Another summer we can read that “students are failing teacher training”. It is almost portrayed as if they owe it to society to put lecturer training first, after having been exposed to recruitment strategies such as: “Talking up the teaching profession” or “applause for the effort”. Not to forget: “Papered bus shelters with (small) slogans about how important the teaching profession is” signed by a desperate marketing office – glued to the bus shelter with public funds. The applicant numbers speak for themselves. The marketing campaigns don’t work, they don’t bite anyone. The number of applicants to teacher training courses is plummeting throughout the country. Strikes end on increasingly thin grounds, and “escape teacher” has become a term in the vernacular. A foretold school policy tragedy is unfolding in Norway, and there has been no shortage of warnings and whistleblowers. Few, simple and cheap answers to the many different problems in schools are the wrong medicine. On the prescription we get: Attitude campaigns, lower requirements for subjects and of course the favourite: Selection. Nothing is as healing as a disclaimer selection. In recent years, the media has been flooded with people involved in society expressing the fact that the real challenges in schools are not being addressed. When the concept of crisis is used and the alarm goes off, there is no time for more selections. It’s time for brave choices. It is time to listen to solutions from the grassroots and slow down the reform frenzy. Perhaps it is time to shift the focus to the low-hanging fruit in the schoolyard. Why are the numbers of applicants for the teaching profession plummeting? I wonder if the answers may already be so accessible and known that a new selection becomes redundant? Here are some low-hanging fruits/reasons: Lower status of knowledge/school and an ever-increasing uncertainty for the future of the profession: Challenged by increasingly complex access to information, particularly driven by technological developments such as artificial intelligence (AI) and lack of regulation of such technology. Why choose a course of study, aimed at a profession, with an uncertain future? Wage losers: Numerous reports, statistics and studies provide grounds for claiming that teachers, and especially lecturers (5 years’ education or more), have been wage losers compared to comparable job alternatives in society. Young people carefully consider their own future and the opportunities a competitive salary will give them. Why choose a future with fewer (financial) opportunities? Working hours and working conditions: Teachers work a lot, it is not unique, but salary and time no longer make up for the increasing number of imposed responsibilities, expectations and legal requirements in everyday school life. The most important resources in the school are under pressure. Why choose a working relationship that is increasingly burdened with society’s problems, where at the same time no time is given to succeed? Freedom and autonomy: After repeated reforms in recent decades, the school has moved in the direction of becoming a service station, rather than an educational institution. This has had many consequences for the teacher’s role, the student’s role and the degrees of freedom the teacher has to create a class environment characterized by personal commitment and pedagogical conviction (read autonomy). Why choose a profession where the freedom to decide on one’s own everyday life and professional practice is increasingly regulated? Unpredictability and culture war: An ever-increasing level of conflict in the school regarding the 9A section(s), a classroom that has increasingly become an unpredictable battleground for society’s polarized culture war and unfortunate consequences of a reform guild for several decades have contributed to making the school a unpredictable workplace where the freedom to think, express and act according to one’s own conscience has become more difficult. The young people have learned this, just look at the results of the previous school election (read the municipal election 2022). Why choose a work situation where every day you have to wear your personal beliefs under your work uniform for fear of being fired, forced into silence or worst case scenario: Reported on, investigated, distrusted, charged, prosecuted or convicted for doing what you thought was right ? The five above-mentioned “fruits” represent current causes of reported challenges in schools. If one is to manage to reverse the trend in the number of applicants to teacher training programs and the dropout of experienced lecturers in schools, one should perhaps take a closer look at these. If the negative trend in schools is to reverse, we need brave politicians. Politicians who dare to make the right choices despite the fear and risk that the choices may create dissatisfaction among the voters, get blasted in the media or internally opposed. Everything indicates that the strategy that has been pursued so far, and the choices that have been made in the last 10–20 years, have contributed to the situation we are in: Low numbers of applicants, increasing teacher shortages and a crisis atmosphere in the trade unions. It is time to listen, acknowledge one’s own responsibility for reversing the negative development and show the necessary action. The future of the Norwegian community school is at stake. The 2025 election is just around the corner. We, the voters, do not judge you for what you once said and promised us, but what you once carried out and stood for. We also judge you for what you “stay silent” and what you lack the courage to carry out. Start with the low-hanging fruit in the school yard. Published 05/08/2024, at 05.00
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The alarm has gone off, it’s serious now – Statement
