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SCHOOLS

Nine school pupils hospitalized at Hamburg sports event on hottest day of year

Almost fifty rescue workers were called to a pupils' track and field event in Hamburg on Tuesday due to complaints of the heat. It was the hottest day of the year in the Hanseatic city, with the mercury hitting 33.7C.

Published: 30 May 2018 09:44 CEST
Nine school pupils hospitalized at Hamburg sports event on hottest day of year
One of the pupils in Hamburg being taken to an ambulance vehicle. Photo: DPA

Some of the pupils had already completed competitions in long jump and shot put by the time the emergency workers arrived. An 800-metre race meant to take place in the blazing sun at noon was cancelled due to two school kids complaining of breathing problems.

Not long afterward, several other children between the ages of ten and twelve collapsed in the changing rooms, according to broadcaster NDR. A total of nine children were admitted to hospital as a precautionary measure over circulatory problems.

The school management later publicly apologized. In Hamburg, the schools themselves – not the school boards – decide whether events can take place even in high heat.

A spokesperson from the local fire brigade said that 47 rescue workers had been deployed to the track and field event, adding that the temperatures of around 30C combined with physical exertion were the cause of the pupils’ circulatory problems.

For the Hanseatic city, Tuesday was thus far the hottest day of the year. In the central quarter of Veddel, the mercury reached as high as 33.7C.

This surpasses the peak nationwide figure of 33.3C recorded by the German Weather Service (DWD) on Monday in the town of Genthin in Saxony-Anhalt. 

“This has been the warmest day of the year to date,” said a DWD spokesman on Monday.

Elsewhere across the country, the hot, summer-like temperatures meant that thousands of pupils in Lower Saxony were let off from school early on Tuesday, reported Focus Online.

In the district of Lüneburg alone, more than 2,000 school kids were allowed to return home earlier on Tuesday, most of them from 11.30 am.

In the district of Bentheim on the border with the Netherlands, several students were allowed to return home early the previous day.

The decision on whether pupils can be let off school early due to excessively hot weather (referred to as Hitzefrei in German) is made on a case-by-case basis by the school principal if he or she believes the heat significantly impairs the learning environment.

SEE ALSO: 6 German words you'll need to know this summer

Hitzefrei can only be called for pupils up to the tenth grade, meaning that older pupils and vocational students must remain in school until their last lesson.

The extreme heat is forecast to continue into the weekend. According to the DWD, in some German regions maximum temperatures could reach 33C on Friday and up to 29C on Saturday.

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DISCRIMINATION

Schools in Sweden discriminate against parents with Arabic names: study

Parents with Arabic-sounding names get a less friendly response and less help when choosing schools in Sweden, according to a new study from the University of Uppsala.

Published: 6 April 2022 12:05 CEST
Schools in Sweden discriminate against parents with Arabic names: study

In one of the largest discrimination experiments ever carried out in the country, 3,430 primary schools were contacted via email by a false parent who wanted to know more about the school. The parent left information about their name and profession.

In the email, the false parent stated that they were interested in placing their child at the school, and questions were asked about the school’s profile, queue length, and how the application process worked. The parent was either low-educated (nursing assistant) or highly educated (dentist). Some parents gave Swedish names and others gave “Arabic-sounding” names.

The report’s author, Jonas Larsson Taghizadeh said that the study had demonstrated “relatively large and statistically significant negative effects” for the fictional Arabic parents. 

“Our results show that responses to emails signed with Arabic names from school principals are less friendly, are less likely to indicate that there are open slots, and are less likely to contain positive information about the school,” he told The Local. 

READ ALSO: Men with foreign names face job discrimination in Sweden: study

The email responses received by the fictional Arabic parents were rated five percent less friendly than those received by the fictional Swedish parents, schools were 3.2 percentage points less likely to tell Arabic parents that there were open slots at the school, and were 3.9 percentage points less likely to include positive information about the municipality or the school. 

There was no statistically significant difference in the response rate and number of questions answered by schools to Swedish or Arabic-sounding parents. 

Taghizadeh said that there was more discrimination against those with a low social-economic status job than against those with an Arabic name, with the worst affected group being those who combined the two. 

“For socioeconomic discrimination, the results are similar, however, here the discrimination effects are somewhat larger,” he told The Local. 

Having a high economic status profession tended to cancel out the negative effects of having an Arabic name. 

“The discrimination effects are substantially important, as they could potentially indirectly influence parents’ school choice decision,” Taghizadeh said.

“Investigating socioeconomic discrimination is also important in itself, as discrimination is seldom studied and as explicit discrimination legislation that bans class-based discrimination is rare in Western countries including Sweden, in contrast to laws against ethnic discrimination.” 

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