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On Monday, GT was able to reveal how parents from Trulsegårdsskolan in Gothenburg were invited to participate in a university study on the physical and mental health of their children.
But there is no collaboration with universities or any study.
Instead, it is a private company, Qleva AB, which with the help of the school and parents wants to evaluate its method and the health application developed.
The CEO of the company, Åse Victorin, also works as a school doctor at Trulsegårdsskolan.
Elementary school children
GT may now reveal that the data collection has been much more extensive and applies to much younger children than previously known.
Lilla Trulsegårdsskolan, with students from kindergarten through year 3, has also urged parents to report sensitive information about their children.
And Lilla Trulsegårdsskolan started her part of the project as early as mid-September. Since then, parents have downloaded the application and responded to the invitation to complete information about their children’s mental state, believing that they participated in a study in collaboration with the University of Gothenburg.
“Led behind the light”
Only on Monday, when GT was able to reveal that there is no such collaboration, director Carina Antonsson Dahlin announced that they would cancel the project with Qleva also in Lilla Trulsegårdsskolan.
– We have simply received incorrect information about that study. It doesn’t feel good at all, of course. “I have trusted the person who presented this material to us,” says Carina Antonsson Dahlin.
Does this mean that parents and guardians have disclosed their children’s information under the pretext that it is a college study?
– Yes, it does.
How do you see that this is the type of information?
– It doesn’t feel good that we did it. I feel like they have taken us a bit behind the light and should have been more vigilant in this regard. I have trusted this person too much.
Risks that damage confidence
Carina Antonsson Dahlin says that even before going out with the parents to participate in the study, she was a little doubtful about the collaboration with the private company of the school doctor.
– But we thought that because it was a study in collaboration with the university and it was a very good purpose, it felt safe. But now I understand that you must not have such blue eyes.
Now lawyers at the University of Gothenburg are reacting to the information. The university’s chief legal officer, Sara Dahlberg, believes this type of misleading information can have far-reaching consequences for confidence in serious investigation:
– We are serious about the name of the University of Gothenburg being misused in this way. There is a risk of damaging research confidence in the long term when this kind of thing happens.
According to Sara Dahlberg, they will not act as the project has now been suspended.
Åse Victorin: “What is serious is our intention”
Åse Victorin, a doctor at the school and CEO of Qleva AB, believes that later, once information from parents has been collected and she has received funding, she could start a study in collaboration with the University of Gothenburg.
– He would not have had to write like that, he could have written that we should start a health work that we want to evaluate. I wrote this so they would understand that it is serious, Åse Victorin explained.
But in what way is it serious to say that it is a study in collaboration with the University of Gothenburg, when there is neither study nor collaboration?
– The serious thing is our intention to make an adequate assessment, that is the serious thing.
Not evil
When asked how he thinks parents react to the fact that what was presented as a university study is actually a private company evaluation of its own tool, Åse Victorin says:
– Little friend. I think most parents understand that this is not bad, it is just to help their children.
How much would it have cost your company to conduct this type of survey if you had not obtained it at your workplace?
– I would never do that, because the company has no money. It’s not on the map.
On Tuesday, Democrats announced that they want the schools’ handling of Qleva AB investigated. Among other things, whether the directors have been exposed to undue influence when they have hired a company with such close ties to an employee.
Guardians and parents must be able to trust their children’s school and its staff. All children should receive a safe and secure education without the influence of individual companies and the ambitions of their owners “writes Jessica Blixt, a member of the Democratic Elementary School Administration, in an application.
