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TEACHERS

Teacher in Sweden reported to police for ejecting rude pupil

Sweden's teachers union has rushed to defend a teacher reported to the police for physically removing a 15-year-old boy who called his colleague a "whore".

Published: 16 March 2019 17:09 CET
Teacher in Sweden reported to police for ejecting rude pupil
The use of mobile phones was banned in lessons at the school. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT
A boy at a school in Nybro municipality near Kalmar first refused to hand over his mobile phone at the start of the lesson, and then when his teacher admonished him, he called her “hora”, which means “whore” and is highly offensive in Swedish. 
 
Her colleague then threw the boy out of the classroom, after which his parents reported the teacher to the police. 
 
“As a teacher, you need to have the option of admonishing a pupil and giving sanctions when they break the rules,”
Åsa Fahlén, the head of Sweden's teacher's union, told TT.  “It is completely unreasonable that this should be seen as abusive in and of itself.” 
 
The parents' decision to report the teacher to the police has generated heated debate in Sweden since the case was first reported on Tuesday.
 
“In a decent, well-functioning family, it's not OK to call a teacher a whore and then report them to the police,” Lasse Johansson, chairman of the local municipal education department told the local Barometern newspaper. 
 
Jimmy Loord, an MP for the Christian Democrats, told the newspaper that the case marked “a worrying development which underlined the need to make the various roles in schools clearer”. 
 
Fahlén argued that while it was important that teachers behaved appropriately in the schoolroom, they needed to be able to admonish pupils who got out of line. 
 
“There's a risk that we can get to an untenable situation where almost anything can constitute an offence,” she said. “We need to define clearly what an offence is.” 
 
She said that there was an urgent need for the Swedish National Agency for Education to investigate the issue and produce clear guidelines of what behaviour from teachers was appropriate. 

Member comments

  1. There should be a warning system where the teacher uses presactioned phrases such as “this your first warning – if you persist you will be…..” now hand over the phone (for example). Next “After my warning you continued to refuse to comply with my instruction – if you do not comply immediately you will removed, by force if necessary, and reported to the authorities.

    If the disciplinary procedures are known and followed then there is no case to answer.

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MOBILE PHONES

Why Norwegian mobile phone owners pay more for calls to the EU

Do you have a Norwegian mobile phone number? You probably pay more than you think for calls to the EU.

Published: 2 October 2019 12:19 CEST
Why Norwegian mobile phone owners pay more for calls to the EU
Photo: fizkes/Depositphotos

Norwegian companies can charge more for calls made from Norway to EU numbers than for calls made in the EU between Norwegian numbers.

The discrepancy arises from EU rules and can result in unwelcome bills for mobile customers who call EU numbers from Norway.

New pricing rules introduced by the EU in May mean that Norwegian operators must comply with the EU's maximum limit on call rates. That limit was set at 2.31 Norwegian kroner per minute, compared with a Norwegian maximum price of 0.98 kroner per minute.

Although mobile providers can choose to set a price lower than the maximum limit, few do this.

As such, a call made from a Norwegian number to any EU number is subject to the higher rate, but a call between two Norwegian numbers which originated in any EU country will be charged the lower, Norwegian rate.

The Norwegian Consumer Council (Forbrukarrådet, NCC) has criticized service providers over the issue, NRK reports.

Norwegians who have made calls to foreign numbers could receive surprisingly expensive bills, according to NCC’s director Lise Blyverket.

“We as consumers must be aware of this type of preferential treatment. You can speculate as to the reasons, but it seems as though companies have a kind of loophole through which they are able to milk us consumers (for money),” Blyverket told NRK.

Norway’s national communications authority, Nkom, is responsible for ensuring operators comply with EU rules. Nkom head of department Kenneth Olsen told the broadcaster that operators were not bound to the EU maximum rates.

“Operators are free to set the price lower than the maximum prices,” Olsen said.

Service providers Telenor, Telia and Ice all currently charge the maximum rate for calls from Norwegian to EU numbers, according to NRK’s report.

In comments given to the broadcaster, Olsen suggested that a lack of competition was a factor enabling companies to stick to the highest possible call charge.

Telia’s director of information Henning Lunde stated in a written comment to NRK that the company complies with all regulations in the sector.

“When our customers make free calls between EU countries while travelling in Europe, that has a cost for Telia because we pay to use the mobile network in other countries,” he added.

Although the EU’s roaming rules enable Norwegian mobile customers to use their data in the EU at the same rates as in Norway, call charges are not treated the same way since the two areas are treated as different markets.

READ ALSO: EU (and EEA) roaming charges come to an end: What customers in Norway need to know