– I think they have much more to choose from than we have, says Reidun Sandøy Os. She is a teacher at Nordstranda school in Gloppen. As in most schools, digital offers have become part of the school’s everyday life. But not all apps, educational games and other learning resources can be found in Nynorsk. This gives Nynorsk teachers less freedom of choice than Bokmål teachers, Os believes. At the end of March, the government presented proposals for a new education law. Leader of Norges Mållag, Peder Lofnes Hauge, believes that the bill lags behind the digital development and thus weakens Nynorsk. Although there is today a requirement that teaching materials be in both Nynorsk and Bokmål, there are several digital learning resources that do not fall under the requirement. – If the Nynorsk students do not get to meet their language there as well, it is serious for the quality of the education, he believes. – The situation in the classroom has changed dramatically in recent years. Less and less happens with pen and paper, more and more happens behind the screens, says Peder Lofnes Hauge in Mållaget. Photo: Tuva Åserud / Photographer Tuva Åserud One third have signed The so-called parallelism requirement states that learning materials must arrive at the same time and at the same price – both in Bokmål and Nynorsk. Requirements that define what is considered a teaching aid A printed, non-printed or digital element Developed for use in training Must be used equally in training Covers essential parts of the curriculum in the subject. But this does not apply to digital learning resources such as apps, games or educational websites, which are currently in use in schools. – The pupils are exposed to so much Bokmål in so many other contexts. So at school they can easily get what is connected to the teaching in Nynorsk, says the teacher at Nordstranda school. Together with the National Association of Nynorsk Municipalities (LNK), Mållaget has taken the initiative to call for mayors to get the school owners – the municipalities – on board. 120 mayors have signed the petition. – It is important for the students in our municipality that the Nynorsk students have the same opportunities as the Bokmål students, says Sogndal mayor Arnstein Menes (Sp), who has signed the petition. The same has Høgre mayor Morten Storebø in Austevoll. – The development in teaching is that a variety of digital tools are used. Then it is important that they are in the target form in which the teaching will be given, he says. Austevoll mayor Morten Storebø (H). Photo: Natalie Mariell Elholm Will appear in the Storting in June After the proposal was submitted, State Secretary Kjetil Vevle (Ap) explained that extending the parallelism requirement to apply to all digital aids is difficult to enforce. – We want to give the teacher more pedagogical and professional room for action, Vevle explained to news. Comment from education policy spokesperson in Ap, Elise Waagen The Labor Party wants the Nynorsk students to actually have a Nynorsk school day. At the same time, we know that the reality in schools is that many Nynorsk pupils also read a lot in Bokmål. That is why we are making some important moves in the new Education Act. We are extending the right to education in a separate group in the written language that the municipality has not adopted as the main target, so that it will also apply to pupils at the junior level, and we are introducing an unconditional requirement that schools use writing programs that support both Bokmål and Nynorsk. In the Education Act, it is proposed to continue that the parallelism requirement only covers teaching aids. We see that teachers and schools sometimes have a need to use digital resources such as encyclopedias or articles that are not necessarily designed for use in training, and we do not want to reduce the pedagogical and professional room for action that exists in the classroom. The Language Council has, in its consultation response to the bill, called for “legislating a requirement that digital learning resources that have been developed with the school as the primary target group must be available in both Nynorsk and Bokmål”. Community contact Bjørgulv Vinje Borgundvaag at the Publishers Association points out that pupils have a right to receive training in their own written language. – It is important when schools increasingly use a combination of teaching aids and learning resources, that the learning resources are also available in the written language the student knows and is used to. Central board member of the Directorate of Education, Marit Himle Pedersen, believes that digital learning resources should be in both written languages: – It is absolutely crucial to preserve the equal treatment of the written languages we have. Defining something as a teaching aid and something else as learning resources is a circumvention of the parallelism requirement. The bill will be considered in the Storting in June.
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Mayors revolt against bills that “weaken” Nynorsk – news Vestland
