In the interior you can see the fire burning. The torches are back 30 years after the Olympics in Lillehammer. There is grief and anger for the great gold medal. While an entire nation could rally around identity creation back then, an entire country and people should look to the Inland now too. To see the alarming statistics and explosive engagement. To glimpse politicians who will be future-oriented and responsible. And all the teenagers who fear dorm life. Although everyone deserves to be seen, not everyone can necessarily be heard. That’s where we are now. It’s new. It’s unusual. And it will just spread. The Norwegian future has already arrived inland. That’s why it catches fire. That is why the politicians throw up their arms and the people clench their fists. Illustration: Illustration photo / news That is why the hinterland will be hit first The population change that will take place throughout the country for almost fifteen years is already happening and to a great extent in the hinterland. Birth rates are going down. The population is getting older. Centralization continues. School structure is not just about geography and economics. It is also about demographics. Therefore, the similarity between Dokka and Drammen is greater than the number of inhabitants suggests. The following cannot be ignored: The number of pupils in upper secondary school has been reduced by 500 pupils in six school years. Towards 2040, a further 3,600 pupils are expected to fall. The school structure is now adapted to a 10-year-old reality with 3,500 fewer pupils in the school yards. Population growth in the interior is lower than in Norway as a whole and for 2023 the growth is lower than the number of settled refugees from Ukraine. Even in the inland cities of Hamar, Gjøvik, Lillehammer and Elverum there is no birth surplus. There is already a larger proportion of the population who are over 67 than under 17 in the interior. For Norway, this is the long-term path. 21 per cent of the inhabitants of Innlandet are over 67 today. In Norway, the proportion of residents over 70 is currently 13 per cent and in 2050 it will be close to 20 per cent. Aging occurs first in the interior. This should not be called emotionless statistics. It is a reality that politicians must navigate. It is not easy. It is not normal. It comes on suddenly, no matter how long the statisticians have been sounding the alarm from their offices. It is only now that it becomes reality and it is in the Inland that it becomes real first. – I don’t lack money, but students, sighed county mayor Thomas Breen (Ap), who had a pedagogically demanding exercise in Tuesday’s Debatten broadcast. A school closure has everything in it A school closure can, viewed in isolation, be a forward-looking political move. The workforce, building stock and service production are adapted to demand. Birth rates and recruitment challenges and municipal finances make it easier to cut schools than health services. Going forward, this concrete contradiction will only become greater than it is today. Health services must be provided around the clock, in homes and institutions. Cutting from four to three schools can be a real and simpler option to save money. The students still get their offer, one could argue. The night shift at the nursing home or the home help in Ytrebygda cannot be cut. Pupil council leader Sunniva Ludvigsen at Dokka VGS is moved by the fact that the local community is on fire and fighting for the local school. She says there is great value in being able to meet the teachers at the store. Photo: Stine Bækkelien / news In Dokka, Flisa, Skarnes, Dombås and in Lom, you know what this means and why the fear is both fundamental and special. We explain the school case in Innlandet A school is not just an educational institution and a skilled workplace in the village. There are so many other days than 17 May that the school is the gathering point, the center point and the meeting place. If society at large turns off the fuse on the football pitch, the gymnasium and the school library, a lot will go wrong. For the leisure facilities, experiences and reason to settle there. If the school disappears, the foundation of the local community weathers. If society at large gives up, then the conclusion may well be the same around all the kitchen tables. Under a government that promised less centralisation, services for children and young people across the country are being cut. Dormitory living is not for everyone. Day commuting over long distances by bus will annoy anyone. If fewer people apply to upper secondary school, exclusion may increase and everyone will lose out. In Innlandet, the dormitories do well at school, but many of those who live this way today do so because they can, not because they have to. No one wants to let their teenage daughter be an experiment in this. If the school is closed, the migration flow will probably increase. An example of something much bigger. Autumn’s budget drama means that the school structure is put under the microscope and goes under the knife in a number of municipalities. It is not just about settlements threatened with displacement. The school structure is discussed in large cities and towns such as Bergen, Kristiansand, Drammen, Bodø, Haugesund, Kongsberg, Asker, Bærum and Harstad. Right now. Even municipalities with immigration and population growth must turn over every penny and improve efficiency. Because birth rates are slowly but surely going down. Because the money is lacking and the employees’ time must be used as efficiently as possible. The political cost of standing in such processes is enormous. So is the need for leadership. The paradox now is that the Center Party has government power, the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Local Government – while Kommune-Norge has crisis meetings. The Labor Party’s knowledge minister Kari Nessa Nordtun and county mayor in the interior Thomas Breen are taking a big political cost by not being able to promise school facilities in the local area to Aps voters. The party may be punished for that at the election next year. Photo: Tom Balgaard / news All possible incentive schemes and financial support are worth zero if very basic welfare services are destroyed. Especially something as symbolically future-oriented as a school with young people. On Wednesday, the county council in Innlandet will decide the whole thing. 730 school places are up for grabs. The torch trains only need to move two simple votes for the majority’s plan for changes and closure to unravel. That is why the villagers refuse to give up. That’s the dream they live on. Published 19.10.2024, at 07.51
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School closures in the interior – Statement
