The government’s decision to supplement a lack of qualified teachers in remote regions of Denmark by using interactive, long-distance video teaching has been criticised both by parents and teachers.

According to Jens Peter Christensen, the national chairman of maths teachers, long-distance teaching flies in the face of recent reforms and would take public school teaching back in time to blackboards and passive students.

He believes the ministry’s plan to experiment with long-distance learning in less populated parts of Denmark with a shortage of specialised teachers could have especially negative effects on weak students.

Denmark not Australia!
Mette With Hagensen, the head of the association for schools and parents, Skole og Forældre, argues that instead of using video teaching, teachers should be offered higher salaries and better working conditions if they choose to be relocated.

“It is important that school children – and especially the younger ones – have a relationship with their teacher,” Hagensen told Politiken.

“It is very hard to build such a relationship through a video screen. We are not a country with huge distances like Australia.”

Maths, Physics, German
The government has set aside 1 billion kroner for training teachers on how to use video for long-distance teaching.

The Children and Education Ministry will first test the idea in selected schools before it decides to roll it out nationwide.

Denmark is especially lacking qualified teachers in mathematics, physics and German.