Free school: Conservatives eye the Swedish model - Education News - Education - The Ind... - 0 views
www.independent.co.uk/...the-swedish-model-1042734.html
swedish education sweden free school english education schooling school choice ESTEkiv
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Each youngster is set weekly goals and gets a 15-minute briefing with their own tutor at the end of the week to check on progress and discuss how to reach the targets setfor the following week.
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The big difference between the education system in Sweden and the UK is that, in Sweden parents are given an educational voucher for each child, and they use that voucher to apply for any school they want to.
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Bertil Ostoberg, the Swedish Secretary of State for Education, summarised the scheme as "providing freedom of choice for the parents and the pupils, much wider freedom of choice". He added: "They have to compete to provide a high quality to get pupils. We think this competition has led to a higher quality in the system."
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a wide variety of providers, with Waldorf Steiner, Montessori, confessional (faith schools) and traditionally-run schools which emphasise the basics and are strong on discipline.
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Claes Bromander, vice-chairman of the Swedish Association of Independent Schools and principal of Vaxjo Fria Gymnasiet. "They reinvest most of the profit. Swedish TV has done some research: the 60 biggest providers that are run as companies have a turnover of about 10 billion kroner (£804m)."
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The Swedish government has made a determined effort to make the admissions system for its independent "free" schools fair. They operate a "first come, first served" policy, announcing the date for the start of admissions and closing once they have filled up all the places.
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Research for the Swedish National Agency for Education shows it has caused increased segregation, with better-educated parents more likely to opt for an independent "free" school place.
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Mervyn Benford, a former primary school head from the UK who has spent years in Sweden advising ministers on their inspection system thinks there could be another reason for the "free" schools' higher results. "They are smaller than the municipal schools," he said. "They can give pupils more attention."
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All political parties – the Conservative-led coalition in government at present and the opposition Social Democrats – are committed to maintaining the system, although the Social Democrats have called for a freeze on new schools, with pupil numbers falling. "We have to shrink the system," said Maria Sellberg, vice-principal of Norre Real High School, a top-performing public school in Stockholm. "Shrinking such an organisation costs a lot but the number of students [nationally] is decreasing. You squander taxpayers' money on this over-capacity; there is a great bleed-away of taxpayers' money." As the Swedish National Agency for Education put it: "To provide choice, you have to over-provide."