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Kunnskapsminister Kari Nessa Nordtun met Simen Velle for a debate on Politisk kvarter concerning the establishment of an IB school at Manglerud with 235 pupils which the Government has decided is to be closed as of the autumn.
An IB school concludes with an International Baccalaureate (IB), an internationally recognised grading standard that is uniform throughout the world. The level of Norwegian schooling is no longer recognised if one applies for admission or employment abroad.
Normally IB schools are private, but at Manglerud it is part of the public school. This makes it possible also for less affluent pupils to apply.
The provision was established in 2016. It is now being closed. A majority in the Storting has voted for it to continue, but Nordtun need not concern herself with that, and it did not sound as though she intended to.
Instruction takes place in English and the school is attractive to parents who move frequently between countries. Because the educational programme is the same everywhere, the transitions are seamless. The standard is generally higher than in an ordinary Norwegian school, simply because the requirements to pass are higher.
This provision Nessa Nordtun wishes to scrap. She does not like private schools and said that they threaten the “cohesion” in the Norwegian school. Simen Velle asked whether she meant that a provision with 235 pupils threatened the Norwegian school, which has half a million pupils.
It became clear that the answer to that was yes.
Nessa Nordtun spoke about the success of the comprehensive school (enhetsskolen) and how it creates integration, despite the fact that daily reports relate the opposite.
Nordtun could have said that diversity is good, also within the school system, but she chose the opposite line of reasoning: Everyone is to be pressed into the same mould.
– It is this that you have forced down the throats of the pupils for decades, said Velle, who was surprisingly brisk and articulate.
Nordtun did not acquit herself well in the debate.
She is herself of an elitist type. A lawyer, but with a father who was a prominent figure in Ap.
Recently it became known that she wished to build a cabin in the shoreline zone and obtained municipal approval. Until the State Administrator (statsforvalteren) intervened.
One law for Tor and another for Loke.
Nessa Nordtun fought tooth and nail against an acknowledgement that “everyone” today shares: Alternative provisions supplement the comprehensive school (enhetsskolen), where everyone is pressed into the same mould. Pupils who want something are given the opportunity. Norwegian society needs that competence. But Ap places ideology and the straitjacket above the needs of the pupils.
That will carry consequences.
https://tv.nrk.no/serie/politisk-kvarter-tv/sesong/202602/episode/NNFA07022626