Primary school
In 1842, the Swedish parliament introduced a four-year primary school for children in Sweden, "Folkskola". In 1858 grade 1 and 2 became "Småskola" and children started school at the age of seven. In 1882 two grades were added to "folkskola", grade 5 and 6. Some "folkskola" also had grade 7 and 8, called "Fortsättningsskola". Schooling in Sweden became mandatory for 7 years in the 1930s and for 8 years in the 1950s. Since 1972, Swedish children have 9 mandatory years in school - from August the year the child turns 7 to June the year the child turns 16. Parents in some cases also have the option of delaying starting school until age 8 if deemed to be in the child's best interest.
Secondary school
After three years in "folkskola", children who enjoyed school and had good grades could choose to switch to a secondary school called "Högre allmänna läroverket". Högre allmänna läroverket was not free, so most students came from well-off families. However, some children with good grades got free education at "högre allmänna läroverket" because their parents could not afford to pay for it. In 1905, "högre allmänna läroverket" was divided into a lower level, 6-year school called "realskola" and a higher level, 4-year school called "gymnasium". In 1971, fackskola merged with gymnasium and yrkesskola to become "gymnasieskola".
Grundskola
In the autumn term of 1949, some Swedish school districts introduced an experiment with a nine-year school called enhetsskola. The enhetsskola had three stages. The first 3 years were lågstadium (lower stage), the next three years were mellanstadium (middle stage) and the last three years were högstadium (upper stage). In those school districts, småskola became lågstadium, folkskola became mellanstadium and realskola became högstadium. On 26 May 1950 the Swedish parliament decided to introduce the enhetsskola in Sweden. In 1958 the enhetsskola became försöksskola, which in 1962 changed name to grundskola. By 1972, the grundskola had been introduced in all parts in Sweden, replacing the folkskola and högre allmänna läroverket. From the autumn term of 1994, the official division in three different stages was abolished. In the early 1990s, Sweden also introduced förskoleklass for the children aged 6, a one-year-long grade which first was called årskurs 0 (Grade 0) or 6-årsgrupp (group for the six-year-olds). Förskoleklass, which officially became the name from the 1998-1999 school year, is not mandatory.