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Education

Sweden to keep immigrant kids in school

Published: 21 Feb 13 11:57 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/46328/20130221/

The government wants to make sure young immigrants keep up their studies by legally requiring them to stay in school until they reach 18, while also pumping funds into Swedish-language courses.

Education and Integration Ministers Jan Björklund and Erik Ullenhag proposed on Thursday that children who are older than twelve when they arrive in Sweden should have to keep studying until they are 18.

At present, Swedish children are bound by law to go to school until the year they turn 16, in practice finishing compulsory education. Attending high school is optional.

Björklund first hinted at lengthening compulsory schooling for newly-arrived children last autumn, as the government presented its annual budget.

At the time, he said that foreign-born children's academic performance had deteriorated in recent years, partly due to the surge of underage asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Somalia, whose education levels had suffered due to years of wars.

In addition, immigrant children were generally older than their Swedish-born peers when they enrolled in school in Sweden.

A proposed 30 million kronor ($4.7 million) per year would add three more hours of Swedish-language instruction per week for the first four terms that the children are enrolled in school.

The proposal also called for newly arrived children to start studying as soon as possible, rather than languishing in orientation courses that can stretch up to one year.

Björklund estimated that the changes would affect around 3,000 students in every grade.

TT/The Local/dl
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13:16 February 21, 2013 by jostein
These politicians have gone stark raving mad from their insatiable hunger for power. Why not make these people slaves outright?

They are fed, housed and clothed by the government. They require them to do what the government tells them each and every day, or they are punished. The whole point of keeping them in school is to instruct them exactly what and how they should think. And after 18 they are quickly placed in fas 3 and the slavery continues.

No wonder these psychotic politicians are in favour of immigration? They can give their sick lusts of dominating their fellow man free reign?
13:24 February 21, 2013 by allnotmoney
nice steps
15:23 February 21, 2013 by RobinHood
Institutionalised racism!

To treat one child differently from another on account of his or her race is repugnant. If the government gets up to it, is it OK for every one else to do it too?

Discrimination on account of race, or anything else is wrong. How did these people possibly get themselves into a state of mind where they think it is right?
15:25 February 21, 2013 by Logic_and_Reason
These types of students who come to Sweden at the age of 10 should not be put in regular classes. They have had little or no formal education, certainly not to the level of their Swedish peers. Many of the courses they are put into are pointless and fruitless and illogical. Why should such a student study psychology or philosophy or law or business admin or other such subjects in gymnasium when they barely speak Swedish and have the math skills of a fourth-grader? They need to be put into schools that focus on critical skills to get them up to speed in their new community; skills such as basic math and literacy. Most of these kids fail courses in the later years of högstadiet and certainly at gymnasium because they start out way behind and never, ever catch up to their peers. So it is not a matter of teaching them longer, it is a matter of teaching them more efficiently. Do away with the fluffy, needless classes that waste everyone's time.
15:38 February 21, 2013 by tigger007
Well put Logic and Reason!
16:16 February 21, 2013 by Svensksmith
Why just immigrant children? Isn't education good for all?
23:25 February 22, 2013 by Iftikhar_Ahmad
Migrant Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental period. There is no place for a non-Muslim child or a teacher in a Muslim school.

IA

http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk
20:28 February 23, 2013 by bcterry
Iftikhar_Ahmad ,

It's no wonder you do want non muslim children in your wet dream state funded muslim schools, because it would make it difficult for you to continue to teach your children to hate if there were any little outside eyes who would go home and discuss the days "lessons" with their parents.

Muslim schools in any Western country should be banned outright, and your children would then be forced to learn to live together with other children.
20:07 February 24, 2013 by Iftikhar_Ahmad
The silent majority of Muslim parents would like to send their children to state funded Muslim schools. They are not extremists who want to change of ethos of those schools where Muslim children are in majority. It is the democratic right of every Muslim parent to see that their children receive balanced education, so that when their children grow up, they do not find themselves cut off from their cultural roots and linguistic skills. It is a question of common sense, humanity and reason that bilingual Muslim children must be educated in state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. The whole world believes that people who speak more than one language is a vital economic asset. Pupils who speak more than one language do not cause difficulties. It is the politicians and monolingual teachers who are the problems for bilingual pupils. Muslim school will help to cultivate the child into a healthy, fully flourishing individual with a passion for learning. There are hundreds of state and church schools where Muslim children are in majority. In my opinion, all such schools may be opted out as Muslim Academies.

Muslim schools are not only faith schools; they are more or less bilingual schools. Bilingual Muslim children need to learn and be well versed in Standard English to follow the National Curriculum and go for higher studies and research to serve humanity. State schools with monolingual teachers do not teach Standard English to Migrant children. Bilingual Muslim children learn English in the playgrounds and in the streets. They speak street language with its own grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. The teachers let them speak the same accent in the classroom. They have no courage to stop them or correct them. This is one of the main reasons why one third of children have difficulties with reading when they leave primary schools. Majority of such children are Muslims. In other European countries and in the sub-continent argot and slang are not allowed into the classroom. In Britain primary school teachers do not feel that it's their role to interfere with self-expression in any shape or form. They encourage children to read poems and stories written in ethnic dialects.

Muslim faith schools are more or less bilingual schools. Priority will be given to the teaching of Standard English, Arabic, Urdu and other community languages. All Muslim children will learn and be well versed in Standard English and Quranic Arabic and at the same time they will learn and be well versed in one of the community language to keep in touch with their cultural roots and enjoy the beauty of their literature and poetry. Majority of children will learn Urdu language because it is a lingua franca of the migrants from the sub-continent. And majority of British Muslims are from Pakistan and their national language is Urdu.

IA

http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk
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