New figures from Samordna Opptak show that more than twice as many women as men have entered the so-called “prestige studies”, such as medicine and law. At the law faculty in Bergen, the proportion of men will probably only be around 30 per cent when new, hopeful students turn up at Dragefjellet in August. This applies not only to the prestige studies, but to the entire range of studies. Over 60 per cent of those who were offered studies are women. This is the highest proportion of women in ten years. It’s a good thing the girls are doing well. Nor does everyone need higher education to be successful later in life, nevertheless this is a development that should worry us all. The girls do better than the boys at school, and it already starts at an early age. Almost 70 per cent of those who receive special education in primary school are boys. The girls get better grades, they are better at reading, have fewer absences and more girls than boys complete upper secondary education. When boys drop out of school, it often has a sad domino effect. Among those who received social assistance in 2020, 40 per cent were single men, and thus this was the largest group among the recipients of social assistance. Every fifth man has not had children of his own by the time he turns 50. Three out of four convicted criminals in Norway are men. Men accounted for over 70 percent of all suicides committed in 2020. What place do we really have for the guys who are left over in society? One of the ugliest things we do to a human being is to tell them at the age of 19 that we have no use for you. We do that with some of these boys. It is a tragic fate for each individual, but also for society. Both health-wise, socially, economically and safety-wise. In many ways, we are at a crossroads. Today we have an equality challenge. In 40 years, this challenge may be significantly greater and more serious. The government therefore has an enormous responsibility. We need more measures and we need them now. Today’s school is better adapted to girls. The Conservative Party was the only party to vote on a secondary school reform, which the Støre government has recently adopted. It is good. I hope that they also take the content of the reform to heart. We need more optional vocational subjects and an obligation to follow up pupils with absences. We also need the government to turn around, and make arrangements so that we can get more and not fewer profile schools in Norway. These are schools that specialize in individual areas such as science, sports or languages. We also need more apprenticeships within vocational subjects. Like so many other challenges in Norway, it starts at school. When young people drop out of school, they do not get to use their resources and this leads to great social inequalities over time. If we fail to reverse this trend, we risk having a large group of frustrated young men and boys. For some it is about passivity and outsiderness, while for others it can result in drug addiction, violence, crime and in the worst cases, extremism. Now it must be the boys’ turn. We need a new fight for equality, and it must happen in school first.
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Now it must be the boys’ turn – Expression
