How do Norwegian Christians react to policy change towards private schools?
Pupils at a Christian school in Norway. Photo Alta Kristne Grunnskole
Northern Europe
Recently, the Norwegian authorities announced huge cuts in the subsidies for private schools. Within three days, 20,000 people signed a petition to protest against this decision.
The petition is meant to make people aware of “how unreasonable and dramatic” this decision is, Sidsel Høland Olausson told Vart Land. She is the acting general secretary of the Association of Christian Free Schools (KFF). The KFF and several other private school organisations are behind the petition against the subsidy cut.
The Norwegian government recently decided to cut funding for private schools which offer both primary and secondary education. Over the coming five years, the financial state support will be decreased by more than half a billion NOK (about 43 million euros), Vart Land writes. The government argues that the combined schools (primary and secondary education) have received double the amount they have the right to receive. It wants to correct that now.
According to the petition, the new subsidy model is “very unreasonable” for schools that are affected by the grand reductions. The government does not take into account that it is much more work to run a school that contains both primary and secondary education compared to a school that only offers primary or secondary education, the petition reads. The initiators behind the petition fear that the grant cuts will “significantly worsen the school provision for thousands of pupils and may lead to the fragmentation of the school provision and the closure of several schools.”
Diversity
Sidsel Høland Olausson calls the situation “very serious”, she tells Dagen. She fears that many schools will either have to stop their offer of primary or of secondary education. “This is the most dramatic thing that has happened in many years.”
Sidsel Høland Olausson points out to Vart Land that the massive support for the petition shows that there are many people in Norway “who want diversity and freedom of choice in Norwegian schools.” She adds that there are many thousands of students in more than a hundred schools who will be affected by the grant cut. The petition will be presented to the new Education Minister of Norway, Kari Nessa Nortun. She succeeded Tonje Brenna this week.
Decline
Despite the worries around Christian schools, the number of students who applied for a study at a Christian college has increased compared to last year. For the coming autumn, Norwegian Bible schools admitted almost 50 more students than last year, statistics from the Norwegian Directorate of Education show. In total, 783 students will study at the Bible schools this fall, Vart Land reports.
“With a slight decline in recent times and cuts in support, it is necessary to fill the school. We are well underway with that now”, says principal Anne Mari Vadset from the Bible School in Grimstad. She is very pleased that her school accepted 94 students for the coming semester.
Save
At the same time, the Bible school is also affected by the cuts in subsidies. Currently, students pay half of the expenses of their studies, while the school covers the other half. Vadset acknowledges that the loss of subsidies has consequences for the budgeting of the school. “When you lose a million in support almost overnight, it is clear that it is not enough to just save on toilet paper”, she points out.
Yet, the large number of students calls for something else. “If the number of applicants points to what is to come, we should rather adjust upwards”, Vadset says.
The large number of applications is a clear signal to the authorities that the “Bible school is still relevant and something that young people want”, principal Jon Georg Fiske from the Fjellhaug Bible School in Oslo says. Also, the large number of applications helps the school to compensate for the loss of subsidies. Fiske adds. “If we had both had fewer pupils and a cut in the grant, it would have been a completely different account.”
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