Ladies and gentlemen,

Today’s taboos are no longer death or sexuality.

The strongest taboo today is against having clear ideas of right and wrong. Or even worse, against saying clearly to other people what is right and wrong, and stopping those who cross the line. The fear of being moralistic has become a fear of morals themselves, and as a result many people in our country feel that they have lost their way. The way forward will be difficult to find unless we can agree on basic values and where to set limits.

This loss of direction becomes particularly clear when defenceless children do not receive the protection they need from adults in the school system. When small children year after year are forced into a system where they are bullied and tormented, and no one stops the bullies.

As prime minister, I cannot give a sense of direction to individuals, but the current government will do everything it can to prevent bullying in the school system.

Preventing bullying is the job of the adult generation. In every part of Norway, we are now starting to mobilize adults to take responsibility and lead the way in stopping the bullying of our children.

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This morning, about 600 000 under-16s will be arriving in their classrooms. And a further 162 000 will be arriving at their upper secondary schools.

Up to 40 000 of these pupils wake up every morning and dread going to school.

They know that they will once again be bullied, tormented and persecuted, and that they will be excluded and lonely. They know that adults either cannot or will not do anything to help them.

And we know that they will not learn much during lessons when they are dreading the next breaktime. We know that this can destroy their childhood, and that the road to recovery will be lifelong.

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Most of our children will spend thirteen years in the school system. And pupils are at the mercy of the system. They cannot choose which class to be in, and they have little opportunity to change class.

We have all been to school.

We know that one factor is of decisive importance for a child’s schooling: the teacher. If the teacher manages to make sure that the classroom is a good place to be for every child, the children will acquire good social and academic skills. But if the teacher does not take a clear stand and stop any bullying, the pupils will lose all respect for him or her. And then the teacher no longer has any opportunity to get across the most fundamental value of our culture, respect for other people. In practice, the teacher also loses the opportunity to get across any other kind of knowledge.

A happy class is not necessarily one where there are no quarrels or conflicts. It is obvious that when a number of children or young people who come from different social backgrounds, have different interests and whose level of maturity varies spend much of the day together in a classroom, a certain amount of friction is to be expected.

We should not be afraid of conflict in itself.

We know that married couples who never disagree are not necessarily happy: the complete absence of conflict may be an expression of indifference.

No, conflicts can be a sign of health. And, I might add, they can be instructive. Teachers can use conflicts as raw material for their teaching. They can use friction between pupils to demonstrate the importance of consideration and respect for others. And they can use the opportunity to indicate which types of behaviour and which views are acceptable.

Bullying arises when one group of pupils is able to persecute a fellow pupil systematically over a period of time without anyone taking steps to stop them. The bullies build up a position of power in the class, at the expense of the other pupils.

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As a result of the Middle East conflict, a new group of pupils have become victims of bullying in Norwegian schools: children and young people who happen to be Jewish. They come from families with widely varying views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and they are Norwegian. During a visit to the Jewish community, I was told that there are teachers in Norway who ask Jewish children not to wear a Star of David round their necks, so as not to provoke the other children. Children have been attacked in playgrounds and at sports events, while teachers and other adults have looked on passively. Going to school can be a nightmare for these children, and some have even had to change school.

This is something that Norwegian society cannot accept.

But this is only one shocking example of bullying where the most disquieting feature is the passivity of adults.

Real tolerance means accepting and respecting that other people have different attitudes and viewpoints from our own. Accepting bullying in classrooms and playgrounds is a false form of tolerance. If we fail to define unacceptable behaviour, bullying and persecution, we are not being tolerant, but indifferent and irresponsible.

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This government wishes to see our shared values made a living part of the school system, values such as tolerance, compassion and democracy. We will do what we can to make bullying a thing of the past.

I see this as a question of moral values. At the deepest level, it is concerned with human dignity and equality.

We need to take a stand at the most fundamental level. We must decide that we will not accept bullying. And we must be able to do this even though we do not understand all its causes, even though we have not found all the tools we need to deal with it. But we do have some important tools already. In the course of next year, all municipalities will be given the opportunity to take part in the Olweus Bullying Prevention Programme. The government has also proposed amendments to the Education Act so that all schools must take the learning environment and thus the problem of bullying seriously. We have also put forward a proposal to make the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child part of Norwegian law. These steps are not just fine words: they will dramatically strengthen children’s rights, both outside and inside school.

We are to sign a manifesto today, a paper document. But behind this document lie the destinies of living children, who may be small but who are of equal worth, children who are not being given the opportunity to wake up and feel pleasure at the thought of a new school day. Instead, they wake to apprehension and perhaps fear, and they dread the way to school, the thought of being excluded, sudden attacks by other children.

We are making a pledge on behalf of these children. Five signatures on a manifesto, one common goal, and a promise from responsible adults to eliminate bullying completely within two years.