Bjerke Upper Secondary School (videregående) personnel admitted they consciously adopted the practice to keep the ethnic Norwegian pupils in the same class and to separate them from the others.
Head of Section Hanna Norum Eliassen told Dagsavisen, “Ethnic Norwegian pupils quit and go to other schools. Some express loneliness at being “white” Norwegians in classes consisting of pupils from minority background.” She expressed that it was a difficult, but responsible decision to keep the ethnic Norwegian students more united by placing 14 ethnic Norwegians in the first two classes.
This practice stirred up the debate on the ethnically divided Oslo schools. After one week, the same newspaper unveiled that the Minister of the Environment and Development Cooperation from Socialist Left Party (SV); Erik Solheim (SV) tried to change his son’s class due to the same reason 19 years ago. He also warned against "ghettoization" of some schools in the capital in an interview with VG in August 1992.
Similarly, Robert Wright, a former school commissioner for the Christian Democratic Party (KrF), pointed out several schools in Eastern provinces of Oslo have a minority share of more than 90 percent.
Dagsavisen wrote some parents in this region have identical concerns, but they are afraid of being labeled as racists if they stand up and say they do not want their children to attend school among so many immigrants.
Get help with high prescription medicine costs
Comments