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March 18th, 2013

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Wozniacki blown away in final

It took just over an hour for Maria Sharapova to overcome Denmark’s number one Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 6-2 in the Indian Wells final last night. It was Wozniacki’s third straight defeat to Russian ace Sharapova, and the Danish tennis star with Polish roots hasn’t beaten a top-five player since May 2011. Despite the crushing defeat, Wozniacki earned winnings of around three million kroner and should rise in the world rankings thanks to reaching the final. – Ekstra Bladet

Being unemployed makes people ill

People who are unemployed have more sick days the closer they are to losing their unemployment benefits (dagpenge), according to a new report. The report, compiled by local government association KL, looked at almost 50,000 dagpenge receivers and found that after a year with no job, unemployed individuals have nearly twice as many sick days as they did at the beginning of their benefits period. Stress was reported as the primary reason for the increase in sick days, with a leading doctor saying that being jobless affects the body and mind and increases the likelihood of being ill. Another factor, however, may be that one's dagpenge period will expire if a person has been ill for more than six weeks. – Jyllands-Posten

Vocational schools will come under pressure

Many of the vocational schools (erhvervsskolerne) feel that they will be a social dumping ground and are ill-prepared for the huge numbers of young people that the government’s unemployment benefit reform will push into education. Of the 52 vocational schools that Berlingske newspaper asked, 43 said that the new students wouldn’t be motivated to complete their studies. Thirty-five of them believed that drop-out rates would rise and 42 of them said that the schools will face social challenges that will compromise the government’s own goal of having 95 percent of all youths receive an education. – Berlingske

Seventh graders to pick line of education

A new school reform proposal from local government association KL recommends that students in the seventh grade should be split up into practical and theoretical classes that are closely related to the subjects the students will take later in upper-secondary school. The new proposal is suggested as a way to reduce the drop-out rates at the upper-secondary schools, but a leading education researcher at Aarhus University argues that seventh grade students are not ready to make decisions about their future lives and vocations. – Politiken