Ray Furlong writes:
"I'm in Sweden today a pretty little port city called Helsingborg looking at the educational policies Michael Gove wants to import across the water if the Tories win the next election.
More precisely, he wants to borrow from the concept of 'free schools,' in which individuals, charities etc are able to set up schools which charge no fees. They then get paid, from the education budget, a fee for each pupil.
I've visited the Campeon free school here, and met Natalie and Julia (pictured) who say they're thriving in an environment which is more demanding and competitive than a normal state school.
The parents are also happy.
This is Christina, whose daughter attends Campeon.
She says 'thank god the government introduced free schools, the other state ones were a disaster.' And she knows, because she's got three kids and has experience of both types of schools.
There are also criticisms of the system, which I'll mention in my report tonight. But for now here's one more pic (bottom of the three): Christer Anderson, self-styled 'teacher, CEO, and entrepreneur' who set the school up. Here he's teaching his 16/17-yr-olds about free will...
He's fascinated to learn that we're interested in his school, and will now be joining the ranks of our listeners. We'll hear lots from him tonight - about profit, love affairs, and pedagogy...."
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