Might four educational establishments have to be closed

The Cantonal Public Audit Committee (Stawiko) has recommended that the canton might have to close some of its traditional educational establishments in order to cut costs.
 
According to this recent article in the Neue Zuger Zeitung, establishments such as the Schluechthof Agricultural College in Cham, the Fachmittelschule (which provides a less popular alternative form of training to that provided at vocational and academic secondary schools), the Wirtschaftsmittelschule (which provides courses in commerce, inter alia, enabling students to enter certain professions or embark on further study at other secondary schools) and even the Zug Teacher Training College could be affected. The government will have the final say when it has considered what the committee has found in its report.
 
The report concluded that, in the case of the Fachmittelschule, which is currently attended by 190 pupils, some CHF 2.4 million could be saved if it were closed. At present it costs CHF 5.5 million a year to run but the canton would still have to pay out CHF 3.1 million to have the pupils trained in another canton. Possible savings if the Schluechthof Agricultural College (second photograph) were to close amount to about the same.
 
Gabriela Ingold of the FDP party of Unterägeri, who chairs the Stawinko, said that it was a result of fewer pupils attending the Fachmittelschule at present, namely just 200, that made the committee look further at the expense of running it, especially bearing in mind it could easily cope with 400 pupils. Indeed, the same cold logic was to be applied to the other establishments mentioned.
 
Matthias Michel, a member of the cantonal government and head of the head of the Cantonal Department of Economic Development, said that the government would indeed take a close objective look at all areas where savings could be made in line with the “2019 Finance” targets, but declined to mention any educational establishments which might be closed; neither did he say whether he thought it appropriate for pupils following certain courses in Zug to be educated at establishments beyond the cantonal boundary. He added that what types of courses offered in the canton must be continually under review and mentioned how the Industrial Trades School in Zug also abandoned certain courses if too few students applied for them.
 
When they heard about the possibility of these school closures, the Zug Cantonal Teachers’ Association expressed their disapproval. “The canton can well afford to run them,” said the association’s president, Barbara Kurth-Weimer. “The saving resulting from the closure of the Fachmittelschule amounts to the same as a contribution of CHF 20 per person in the canton, which itself would suffer as a result of no longer providing this form of education. Furthermore, if it were closed, the pupils would have a much longer route to school and its teachers, cantonal tax payers, would simply leave and go elsewhere. It is as if the canton were to cut off the very branch it is sitting on,” she said.