Recently Minister of Education Kari Nessa Nordtun put forward a proposal for a new absence limit in high school. The changes from the current absence limit are minimal, and the proposal is, to say the least, disappointing.
Some of the changes are that students are given a self-report day, and that several parts of the driving training are considered documented absences. Apart from these small changes, the essence of the limit is still the same: if you have high absenteeism, you strengthen regardless of whether you have assessment grounds or not.
Nordtun defends the absence limit itself by saying that we must have a clear expectation that the pupils show up.
It is disappointing that Nordtun continues a regulation that has made it worse to be a student at upper secondary school.
No one disagrees that it is important that students show up at school, but Nordtun makes a mistake when it comes to how students with high absenteeism should meet.
Because with the Labor Party’s absence limit, students with high absenteeism will still be met with a hard fist, and have their diploma taken away.
In other words, students who are already struggling will continue to be pushed out of school, making it even more difficult.
It is disappointing that Nordtun continues a regulation that has made it worse to be a student at upper secondary school.
Statistics from Undir shows that pupils are more unmotivated and stressed compared to before the absence limit was introduced in 2016. The absence limit has also not led to more people completing and completing upper secondary education. To say that the absence limit solves the problems in Norwegian schools would therefore just be a lie.
Instead of insisting on a rigid limit, as the Labor Party and the Conservative Party do, we have to find measures that actually reduce the dropout rate in upper secondary schools. To think that this implies a rigid boundary that cuts all students across the same ridge is nothing but naive.
There are as many reasons for high absenteeism as there are students with high absenteeism. And different causes actually require different solutions.
A solution that takes into account the differences between students is for the school to call students with more than 10% absenteeism to a counseling session. Here you can find the reasons why the individual student has high absenteeism, and make a plan for how the student will complete and pass the school course.
It is obviously important that students show up at school, but then there must be a system that sees each individual student for who they are, and does not punish students who are already on the ground.
The absence limit is unfair regardless of whether it is red or blue. It does not belong in a Norwegian school, but on the scrap heap of history.