10 Aralık 2013 Salı

Sweden proposes ban on fees for national boarding schools

Sweden’s government has proposed barring the country’s prestigious national boarding colleges from charging costs to mothers and fathers, rather turning them into government-funded free colleges.


“It really is tough to defend the fact that a decide on couple of schools need to operate below entirely diverse terms from all the rest,” Jan Björklund, the country’s training minister, advised state radio as he announced the policy on Tuesday morning.


Under the ministry’s proposal, the country’s 3 remaining boarding colleges – Lundsberg college, Sigtuna humanitarian school, and Grennaskolan – would drop their charitable standing and as an alternative turn into cost-free colleges funded fully by the government.


Björklund argued that the specific regulation underneath which the personal boarding schools are run is at odds with the totally free colleges policy Sweden pioneered in the early 1990s.


“We want all independent schools to be open to all students regardless of their parents’ economic situations,” he said. “It is strange that there has been a various law for these colleges for much more than 40 years.”


Two of the schools, Lundsberg and Sigtuna, were explicitly modelled on British public colleges this kind of as Eton and Harrow when they have been established in 1896 and 1900 respectively. Amongst them, they have educated significantly of Sweden’s royalty and company elite. King Carl XVI Gustaf attended Sigtuna, as did Marcus and Jacob Wallenberg, from Sweden’s most powerful organization family members.


Lundsberg alumni consist of Prince Carl Philip and Olof Palme, Sweden’s prime minister in the 1970s and early 1980s.


The third college, Grennaskolan, founded in 1963, is less favoured by the elite.


Björklund stressed that his proposal had practically nothing to do with the forced closure of Lundsberg in August following a series of bullying scandals.


“We commenced the investigation lengthy prior to the information and I want to emphasise that the rule alter has absolutely nothing to do with what has happened at Lundsberg in excess of the past year,” he stated.


The college reopened just above a week soon after it closed, when its board successfully challenged the Swedish colleges inspectorate in court.


Johan von Schéele, chairman of the Lundsberg college basis, explained the school’s financial department had assured him that Björklund’s proposals would not lead to dramatic changes. “This is not going to modify the economic system of these varieties of schools in Sweden, or just to a small degree,” he stated.


He explained he anticipated the adjustments to impact only charges paid for the educational elements of the college, and not these paid by parents residing in Sweden for accommodation or recreational activities. “I haven’t seen the proposals so at the second this is just guessing,” he additional.


Lundsberg and Sigtuna have in latest years faced a string of scandals in excess of bullying.


This year, police grew to become concerned when a boy at Lundsberg was taken to hospital soon after he was burned with a hot iron by a gang of nine other boys.


When allegations of bullying at Lundsberg initial surfaced in 2011, one particular pupil informed Swedish tv it was “like Lord of the Flies”.



Sweden proposes ban on fees for national boarding schools

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