“Going to school is not a human right” (Denmark’s Minister of Education)
A group of children have allegedly bullied others at Borup Skole, creating a political storm in which several political parties want to make it easier to expel violent students. Today, schools can suspend a student for a maximum of seven days, move them to another class, or attempt to change their school. In the Education Minister’s view, violent students don’t have the right to continue at the same school where the episode happened. However, he is not inclined to rush into making law proposals, at first, he wants to properly investigate the situation.
While going to school might not be a human right in the eyes of the minister, it is a constitutional right, according to the president of the Skolelederforeningen (Association of School Leaders). The state is constitutionally obliged to provide free basic education, so in the case of an expulsion, an alternative school must be made available, which might prove more difficult than envisioned.
Bullying is unfortunately a part of school life in Denmark, and for our children, it could also span xenophobia and racism. If faced with such a situation, do not be quiet about it. While each school is technically autonomous, you can always scale up the situation to the municipality level, just as happened at Borup Skole.
In more positive news, MAERSK launched their first green ship using waste-based methanol as fuel. The company has ordered another 25 similar ships. However, there is still a long way to go before the company replaces all 700 ships that run on diesel and other fossil fuels.
Thank you for reading and spreading the word about Last Week in Denmark! For more content, be sure to check our LinkedIn page 🙂 And for those living in Copenhagen, see you on February 22nd at the Food for Thought storytelling session! If not at the event, then afterwards for drinks.
Word of the Week
Grundloven = Constitution. The root of democracy in Denmark. We celebrate it every June 5 on “Grundlovsdag.” Unfortunately, it is not a national holiday, but people tend to take time off from work to celebrate it by gathering in parks to listen to speeches about democracy.
