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IMMIGRATION

One third of Swiss teachers ‘face burnout’

One in three teachers in Switzerland say they suffer symptoms of depression at least once a month and are at risk of burnout.

Published: 26 October 2014 22:26 CET
One third of Swiss teachers 'face burnout'
Photo: AFP/Getty Images

That’s one of the conclusions of a study conducted by the University of Northwestern Switzerland (Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz) with backing from the national science foundation.

The study also found that one in five teachers feel ”constantly overwhelmed,” the SonntagsZeitung newspaper reported on Sunday.

The results are based on a survey of 600 teachers across Switzerland’s three major linguistic areas in the fifth to ninth school years.

The study found a high amount of work, conflicts with parents and problem students were among the reasons many teachers were suffering.

A strong majority (87.2 percent) of teachers still found their profession to be “fun” and most said they were satisfied with their profession, according to SonntagsZeitung.

Beat Zemp, president of the federation of German-language teachers in Switzerland, said his organization is calling for a minimum of 22 students per class in a bid to reduce the stress.

The organization is also lobbying for shorter work weeks for teachers, the SDA news agency reported.

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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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