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| The Swedish Flag (The World Factbook, May 17, 2011) |
Sweden is a country that I have always wanted to visit, don't ask me why because I won't be able to give a very good answer. I knew very little about Sweden before I started doing research for this blog post. I really only wanted to go because my family has roots in Sweden and I've always felt a certain connection. This is going to be my last post on a developed nation, so I thought it might as well be about one that I've always wanted to travel to.
What has always impressed me about Sweden is the fact that they were able to remain neutral throughout both world wars. I think that is something that has really helped them earn respect. You always hear about countries sending in troops or supplying weapons, and it just feels like they're helping to fuel the war; but Sweden has been able to distance themselves from that which I think was a well informed decision on their part.
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| The Prime Minister of Sweden (Government Offices of Sweden, 2011) |
When I was looking at education statistics for Sweden everything was in the high 80's or 90's, which is such a difference from some of the other countries I've looked at. Especially when it came down to Internet users. Out of 100 students 88 used the Internet (UNICEF, March 2, 2010). That is such a difference from Lesotho, the country I was speaking about the other day. I believe there statistics for Internet usage out of 100 was four. What a difference!
I was able to find out quite a bit about Sweden's education system, which was great. School is mandatory in Sweden from the ages of 7-16, but many people decide to enroll their children in pre school, thus many people are spending ten years in school. I was really impressed with the fact that schools strive to enhance students understanding and appreciation of democracy; and hope to instill the belief in children that all are equal and deserve equal education rights (Sweden.se, October 2009). There are also schools in Sweden that are meant for students with special needs, some might say that these students shouldn't be segregated from other children in regular schools. However I think it's okay for them to do this because from personal experience I know that many children with special needs (not all, I don't have a right to say that) feel more comfortable when they are in a group with the same abilities as them. Oh, what I forgot to say before is that school is free during the compulsory years, yet pre school and secondary education is not free; they are partly funded by the government though.
Something else that I liked about the education system in Sweden was not so much how it is set up (although I do like it) but the fact that lunch is free (Sweden.se, October 2009). It has been proven again and again that people need food to keep their energy levels up and their brain running smoothly and very often I see people going without lunch who cannot afford to buy food from the cafeteria, or do not have enough food at home to bring for lunch. In this way I think it's wonderful that they provide free lunch for students. Obviously less developed countries can't afford to do this, but developed countries certainly can! I think that if lunch was free there would be a lot more students eating at school, and maybe we would even see average grades go up!
In 2008 Sweden was ranked fourth in the world for the best treatment of women; they used to be first. Nonetheless number four is very impressive and deserves a pat on the back. But what is it that makes Sweden such a gender equal country? And what do they still have to improve on?
Well to begin, women and men in Sweden are both allowed to take a number of paid days off from work when they adopt or have a child biologically. To be exact, they are allowed to take off 480 days between the two of them, however men usually take less and women take the majority of days off (Sweden.se, July 2009) This makes sense though seeing as if the baby was born biologically the mother is usually needed for nursing.
Women in Sweden are also protected from abuse under the law, which is something that many less developed countries do not do. Even if they do the law is often not implemented against men. Luckily in Sweden is one of the countries that takes abuse against women seriously. Now, Sweden does strive to give equal opportunities to men and women in the workplace, however women still earn 15% less than men on average (BBC News, October 16, 2010). Before we jump to conclusions though, it is important to remember that this is an averaged out number, and we are not looking at the jobs in which these women are employed. It was not clear to me whether or not women were earning 15% less than men for the same job, or 15% less than men on average for every job in the country. If the latter is the case then it could simply be a matter of more men working full time, or women working later in life because of having children. If the former is the case then that is definitely an issue that needs to be worked through, because women deserve to be paid equally.
Overall I must say that I am impressed by Sweden, I wish I had gotten to spend a bit more time on their government because I would have liked to have better understood it. However there was so much information to cover and I wanted to get on to my other topics. I was very impressed by their education system, as well as the fact that they are leaders in gender equality. Also, as I said in the beginning of this post I have always loved that Sweden remains neutral during wars, I think most other countries could look to Sweden as a prime example of a successful country.
