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EDUCATION

Snakes inspire kindergarten children

Children attending a kindergarten in Roggendorfgasse in Vienna’s Hernals district were horrified to discover snakes in the garden. However, the snakes are harmless and the teachers have cleverly turned the children’s natural fear into curiosity.

Published: 11 August 2014 14:25 CEST
Snakes inspire kindergarten children
A grass snake. Photo: eofdreams

Now the children are working on a project about snakes – learning all about the reptile’s life cycle and how to handle the non-venomous creatures.

"The children have been getting creative – making snakes out of paper, drawing, and exhibiting their works," said kindergarten head Ines Rinesch.

Natural and environmental issues have long been integrated into the kindergarten’s educational work. The children help grow fruit, vegetables and various herbs in the garden, and then help harvest and process the produce.

"Activities like this give children a conscious relationship with nature and are an integral part of the educational work we do in our nurseries," said local Councillor for Education Christian Oxonitsch.

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EDUCATION

Sweden’s Social Democrats call for ban on new free schools

Sweden's opposition Social Democrats have called for a total ban on the establishment of new profit-making free schools, in a sign the party may be toughening its policies on profit-making in the welfare sector.

Published: 18 April 2024 16:09 CEST
Sweden's Social Democrats call for ban on new free schools

“We want the state to slam on the emergency brakes and bring in a ban on establishing [new schools],” the party’s leader, Magdalena Andersson, said at a press conference.

“We think the Swedish people should be making the decisions on the Swedish school system, and not big school corporations whose main driver is making a profit.” 

Almost a fifth of pupils in Sweden attend one of the country’s 3,900 primary and secondary “free schools”, first introduced in the country in the early 1990s. 

Even though three quarters of the schools are run by private companies on a for-profit basis, they are 100 percent state funded, with schools given money for each pupil. 

This system has come in for criticism in recent years, with profit-making schools blamed for increasing segregation, contributing to declining educational standards and for grade inflation. 

In the run-up to the 2022 election, Andersson called for a ban on the companies being able to distribute profits to their owners in the form of dividends, calling for all profits to be reinvested in the school system.  

READ ALSO: Sweden’s pioneering for-profit ‘free schools’ under fire 

Andersson said that the new ban on establishing free schools could be achieved by extending a law banning the establishment of religious free schools, brought in while they were in power, to cover all free schools. 

“It’s possible to use that legislation as a base and so develop this new law quite rapidly,” Andersson said, adding that this law would be the first step along the way to a total ban on profit-making schools in Sweden. 

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