Front page article today Sep 7th in Svenska Dagbladet, the second
largest "quality" newspaper in Sweden. <http://www.svd.se/>
Background: the majority of schools in Sweden are state schools run by
the local cities and municipalities, but there is an increasing number
of "free schools" of various kinds, run by parents, associations,
religious congregations, and even companies. These free schools are
entitled to substantial funding from tax payer's monies if they fulfil
(or promise to fulfil) certain basic criteria. The National Agency for
Education <http://www.skolverket.se/english/index.shtml> is, among
many other things, responsible for doing regular check-ups of these
free schools. They are however quite short of staff, and it now passes
several years between check-ups. The Studema school is the single
Scientology school in Sweden that presently receives such public
funding.

From the article, abbreviated:

The National Agency for Education wants to look into the possibilities
to stop controversial religious groups from running their own schools,
giving examples of schools where several pages about the origins of
Earth were torn out of the children's books, and certain pictures and
words crossed out.

- We have to watch out for this kind of business, says the Director
General of the agency Mats Ekholm, who in a statement to the
government raises the question whether "organizations that have been
designated as harmful cults" should be allowed to run schools.

- We also have the duty to protect children, and to help them to make
a free choice about their future. That's why we are raising the debate
about whether it is good to allow those who are extremely introverted
and cult-creators the right to use schools as an instrument of
indoctrination, Ekholm continues.

Director General Mats Ekholm gives as an example Föreningen Aktiva
Studier [Active Studies Association] in western Sweden. They want to
start a school in Gothenburg, Cityskolan [The City School]. The study
method, Applied Scholastics, is developed by the front man of
Scientology, L Ron Hubbard, and is already in use at Studemaskolan
[the Studema School] in Stockholm. But after a thorough review of the
study method, the National Agency for Education says no. Föreningen
Aktiva Studier has appealed, and the case is now referred to the
county administrative court.

Ann Swenne-Johanson, principal of the Studema school, is strongly
critical to the fact that the National Agency for Education refers to
information from FRI [Föreningen Rädda Individen, Save The Individual
Association, a Swedish anti-cult group] that she calls "a known
anti-religious association".
- It is also written in the Europe Convention that parents should have
the possibility to choose the school for their children, she says.

The Lutheran priest Karl-Erik Nylund, who has had a special interest
in various religious groups, says he thinks the system of
non-governmental religious schools is fine, as long as the government
inspection routines work properly. Also Peter Åkerbäck, who is writing
a thesis on new religious movements at Stockholm university, thinks
that controversial groups should be allowed to run schools.
- It's one way to get these groups included in society. But one always
has to monitor what they are teaching.

(There is a lot more to the article, including an interview with a
former student of a charismatic Christian school, and the article
series will continue tomorrow)

Catarina