Latest news with #IEGS
Local Sweden
24-04-2025
- General
- Local Sweden
Stranded pupils mount Stockholm protest against IES school closure
Parents of some of the 159 pupils left stranded by the IES school chain's decision to close its only upper secondary school mounted a protest on Thursday, calling for Stockholm City's education department to intervene to save the school. Advertisement Parents of students at Internationella Engelska Gymnasiet Södermalm (IEGS) gathered outside the offices of the city education department near Stockholm City Hall on Thursday afternoon, hoping to raise awareness of the plight of the students, many of whom are likely to struggle to find an alternative school where they can complete their final year of school. "We don't want another school," Pierre Achi, one of the parents told The Local of the school's plan to close down when current first-year students still have one more year to complete their education. "For the first time in my daughter's life, she has landed in a place where she really is happy and is actually motivated to go to school. We have high hopes for at least one extra year, so that she can graduate, which is not too much to ask." READ ALSO: In a press release issued at the start of February, the school chain said it would close the school in June 2026, with no new students admitted for the 2025-2026 school year this coming August. This means that while the 391 students already in grades two and three will be able to complete their education at IEGS, the 159 students who joined the school in August 2024 will need to find a new school to complete their final year. Advertisement Achi said that while teachers at IEGS were sympathetic to the students' and parents' concerns, they had as yet had no positive communication with the leadership of the Internationella Engelska Skolan chain indicating that they might reevaluate the decision. In a press release announcing the protests, the parents said that students would be severely impacted by the decision. "This is a terrible, avoidable, example of the crisis within the friskolor [free school] system as reported in recent media coverage. It highlights the real world, disruptive impact on the education of the 159 students in question, and their families," they wrote. "IES has no plans in place to help students find new schools. These students are now stranded and must fend for themselves in finding new gymnasiums. Many students may struggle to do so as they could find it hard to speak Swedish to the required standard to switch to schools teaching the Swedish curriculum in Swedish." The protest is taking place between 3pm and 6pm at Hantverkargatan 2F, Stockholm.
Local Sweden
01-03-2025
- Lifestyle
- Local Sweden
Inside Sweden: Launching the most delicious newsletter of all time
Hej, If there's one overstated Swedish lifestyle that habit international glossy magazines like to write about more than anything else, it's fika. And while it may not be the secret to happiness, they're not wrong. Fika does take up a large part of Swedish life, whether it's coffee with friends or a chat with colleagues over a cinnamon bun to break up the work day. But perhaps the special Swedish twist on enjoying a "coffee and something sweet" (which to be honest is a concept in a lot of countries) is that we love to organise our calendar year into which pastries we eat on which day. I used to work in Stockholm, and whenever I took the escalators up to the main central station from the underground, I was met by a whiff of cinnamon from Pressbyrån, tempting commuters with fresh cinnamon buns every day. EXCEPT in December, when it was replaced by the smell of saffron from the seasonal Lucia buns, which disappeared after Christmas as fast as it arrived. No Swede would ever eat Lucia buns in January (but we would tuck into a semla a few weeks before Shrove Tuesday), and while we're happy to munch on cinnamon buns all year round, it's impossible to let October 4th come and go without having at least one cinnamon bun, or kanelbulle in Swedish. Eating your way through the year is a great way of getting to know Sweden, which is why we've launched a brand new newsletter from The Local: a Fika Calendar to help you keep track of every important Swedish pastry day. In other news Spring has already arrived in some parts of Sweden, and in others it's just around the corner. What's your favourite thing about springtime in Sweden? Stockholm's city government told The Local it has "no plans" to take over the IEGS international school before it closes next year, despite a petition calling for it to do so to prevent 159 students being left stranded. February has been the most expensive month for electricity in southern Sweden since 2022, although there are signs that prices are dropping. How high were they, and what's the reason behind it? In 40 years, Sweden has changed fundamentally as a society but social trust – the so-called "Nordic gold" – has remained surprisingly stable, Bo Rothstein, Emeritus Professor at Gothenburg University, tells The Local. Jagadeesh Varma tells The Local how he went from not even being aware Sweden existed, to falling in love with Stockholm. Today, he runs a successful tech talent company which helps foreign talent land their own dream job. The Swedish government plans to introduce a financial support initiative known as fritidskortet (leisure card) to help cover the costs of children's extracurricular activities. The Swedish Migration Agency is to release a new version of its website in the beginning of March, which it says will make it easier for applicants to find the information they need. The knives have been out for Centre Party leader Muharrem Demirok since last summer and on Monday he finally gave up the fight, announcing his resignation. Will his replacement be in a position to choose Sweden's next prime minister? Sweden originally proposed language tests for citizenship over six years and two governments ago. Here's a refresher on what those tests might look like. figures for the full year show that net migration to Sweden in fact remained positive. And finally, Sweden's annual book sale started this week. Here are five reading tips from The Local's readers if you feel like picking something up during the sale. All the best, Emma Löfgren Editor, The Local Sweden
Local Sweden
12-02-2025
- Business
- Local Sweden
IES to close Stockholm flagship school leaving 159 students stranded
In a press release, the school chain said it would close Internationella Engelska Gymnasiet Södermalm (IEGS) in June 2026, beginning the process in August, when no new students will be admitted for the 2025-2026 school year. The chain said that while the 391 students already in grades two and three would be able to complete their education at IEGS, the 159 students who joined the school in August 2024 would need to find a new school by the time school started again in August this year. "This is sad news and our main focus now is to secure the students' right to complete their education in the best way, either with us or with other school operators," said Linda Öholm, head of public affairs at Internationella Engelska Skolan (IES). "We will offer our students support in this process and have initiated dialogue with other operators." Students, teachers and parents have protested the decision, with Abdiraham Mohamed, one of the affected students, launching a petition calling on Stockholm's city government to take over ownership of the school to save students from "unwarranted interruptions" and and "unstable" educational future. "It would be far better for Stockholm Stad to take over an already established school like IEGS than to start a new one from scratch," Mohamed argued in his petition. "If the IES company has failed us, we cannot let the Swedish government, especially the Board of Education, abandon us." One of the teachers told The Local that the school's plan for a staged closure would be a "huge problem" for the 66 International Baccalaureate students as they would be forced to leave the school half way through their IB diploma. "It's really difficult to transition from halfway through a qualification, because the IB diploma is a two-year programme, and at the moment, there aren't enough other IB places in Stockholm to place them," she said. Even thought the International School of the Stockholm Region has plans to expand, she said, the law in Sweden caps the number of IB students at schools at 90, meaning they could not take anywhere close to all of IESG's students. Two of the other international schools are private, with high fees, and the fourth school is the elite Sigtunaskolan Humanistiska Läroverket, which, while free for day students, is one hour's commute each way from Stockholm Central. The teachers said that the students had been "devastated" when they were told of the closure. "They were asking 'why did you take us on if you knew that this was going to happen?'" she said. "A lot of the parents have also been in contact. I had an email from one of my mentor student's parents, just saying they were really upset." IEGS is the only upper secondary school run by IES, which operates 47 elementary and lower secondary schools around Sweden. According to IES, the school has not been financially viable for several years, which was why the company had decided to close it when the current lease on the building expires in 2026. 'This is the most responsible thing to do under the current circumstances. Although the school has provided high-quality education for 25 years, the number of applicants has gradually decreased in recent years, which is why we are closing the school," Öholm said.
