IES to close Stockholm flagship school leaving 159 students stranded
In a press release, the school chain said it would close Internationella Engelska Gymnasiet Södermalm (IEGS) in June 2026, beginning the process in August, when no new students will be admitted for the 2025-2026 school year.
The chain said that while the 391 students already in grades two and three would be able to complete their education at IEGS, the 159 students who joined the school in August 2024 would need to find a new school by the time school started again in August this year.
"This is sad news and our main focus now is to secure the students' right to complete their education in the best way, either with us or with other school operators," said Linda Öholm, head of public affairs at Internationella Engelska Skolan (IES). "We will offer our students support in this process and have initiated dialogue with other operators."
Students, teachers and parents have protested the decision, with Abdiraham Mohamed, one of the affected students, launching a petition calling on Stockholm's city government to take over ownership of the school to save students from "unwarranted interruptions" and and "unstable" educational future.
"It would be far better for Stockholm Stad to take over an already established school like IEGS than to start a new one from scratch," Mohamed argued in his petition. "If the IES company has failed us, we cannot let the Swedish government, especially the Board of Education, abandon us."
One of the teachers told The Local that the school's plan for a staged closure would be a "huge problem" for the 66 International Baccalaureate students as they would be forced to leave the school half way through their IB diploma.
"It's really difficult to transition from halfway through a qualification, because the IB diploma is a two-year programme, and at the moment, there aren't enough other IB places in Stockholm to place them," she said.
Even thought the International School of the Stockholm Region has plans to expand, she said, the law in Sweden caps the number of IB students at schools at 90, meaning they could not take anywhere close to all of IESG's students.
Two of the other international schools are private, with high fees, and the fourth school is the elite Sigtunaskolan Humanistiska Läroverket, which, while free for day students, is one hour's commute each way from Stockholm Central.
The teachers said that the students had been "devastated" when they were told of the closure.
"They were asking 'why did you take us on if you knew that this was going to happen?'" she said. "A lot of the parents have also been in contact. I had an email from one of my mentor student's parents, just saying they were really upset."
IEGS is the only upper secondary school run by IES, which operates 47 elementary and lower secondary schools around Sweden.
According to IES, the school has not been financially viable for several years, which was why the company had decided to close it when the current lease on the building expires in 2026.
'This is the most responsible thing to do under the current circumstances. Although the school has provided high-quality education for 25 years, the number of applicants has gradually decreased in recent years, which is why we are closing the school," Öholm said.
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