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Majority of parents approve of school reform, study says

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August 4th, 2014


This article is more than 10 years old.

As the new reforms are set to fall into place, parents seem ready to give them a chance

Nearly 47 percent of parents asked in a Jyllands-Posten survey, released yesterday, said that they are predominantly in favour of the school reforms set to be put into place when public school children return after summer holiday. Only 20 percent gave the reforms a thumbs down.

Parents had previously expressed concern about the longer school day at the centre of the reform package, but the head of the parents association Skole & Forældre, Mette With Hagensen, said those concerns seem to be lessening.

"The school day will be longer, but the content is good, and there will still be time for leisure and family life,” Hagensen told DR Nyheder.

Hagensen said that now that parents have had meetings with their children’s individual schools to see how the reforms will be implemented, their impressions have improved. The results of the recent poll show that 52 percent of parents favoured the longer school day, while just 33 percent remained opposed.

Reality check
Hagensen also praised the specific goals mapped out in the reforms that she said allow students – and parents – to focus on what they need to learn.

“They help parents and students see exactly what they need to learn in class,” she said.

READ MORE: McKinsey hired to implement school reform

The positive vibes coming from parents about the reforms were not shared by the head of the Danish teacher’s union DLF, Anders Bondo Christensen.

“Parents will feel differently about the reforms in a year, once they learn what the reality will be,” Christensen told Jyllands-Posten.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”