Rules for school sponsorship
Until now, sponsorship at schools was not regulated. That is now changing.
Gifts, teaching aids, worksheets - more and more companies and associations are discovering school sponsorship as a lucrative marketing tool. For example, the dairy association Swissmilk on Thursday at the annual Pause Milk Day 360,000 schoolchildren a glass of milk. The drink was advertised as a "healthy alternative to sweet drinks and snacks.
Until now, there have been no regulations concerning sponsorship at schools. This is now changing, as the Sonntagszeitung writes in its current issue: 19 companies have signed a charter. This will be presented on Tuesday by the umbrella organization Teachers Switzerland.
The companies are committed to greater transparency and data protection. In the future, for example, it will also be regulated what happens if parents do not agree with sponsorship measures - for example, the milk for school breaks.
The charter also applies to companies that are increasingly "spreading their wings" at schools in the course of digitization: Microsoft, for example, sponsors software and online storage space - for no consideration. Samsung has been providing tablets for some time. In return, schools have to participate in evaluations that give Samsung information about future trends at schools.
Tablets, condoms, brochures
Digitization is also unstoppable at schools. Accordingly, IT companies have a great interest in establishing themselves early enough to determine which devices and programs will be used in the future. They benefit from the fact that there are not yet enough teaching materials available in the IT sector.
This also applies to other teaching areas - for example, sex education. Since there is no budget for condoms, condom companies supply samples for sex education.
Pharmaceutical companies also spread out to schools. Often, for example, a brochure from the company MSD about the first visit to the gynecologist is used as teaching material because no "official" alternatives exist. The materials from the Federal Office of Public Health are often not comprehensive, says Marina Costa of the Zurich-based Lust und Frust (Pleasure and Frustration) specialist unit to the Sonntagszeitung. Schools have fewer and fewer resources to produce the teaching materials. As a result, the proportion of free products is increasing. (hae/SoZ).
Photo: Swissmilk.ch
