Swedish teacher risks sack for student bets
A Swedish schoolteacher has been suspended after making a wager with his students about passing an exam. If they passed, he would pay them 100 kronor ($14.85) each, and if they failed, they would have to cough up 200 kronor.
“I think they are overreacting,” said one student, who reportedly lost the bet, to local paper Smålandsposten.
One of the fours students passed the test and earned the 100 kronor, one was absent due to illness, another never turned in the test and one failed.
The day after the exam he paid his teacher 200 kronor, according to the paper.
“I wanted to be fair and honest and give my teacher 200 kronor seeing as I failed the test,” said the student who viewed the bet as a “joke”.
However, the joke was lost on the teacher’s employer, the Växjö municipality.
There the feeling is that the man has behaved in a way that warrants his dismissal from the school.
“It is a question of taking advantage of a person who is dependent on you. To make them hand over money for not passing a test is highly inappropriate behaviour,” said municipality personnel manager Michael Färdigh to the paper.
The school board received the information from a concerned parent who had heard what had happened and was worried about the implications.
According to the paper, the teacher regrets having made the wager with the students and says that he has been under pressure from the school board for some time.
He was hoping that the students would see it as a carrot to perform better in school.
His employers say that the wager is enough to dismiss the teacher; however, the relationship between him and the school has been difficult for some time.
“But that’s not it. It is this incident that has triggered the whole thing,” Färdigh told Smålandsposten.
The Local/rm
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“I think they are overreacting,” said one student, who reportedly lost the bet, to local paper Smålandsposten.
One of the fours students passed the test and earned the 100 kronor, one was absent due to illness, another never turned in the test and one failed.
The day after the exam he paid his teacher 200 kronor, according to the paper.
“I wanted to be fair and honest and give my teacher 200 kronor seeing as I failed the test,” said the student who viewed the bet as a “joke”.
However, the joke was lost on the teacher’s employer, the Växjö municipality.
There the feeling is that the man has behaved in a way that warrants his dismissal from the school.
“It is a question of taking advantage of a person who is dependent on you. To make them hand over money for not passing a test is highly inappropriate behaviour,” said municipality personnel manager Michael Färdigh to the paper.
The school board received the information from a concerned parent who had heard what had happened and was worried about the implications.
According to the paper, the teacher regrets having made the wager with the students and says that he has been under pressure from the school board for some time.
He was hoping that the students would see it as a carrot to perform better in school.
His employers say that the wager is enough to dismiss the teacher; however, the relationship between him and the school has been difficult for some time.
“But that’s not it. It is this incident that has triggered the whole thing,” Färdigh told Smålandsposten.
The Local/rm
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