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LUNDSBERGS HAZING SCANDAL

HAZING

Shock and rage as elite Swedish school closes

Students sobbed while others expressed their anger on Wednesday over news that scandal-hit boarding school Lundsbergs would be closed temporarily in the wake of the most recent hazing scandal.

Shock and rage as elite Swedish school closes

“This is horrendous news that we’ve received today, especially for all our students who are completely broken up. You’ve seen how they are crying and the shock that’s spreading among them,” Kajsa von Geijer, a member of the Lundsbergs board, told the TT news agency.

“This is truly a sad day.”

The comments come following news that the Swedish Schools Inspectorate (Skolinspektionen) ruled on Wednesday that the school’s operations will be temporarily shuttered following a hazing incident at the weekend in which two students were burned with an iron.

According to the TT news agency, the mood among the elite boarding school’s roughly 200 students ranged from despair and shock to outright anger. A number of students who left the school on Wednesday were in tears, while others expressed their outrage toward journalists and photographers gathered outside the school.

One Aftonbladet reporter said on Twitter she was called a “whore” by a member of the Lundsbergs student council when she asked for comment on the closure.

Von Geijer told reporters the board will now sit down with the school’s administration and review the decision.

“Our students should feel safe at school, that’s our primary mission and we’re going to do everything to ensure we can continue operations at Lundsbergs,” she said, according to TT.

Counselors were on hand at help the students deal with the news that their school would be closed just days after the autumn term began.

Students will be expected to leave the school during the day on Thursday and seek to enroll in schools in the home municipalities.

The Swedish Teachers Union (Lärarförbundet) welcomed the move to close the school.

“Finally the Schools Inspectorate is flexing its muscle,” union head Eva-Lis Sirén told TT.

“If you get these kind of indications you need to be forceful and show improvement. It’s quite clear that hasn’t happened and that’s something school leadership is ultimately responsible for.”

The closure of Lundsbergs marks only the second time the inspectorate has ordered an immediate shuttering of operations at a school in Sweden, TT reported.

The school, which is the alma mater of Sweden’s Prince Carl Philip and many other members of Swedish high-society, has been hit with a series of reports of students being assaulted in hazing rituals. In May last year, students at the school spoke out after being forced into oral sex and eating manure. In 2011, a student had their nipples burned with an electric fly swatter.

Founded in 1896, Lundsbergs was inspired by British boarding school tradition and currently has an enrollment of around 200 students, around 60 percent of which are boys.

TT/The Local/dl

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SCHOOL

How Germany plans to help working parents with guaranteed all-day care for children

Working parents often face difficulties in finding childcare for school-age children that lasts all day. But the German government has taken a huge step forward to tackle this.

How Germany plans to help working parents with guaranteed all-day care for children
Children in after-school care in Germany. Photo: DPA

Germany’s grand coalition plans to introduce a legal right to an after-school care space for all children in primary schools. 

From 2025, the government wants to see these youngsters have the right to care that lasts until the end of the working day. A special fund totalling €2 billion has been set up to fund the initiative. 

The cash boost is earmarked for states and local authorities to invest in Germany’s 15,000 primary schools or build more premises for all-day services.

Currently, after-school care is set up in schools but spaces fill up fast and children often miss out on places, meaning parents have to work fewer hours or opt for more expensive private care.

READ ALSO: Why are parents suing for a childcare spot in Germany?

One million additional places needed

The legal changes, which will then pave the way to the actual legal entitlement to all-day places, will be initiated at a later date. Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and the CSU along with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) had previously agreed to introduce these measures by 2025 to improve the compatibility of family and career.

In an interview with German daily Die Welt this week, Family Minister Franziska Giffey said that in addition to reconciling work and family life, it was about offering children the chance to do something stimulating after school.

The SPD politician estimates that 75 percent of primary school children need an all-day place and that up to one million additional places would have to be created at the schools. 

There is a particular backlog for demand in western Germany. Eastern regions are less affected, partly because state child care was already the norm in East Germany, where the idea of working women was part of the model of socialist society. The infrastructure remained in place after reunification.

“While traditionally more than 90 percent of children in the east have the possibility of an all-day school place, in the west it is only 30 percent in some cases,” Giffey said.

READ ALSO: How a childcare crisis is leaving Berlin parents stuck at home with their kids

Family Minister Franziska Giffey visiting a Kita in Mainz on October 31st. Photo: DPA

How does after-school care work in Germany?

In Germany, before-and after-school care is typically provided by on-site ‘school clubs’ (Hort), usually only available to children attending the school in question, or at an off-site premise. 

Day care is typically organized by the individual school, and will provide services based on local demand and facilities available. It would usually close between 4 and 6pm depending on the facility.

Fees for before or after-school care are usually fairly reasonable; however this will vary depending on the facilities offered (for example if meals are given too), the number of hours and competitiveness of the region.

'Children have right to high-quality care'

The German Confederation of Trade Unions (DGB) welcomed the move to bring a legal right to all-day care for children but warned it could fail due to lack of staff. 

The 16 states must “immediately massively expand their training capacities for educators and primary school teachers”, deputy head of the DGB Elke Hannack told DPA

The legal right to full-day care is a milestone in social and educational policy, “but children and parents also have a right to a high-quality childcare place,” Hannack said. “It is therefore important that this legal right is guaranteed by well-trained specialists.”

According to calculations by the German Youth Institute (DJI), significantly higher investments than the planned €2 billion will be needed before the legal entitlement can be enforced.

In order to actually cover the expected demand for places from 2025, the institute estimates that €5 billion is needed.

They said that was because new population projections by the Federal Statistical Office show there will be a significantly higher number of primary school-age children in the coming years than expected.

The DJI puts the current operating costs for all-day care from 2025 at around €3.2 billion per year.

Germany to improve childcare in Kitas

Childcare has been receiving a boost in Germany in recent months. As the Local recently reported, Germany's 16 states are set to receive a share of about €5.5 billion from the government over the next three years for daycare centres (Kindertagesstätte or Kita for short).

They want to provide a higher quality of pre-school education for youngsters, reduce the costs of childcare for families, as well as decrease the burden on working parents.

READ ALSO: Explained: How each German state plans to improve childcare and lower Kita costs for families

Vocabulary

Primary school – (die) Grundschule

All-day care – (die) Ganztagsbetreuung

All-day care place – (der) Ganztagsplatz

Primary school children – (die) Grundschulkinder

Legal right – (der) Rechtsanspruch

Additional – zusätzlich

We're aiming to help our readers improve their German by translating vocabulary from some of our news stories. Did you find this article useful? Let us know.

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