Private or public school?
By
on
September 17th, 2005
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There are lots of discussion here in Sweden about a new report from the government organization Skolverket (Board of Education) concerning private and public schools. Note, unless your Swedish language skills are great there is no point clicking on the links…… Their own report concludes that private schools use their money more effectively, the students receive better quality education, but also surprisingly that the amount of educated teachers at a school doesn’t affect the quality of the children’s education. By educated they mean people who have studied especially to become teachers.
I know Sweden is a small insignificant country with pretty much my family, five others, a few icebergs, and some reindeer’s living here. But the overall quality of the country is difficult to beat, especially when it comes to children and family. Swedes living standards are among the highest in the world (we toy with US for example) and so is education and health care (especially for children). I will tell you some other time how fantastic it is to have a family in this country. You are not going to believe all the good stuff. The headline might look strange because most people assume private schools are always better than public schools. Not here. That’s how good public education is. There are extremely few completely private schools in the country. With that I mean schools where you have to pay for your child. 99.9 % of the private schools are "friskolor" which means it’s a private school but you don’t pay anything extra for you child. That sounds weird but "friskolor" also get funding from the Board of Education and that’s why you don’t pay anything extra. For example, our son is now going to a private kindergarten but that doesn’t cost anything extra. It’s not that we think the school is so much better that the public school. It has to do with convenience and open spots at the different schools
Many seem surprised by the survey but I think it’s common sense. The Swedish private schools may not have unlimited resources but being private gives them more flexibility. I don’t believe the difference in quality is large but perhaps they have a small edge. The question if specially educated staff is better for the children is more interesting. I think it’s more important to have people who are interested and passionate about teaching than having a formal and special education. Especially here where the average person has got a good solid base to stand on after school. Notice that I say average, there are definitely exceptions. A good example is the English language. It’s a second language to us but a very high percentage still speak excellent English. Even people that didn’t go to college.
We currently got a huge baby boom going on in Sweden. I know that’s hard to believe since there seems to be nothing but trees, rivers, and reindeer’s in this country. Our overall population is still not increasing but at least there are tons of new little kids born wherever you look. The subject of schools are always important and this will sure become a hotter topic in the near future. I believe some privatization, preferably the "Swedish privatization", is healthy because it creates some well needed competition for the public schools. The way we do it doesn’t create the large gaps between people with and without money that sooner or later always causes problem s in a country.
When we lived in Marblehead, Massachusetts, we lived above a Swedish family. They were only in the States for a year. They’re now back in Sweden. When they described the lifestyle there, it sounded wonderful. And, Sesse received money to stay at home for 2 YEARS with the children. Incredible! Husband and I would move there, except a) we don’t speak Swedish, and b) it’s too cold!!
Imagine how cruel I am. Bringing a Mexican over here to the North Pole. She thinks it’s cold when it’s in the 80’s. The weather is actually not bad at all. Kinds of like NYC but less hot in the summers. Don’t worry about the Swedish, everyone speaks English. At least 99 % of population. I got some sandbox buddies that are Americans and they have no problems.