Swedes want return to state-run schools: report

Totally agree, I was quite shocked to learn its not nationalised. Your scoring is based per school and can be quite determined by teacher student relationship which I feel isnt fair!

This is how politics are made. In Feb. the education minister says the school system must be changed, now follows a study with a bit more than a thousand people being polled, supposedly representative for all Swedes (my eye) "Swedes want to ...", indicating the same direction. How long will it take, until the government questions the freedom of choice of school? Whatever is being said about the Swedish school system may be true. Nevertheless, considering the fact that Sweden is one of just a few countries, where there's freedom of choice of school, Sweden does quite well in the so-called PISA studies compared to countries which know state run schools only. And to believe that state-run schools are a means to ensure equal possibilities for all scholars is naive. Just ask people from countries whith state controlled schools.

Did the study also find that 75% of Swedes are brainwahsed and want their children brainwashed by state institutions so the can live the socialist ideal and be "average" but not above like everyone else

Swedish schools were nationalized until 1991 when former Statsminister Göran Persson, then School minister, made the around 290 communes of Sweden responsible for their schools. I think it was mostly an effort to save money.

@ Beavis - well put sir (or madam - excuse my ignorance).

@Krattan - save money, perhaps, but methinks a more likely scenario might be found in Beavis' comments; easier to control them.

Any system that allows scientologists and other religious groups access to young children has to be wrong.

Segregation on religious lines is socially divisive and will lead major social problems - Northern Ireland is underpinned by religious control of schools.

@engagebrain - Well said

@fbb - Sounds suspiciously like a bureaucrat defending their system. The system will be much easier to defend when the scores of Swedish students are better than those of the Finns who have a nationalized system. Or, perhaps you would prefer a system of madrasas or parochial schools? As engagebrain pointed out, a system that accepts scientology is suspect at best. According to articles carried in The Local, kommuns are already complaining about an inability to provide qualified teachers. By all means, let's have a system that functions as well as the ambulance system that does not respond to a call unless the caller is unable to speak.

How about offer the possibility of both? It doesn't have to be either one way or the other. Then parents can choose. In my view, the idea of state-run schools is similar to the concept of Communism: sounds great in theory but it crashes and burns every time someone tries to put it into practice. One of the things that could happen is that it will be run the same way the national healthcare system is. Children may be assigned to a school clear across town because administrators decided it is easier to do the paperwork, never mind where the child lives. The vårdcentrals work that way, then why not the schools? Children may find themselves having to commute long distances every day just to go to school.

Next step, ..... close down all religious schools, as they only divide children, and are breeding grounds for hate, intolerance and bigotry.

Bilingual Muslims children have a right, as much as any other faith group, to be taught their culture, languages and faith alongside a mainstream curriculum. More faith schools will be opened under sweeping reforms of the education system in England. There is a dire need for the growth of state funded Muslim schools to meet the growing needs and demands of the Muslim parents and children. Now the time has come that parents and community should take over the running of their local schools. Parent-run schools will give the diversity, the choice and the competition that the wealthy have in the private sector. Parents can perform a better job than the Local Authority because parents have a genuine vested interest. The Local Authority simply cannot be trusted.

The British Government is planning to make it easier to schools to "opt out" from the Local Authorities. Muslim children in state schools feel isolated and confused about who they are. This can cause dissatisfaction and lead them into criminality, and the lack of a true understanding of Islam can ultimately make them more susceptible to the teachings of fundamentalists like Christians during the middle ages and Jews in recent times in Palestine. Fundamentalism is nothing to do with Islam and Muslim; you are either a Muslim or a non-Muslim.

There are hundreds of state primary and secondary schools where Muslim pupils are in majority. In my opinion all such schools may be opted out to become Muslim Academies. This mean the Muslim children will get a decent education. Muslim schools turned out balanced citizens, more tolerant of others and less likely to succumb to criminality or extremism. Muslim schools give young people confidence in who they are and an understanding of Islam's teaching of tolerance and respect which prepares them for a positive and fulfilling role in society. Muslim schools are attractive to Muslim parents because they have better discipline and teaching Islamic values. Children like discipline, structure and boundaries. Bilingual Muslim children need Bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods, who understand their needs and demands.

None of the British Muslims convicted following the riots in Bradford and Oldham in 2001 or any of those linked to the London bombings had been to Islamic schools. An American Think Tank studied the educational back ground of 300 Jihadists; none of them were educated in Pakistani Madrasas. They were all Western educated by non-Muslim teachers. Bilingual Muslim children need bilingual Muslim teachers as role models. A Cambridge University study found that single-sex classes could make a big difference for boys. They perform better in single-sex classes. The research is promising because male students in the study saw noticeable gains in the grades. The study confirms the Islamic notion that academic achievement is better in single-sex classes.

IA

http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk

"http://txlady706.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/uk-channel-4-muslims-schools-preaching-and-teaching-hate-violence-and-intolerance/"

"MUSLIM HATE IN THEIR TEXTBOOKS"

"Saudi textbooks preach intolerance, hate"

"U.S. Islamic Schools Teaching Homegrown Hate"

"Lessons in Hate and Violence"

"No more Islamic schools in Australia!"

"Religious Tolerance Worsens Among Indonesian Muslims"

And on and on ad nauseam.

18:46 July 9, 2011 by Iftikhar_Ahmad

Please do not Demonise ISLAM, Read the Noble Quran to understand what ISLAM really is.

I've read your koran, and there is NOTHING noble about it.

"It is absurd to believe that Muslim schools, Imams and Masajid teach Muslim children anti-Semitic, homophobic and anti-western views."

It's absurd to deny verifiable documented facts.

Save your rhetoric for the ignorant, because it sure as hell won't fly in this corner.

@ Iftikhar_Ahmad

"Bilingual Muslims children have a right, as much as any other faith group, to be taught their culture, languages and faith alongside a mainstream curriculum."

Yes, as much as any other 'faith' group - and that much is zero! Total separation of church and state is what's required; brainwashing/steeping in superstition will no doubt be performed by some misguided parents and assorted clergy of all 'faiths' - but not at taxpayers' expense and not as part of any mainstream curriculum.

00:20 July 10, 2011 by james_g

"Yes, as much as any other 'faith' group - and that much is zero! Total separation of church and state is what's required; brainwashing/steeping in superstition will no doubt be performed by some misguided parents and assorted clergy of all 'faiths' - but not at taxpayers' expense and not as part of any mainstream curriculum. "

They are afraid that the hate, intolerance and bigotry that is taught to their children in their homes and mosques will be exposed if their children are in an environment that allows free thought and discussion.

Fine. Then pay for it.