Denmark teacher lockout

Hello everyone!

I've been meaning to talk about this for ages... and here it is... the Denmark teacher lockout.

Unless you have some sort of connection with Denmark, you probably won't know about this. I do have a connection with Denmark - I know people in Copenhagen, I've been there on holiday and I'm actually flying out there in less than two weeks now - and one of my Danish friends has told me about something appalling that is going on with Danish schools at the moment. Since then, I have been researching all that I can find about it (which isn't a lot) so that I can write a decent blog post about it.

There is quite a backstory to this, I had better explain it in detail (this is mostly information that I have gained through talking to people in Denmark, rather than from news articles and through websites etc). The Danish government (fronted by Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt) has decided that school students, even those young enough to attend primary school, should attend school from 8am to 4pm each day. Naturally, there are many teachers who have raised a lot of objection to this, and there have been demonstrations - even a case of teachers forming a 35 km line in protest. In response, the Government has locked teachers out of their own schools, essentially closing the schools in an attempt to force teachers to accept the changes.

This is obviously very unfair, and extremely detrimental to some of the older students facing exams. Apparently the official line is that this is happening because all of the other developed countries do it. Now, regardless of the very clear 'follow the herd' message that is coming there, I can say with a degree of certainty, as a young person from the UK who was in the school system himself until very recently, that this is absolutely not true. We certainly don't have a system like that in the UK, and if we did it would be terrible. Also, from what I have heard, in countries where these systems do happen they actually don't work very well - although this is speculation. The fact that the Danish government are trying to intimidate teachers into admitting defeat does shock me actually, and I have a lot of admiration for the teachers involved who are standing their ground and can hopefully beat this thing. This has been going on since the end of the Easter holidays, and from what I have heard, neither side is prepared to back down as of yet.

My thoughts for people to cherish and admire in this entry would have to be all of the Danish teachers who are putting their hearts and souls into fighting this thing. My friend in Denmark is a teacher, and luckily her school has not been affected, but the majority of schools have been. I hope that the teachers don't give up so that the older students can take their exams - I completely appreciate their position, but I have no doubt that once all of this has calmed down, they will have the opportunity to retake. For the moment, I think the emphasis has to be on standing up and making sure that the government does not get away with this move. If there are any Danish teachers reading this, please carry on your stance and do not give up! I think it is so important to stand up to get one's voice heard in the face of intimidation, and this kind of action just goes to show how committed these teachers are to their jobs and to their students. If this is still going on when I am in Denmark, I may well try to get involved with this action.

This is only rather a short post, and I concede not as well-written as some. However, I think that it's important to get this message out there, and to increase awareness of this situation to the world at large. If I didn't know people in Denmark, I would not be aware of this myself.

Thanks, blogsters!