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Danish eSport courses hitting the classrooms

Christian Wenande
March 7th, 2017


This article is more than 7 years old.

Gaming no longer only reserved for computer cafes and dark teenage basements

Astralis has been leading the way (photo: Astralis)

Danish eSports teams have been making waves in recent weeks with tournament championships in the US and Poland, and now the sport is making a move into the classroom.

Several upper-secondary establishments are beginning to offer students eSports courses (both HF and HHX) aimed at helping the youngsters to develop their gaming talent.

“The course will be a shortcut to a professional existence,” Henrik Selch, a lector at Københavns Private Gymnasium in Østerbro, told Metroxpress newspaper.

“Our target is to produce professional eSports gamers for the established professional teams. And to this end we have a close working relationship with teams like Astralis.”

Currently, two gymnasiums in Denmark offer eSports, but from this summer, five new courses will be introduced.

READ MORE: Danish computer warriors triumphant at tournament

After Astralis
The head of eSport Denmark, Thomas Koed, contends that eSport has gained popularity in recent years thanks partly to the successes reaped by Danish eSports teams.

Campus Vejle, one of the few institutions to offer eSports as a course, had just 15 gamers take the course in 2015. This year, the number has jumped to 85, with a further 60 expected to join this summer.

Danish team Astralis has been in riveting form as of late, winning the ELEAGUE Major in Atlanta in January before triumphing at the Intel Extreme Masters tournament held in the Polish city of Katowice last weekend.


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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.”