Municipal student advisory board in Stockholm

In Stockholm Municipality, the politician employed as city commissioner with responsibility for schools (‘skolborgarråd’) created a student advisory board in spring 2021, in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. The intention was not specifically to get the perspectives of students on how the pandemic was affecting them but rather to create a permanent structure. Nevertheless, the theme of the first meeting was the students' views about distance learning. They then discussed the mental well-being of the students following the pandemic and issues such as how to create a good learning environment.
The advisory board comprised approximately 20 students from different schools in the Stockholm area. The students were from both lower and upper secondary schools and their ages ranged from 13 to 19 years. They were not elected representatives of student councils, although the board did include representatives of the three national student associations. The advisory board met five times during the first year, for two hours at a time. The politician in charge participated in all the meetings. Minutes were taken and sent to the students, but no feedback was given on how their input was used. However, the students’ impression was that the politician was genuinely interested and listened with interest. They also felt that their opinions made a difference in the decisions she made. Their impression was that decision makers became more interested in discussions with the students and consulted with them more often. At the end of the first year, they were even invited to an additional meeting because of the war in Ukraine and the integration of refugee children into Swedish schools.
Key learning: Sometimes during a crisis, decision makers need to create new participatory structures to ensure that the knowledge and perspectives of children and youth are taken into account. Once these structures have been created, many decision makers realise the importance and value of talking to children and youth. However, even when decision makers have a genuine interest are taken into account the perspectives of children and youth, it is easy for them to forget to give feedback to the children and youth on how their input was used in decision making.
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