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EDUCATION

Can you guess what happened to Angela Merkel?

Angela Merkel went back to her roots during a trip to a city in western Germany. But can you guess what she did there?

Published: 14 May 2019 16:24 CEST
Updated: 14 May 2019 17:51 CEST
Can you guess what happened to Angela Merkel?
Once a scientist, always a scientist: Merkel during her Wuppertal visit. Photo: DPA
The Chancellor was visiting an educational facility for young people called 'Junior University' in Wuppertal, North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW) on Monday.
 
And she couldn't resist taking part in a whole host of experiments with the young people who take courses there.
 
 
Merkel, who has a PhD in physics and worked as a scientist in a research facility before she went into the world of politics, left her inhibitions at the door as she chatted to the young people.
 
 
The Chancellor doing a pendulum experiment alongside student Antonia Westphal. Photo: DPA
 
During her one-hour visit, the Chancellor tested the so-called 'Bernoulli effect' and with a table tennis ball and a hairdryer.

Merkel and the NRW premier Armin Laschet, who accompanied her, succeeded in doing so quite well — apparently to the surprise of the Chancellor herself. 
 
Merkel (left) and NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet (right) conduct an experiment, while university founder Ernst-Andreas Ziegle looks on. Photo: DPA
 
In addition, pre-school age children from a maths course teamed up with Merkel to form geometric figures from a rope. Some girls at the facility also demonstrated a programmed toy robot car.

In the laboratory the Chancellor was greeted with a steaming dry ice cocktail. “Can you drink that?” she asked first before downing the strange concoction.
 
Merkel drinks from the test tube. Photo: DPA
 
Merkel said she was pleased that many girls were taking part in the experiments. They should “not forget how great natural sciences are,” said the trained physicist.
 
Merkel's antics, which proved she was still close to her science roots, were applauded by onlookers and on social media. 
The young students at the 'uni' are between four and 20-years-old. The courses on offer include natural sciences and art.
 
The teaching and research facility, which is financed by donors, aims to encourage young people to study from an early age and think about their future careers. 

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EDUCATION

Sweden’s Social Democrats call for ban on new free schools

Sweden's opposition Social Democrats have called for a total ban on the establishment of new profit-making free schools, in a sign the party may be toughening its policies on profit-making in the welfare sector.

Published: 18 April 2024 16:09 CEST
Sweden's Social Democrats call for ban on new free schools

“We want the state to slam on the emergency brakes and bring in a ban on establishing [new schools],” the party’s leader, Magdalena Andersson, said at a press conference.

“We think the Swedish people should be making the decisions on the Swedish school system, and not big school corporations whose main driver is making a profit.” 

Almost a fifth of pupils in Sweden attend one of the country’s 3,900 primary and secondary “free schools”, first introduced in the country in the early 1990s. 

Even though three quarters of the schools are run by private companies on a for-profit basis, they are 100 percent state funded, with schools given money for each pupil. 

This system has come in for criticism in recent years, with profit-making schools blamed for increasing segregation, contributing to declining educational standards and for grade inflation. 

In the run-up to the 2022 election, Andersson called for a ban on the companies being able to distribute profits to their owners in the form of dividends, calling for all profits to be reinvested in the school system.  

READ ALSO: Sweden’s pioneering for-profit ‘free schools’ under fire 

Andersson said that the new ban on establishing free schools could be achieved by extending a law banning the establishment of religious free schools, brought in while they were in power, to cover all free schools. 

“It’s possible to use that legislation as a base and so develop this new law quite rapidly,” Andersson said, adding that this law would be the first step along the way to a total ban on profit-making schools in Sweden. 

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