My younger daughter came home from school in tears today. One of her main class teachers is leaving which means the class won’t see her after next week when the summer holiday begins. The reason she is leaving is because she has found a job nearer home but one can’t help feeling that the news that the school is to be closed down within a year probably had something to do with that decision. Not only that but today my daughter learned that one of her classmates is also leaving, transferring to the feeder school which will take over the pupils from her current school a year early so that she has time to get used to it, her parents say. The head teacher has also found another job and this is all within a week of the decision being taken by the local politicians. The fear is of course that a condemned school will simply languish in its last year of existence, haemorraging teachers and being staffed by inexperienced temporary staff.
From what I know of the Danish school system, the local politicians must have found this small village school a tempting target in spite of its reputation for successfully integrating children with various learning problems thereby saving them considerable sums of money which would otherwise have to be spent on dedicated services. The school has been threatened with closure several times in the 12 years we have lived in the village so it comes as no surprise that finally it is happening and we could selfishly ignore it since our daughter was due to move to the big school in the next village in 2010 anyway. But it’s clear that the closure, which still has to go through the appeal and approval procedure, is already affecting the local community negatively. But in Denmark, any group of parents can apply to set up a so-called free school and this is of course what the parents have decided to do. The central government funds 80 % of the cost and so parents only have to contribute about 270 € a month which is about equivalent to the fee for the afterschool club we currently pay and which would include an afterschool club facility anyway. Central government is not duty bound to approve the application but the local government politicians have indicated that they would not object to the application. Of course they won’t! Neither would I. What an easy way to offload the cost of educating 100 children!
But the uncertainty is not healthy and is having a predictable effect on staffing, as my daughter learned to her cost today.