Controversy surrounding the sponsorship of teaching materials

 For the past three years, enterprising St. Gallen vocational and secondary school teachers have been publishing a civics and economics textbook financed by companies. After initial enthusiasm for the free teaching aid, it is now raising some awkward questions: Do the sponsors influence the content? The secondary school principals of the canton of Vaud would say yes. They are boycotting the "Recht Staat Wirtschaft" textbook because the advertising takes up too much space. Christine Schwaab, principal of the Gymnasium de Burier, believes that the use of the textbook contradicts the principle of political and economic neutrality that is required at a public school. A report by the SF news magazine "10vor10" showed what she means by this. The text teaches pupils that it is okay to take out a personal loan in certain circumstances. The advertisement of a credit institution is printed next to it.
The sponsorship of teaching materials is now also an issue for the Swiss Commission for Vocational Education and Training, as reported by SDA. The private sponsors include BP and Mobiliar. The project was also previously supported by the Federal Department of Finance, which has now discontinued its sponsorship. Nevertheless, the fourth, 100,000-copy edition of the teaching aid will soon be published. For the publisher Emil Schatz, cooperation between schools and business is simply a reality and the team of authors is completely independent.