Survey gives glowing report of canton's schools

Since 2008 an external quality assessment of schools has been undertaken in the canton of Zug. The latest one gives a glowing report of education here, with pupils and their parents all very happy with schooling, and teachers happy in their role, too.
 
It is only natural that when pupils arrive home after a day at school they complain about the amount of homework they have been set or some other onerous aspects of school life. Indeed, earlier this week, Yannick Werner, a 16-year-old school pupil from Holzhäusern, decided to put pen to paper and wrote an article for the Neue Zuger Zeitung in a column specially reserved for the under 20s to let off steam. He expressed his dissatisfaction with the way his school timetable was organised, mentioning the fact that, for him, the first two lessons were a waste of time because he was too tired to take anything in at that time in the morning. He also said lessons in the afternoon went on too long and he had difficulty keeping up concentration until the end of the school day.
 
However according to this report published yesterday by Stefan Schleiss, the cantonal director of education, many of the frustrations expressed by pupils, teachers or parents from time to time were only of a temporary nature.
 
In this report, entitled “An external evaluation of schools in the canton of Zug”, pupils (though only those of the 4^th class and older), their parents and teachers, 1,111 of them in all, were asked to respond to a large number of questions over the period 2014-2015.
 
The results showed that 94% of pupils were happy with the school they attended with 92% of parents of the same opinion. As for the teachers, as many as 97% of them said they were happy about the environment in which they taught.
 
When it came to external assessment of what went on in schools, observers said the quality of lessons was high, with a supporting learning environment evident. There was much praise for the teachers, too, who did their utmost to educate the children and young people in their care. The report also commented most favourably about the way in which the teachers worked together to get the best out of their pupils. It mentioned, too, how some teachers were able to transfer their knowledge to the children in a way which omitted unnecessary detail, making the subject matter all the more easily understandable for them.
 
Commenting on this, Schleiss said that it was clear that “good teachers taught good lessons” and added that there was not one prescribed way of going about teaching; “Lots of roads lead to Rome,” he said, as he added how important it was that teachers were given freedom to conduct lessons in the way they felt was right. He recognised that they faced a daily challenge in finding that right balance between imparting knowledge while allowing pupils to find out things for themselves, too, not least in exchanges involving the whole class.
 
Expressing his views in this area, Johannes Furrer, who was responsible for this external evaluation, said that teachers had to find the right balance between leading and letting go in the classroom.