Tide turning against freedom of info proposal
The Copenhagen Post’s Children’s Fair is back!
3
13
19 - 25 April 2013 | Vol 16 Issue 16
Grab your sledge and head to Greenland
G1215
Denmark’s only English-language newspaper | cphpost.dk PETER STANNERS
NEWS
Nationalists hope that Holger Danske will arise from his slumber and prohibit his sale to foreigners
3, 18
NEWS
From Boston to Bethlehem Following the Boston tragedy, a pair of Danes prepare to host the first ever marathon in Palestine
10 NEWS
Unlikely duo What do a 30-year-old Russian and a 59-year-old Dane have in common? KVINFO’s mentoring programme
According to a woman’s magazine, the vagina needs a new name that won’t make us giggle or gag
10
BUSINESS
Telecommunications companies team up to bring new paying options to smartphones
15
Price: 25 DKK
Parents look to sue councils over teacher lockout RAY WEAVER
The death of the Dankort?
9 771398 100009
4
As the dispute heads into its fourth week, parents and kids are running out of patience. Meanwhile, some students may not have enough hours to graduate
P
ARENTS across the country are looking into the possibility of dragging their local councils into court over the ongoing teacher lockout. “We have started to receive inquiries from parents asking if there is anything they can do via the courts,” Mette With Hagensen, the head of parents’ group Skole og Forældre, told Newspaq. “They want to know if they can sue their local councils or the state for not fulfilling their compulsory edu-
cation and supervisory duties.” According to Hagensen, parents are reporting that their children are beginning to miss going to school and the comfort of their daily routines. The teachers’ unions are also hearing from exasperated parents. “The messages are beginning to make their way to me, and I am taking them seriously,” Anders Bondo Christensen, the head negotiator for the teachers’ union Danmarks Lærerforening (DLF), told Newspaq. A representative from the local government association KL, which along with the national government is preventing teachers from going to work, said that any parents looking to sue are on a fool’s errand. “The councils will provide children with the education that they need, if
not right now, then at a later date, so it is hard to see where the parents have a case,” said KL official Lene Møller. Schools can add the hours lost to students in grades 0 to 8 into next year’s curriculum, but students currently set to graduate from the ninth grade may well wind up short of the legally-mandated number of school hours. When the lockout was first enacted, many analysts expected it to run for just two weeks, and teachers said that they would be able to fit the hours in. But that now appears less likely as the lockout wraps up its third week with no end in sight. “I would think that more or less all ninth grade classes are now below the minimum number of hours,” Jeanne Jacobsen, the head of the Copenhagen branch of Skolelederforeningen, a
union representing headteachers, told Politiken newspaper. Teachers in other councils are reporting the same problem. According to KL, the Education Ministry will ultimately decide what councils should do if they cannot meet the minimum requirements. The ministry said it is the councils’ responsibility to make sure that the number of required hours is met. Møller said that KL hopes that the ninth graders’ missing hours could be made up by students taking extra afternoon classes once the teachers were allowed to work, but that suggestion was not well received by DLF. “It’s a bit arrogant to suggest that teachers should just take on extra hours,” Dorte Lange, DLF’s vice president, told Politiken.
THE COPENHAGEN MBA INTERNATIONAL NETWORK. TRIPLE-ACCREDITED PROGRAMME. nordic food & cocktails in the meatpacking district ...
coctails & club happy hour & dj’s 10 pm fridays & saturdays ...
www.karrierebar.com
MBA information meeting at CBS on 24 April 17:00-19:00. Visit www.cbs.dk/mba to sign up.
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Tide turning against freedom of info proposal
The Copenhagen Post’s Children’s Fair is back!
3
13
19 - 25 April 2013 | Vol 16 Issue 16
Grab your sledge and head to Greenland
G1215
Denmark’s only English-language newspaper | cphpost.dk PETER STANNERS
NEWS
Nationalists hope that Holger Danske will arise from his slumber and prohibit his sale to foreigners
3, 18
NEWS
From Boston to Bethlehem Following the Boston tragedy, a pair of Danes prepare to host the first ever marathon in Palestine
10 NEWS
Unlikely duo What do a 30-year-old Russian and a 59-year-old Dane have in common? KVINFO’s mentoring programme
According to a woman’s magazine, the vagina needs a new name that won’t make us giggle or gag
10
BUSINESS
4
Parents look to sue councils over teacher lockout RAY WEAVER
The death of the Dankort? Telecommunications companies team up to bring new paying options to smartphones
15
9 771398 100009
Price: 25 DKK
As the dispute heads into its fourth week, parents and kids are running out of patience. Meanwhile, some students may not have enough hours to graduate
P
ARENTS across the country are looking into the possibility of dragging their local councils into court over the ongoing teacher lockout. “We have started to receive inquiries from parents asking if there is anything they can do via the courts,” Mette With Hagensen, the head of parents’ group Skole og Forældre, told Newspaq. “They want to know if they can sue their local councils or the state for not fulfilling their compulsory edu-
cation and supervisory duties.” According to Hagensen, parents are reporting that their children are beginning to miss going to school and the comfort of their daily routines. The teachers’ unions are also hearing from exasperated parents. “The messages are beginning to make their way to me, and I am taking them seriously,” Anders Bondo Christensen, the head negotiator for the teachers’ union Danmarks Lærerforening (DLF), told Newspaq. A representative from the local government association KL, which along with the national government is preventing teachers from going to work, said that any parents looking to sue are on a fool’s errand. “The councils will provide children with the education that they need, if
not right now, then at a later date, so it is hard to see where the parents have a case,” said KL official Lene Møller. Schools can add the hours lost to students in grades 0 to 8 into next year’s curriculum, but students currently set to graduate from the ninth grade may well wind up short of the legally-mandated number of school hours. When the lockout was first enacted, many analysts expected it to run for just two weeks, and teachers said that they would be able to fit the hours in. But that now appears less likely as the lockout wraps up its third week with no end in sight. “I would think that more or less all ninth grade classes are now below the minimum number of hours,” Jeanne Jacobsen, the head of the Copenhagen branch of Skolelederforeningen, a
union representing headteachers, told Politiken newspaper. Teachers in other councils are reporting the same problem. According to KL, the Education Ministry will ultimately decide what councils should do if they cannot meet the minimum requirements. The ministry said it is the councils’ responsibility to make sure that the number of required hours is met. Møller said that KL hopes that the ninth graders’ missing hours could be made up by students taking extra afternoon classes once the teachers were allowed to work, but that suggestion was not well received by DLF. “It’s a bit arrogant to suggest that teachers should just take on extra hours,” Dorte Lange, DLF’s vice president, told Politiken.
THE COPENHAGEN MBA INTERNATIONAL NETWORK. TRIPLE-ACCREDITED PROGRAMME. nordic food & cocktails in the meatpacking district ...
coctails & club happy hour & dj’s 10 pm fridays & saturdays
MBA information meeting at CBS on 24 April 17:00-19:00. Visit www.cbs.dk/mba to sign up.
...
www.karrierebar.com COPE2067 Full Time MBA_131x50_B.indd 1
11/03/2013 16:38
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12 - 18 April 2013 | Vol 16 Issue 15
Denmark’s only English-language newspaper | cphpost.dk