioeconomic difficulties.

Police union not surprised

Katharina von Sydow, chair of the Swedish Police Federation, said the results did not surprise her. “What police officers see is that despite good police work, the steady stream of new offenders never stops. There is always some form of vulnerability that draws people toward that world instead of taking a different direction in life,” she said.

Von Sydow called for greater focus on crime prevention work, including within schools, arguing that there are insufficient resources to support children during their school years.

Calls for smaller classes and more state responsibility

Sveriges Lärare is calling for smaller class sizes, greater central government responsibility for the distribution of school funding, and more time for teachers to give students the support they need. Olskog noted that the police federation now supports these demands. “We now have the police on our side,” she said.