Clemet considers cutting school by one year (Verdens Gang)

Education Minister Kristin Clemet (Con) has said she is considering giving future schoolchildren one year less of education than today. A longer school day, better teachers and higher quality in schools would be given priority in 12 years of education. Today, Norway has 10 years of compulsory schooling from the ages of six to 16. All pupils are then offered the opportunity to attend three years at an upper secondary school where they can study academic subjects in preparation for university entrance, or a variety of vocational courses. This possibility emerged when the newly appointed quality commission received its mandate. "We hear about pupils who are tired of school, who want to go out to work or into higher education earlier. We are attempting to take these signals seriously," said Ms Clemet. She has asked the commission to evaluate whether children should start school in the year they are six or seven. The commission is also to consider whether this should be voluntary for the individual local authority or for parents.

Government to decide alone (Klassekampen)

A parliamentary majority has voted to let the Government alone decide if Norway should participate in foreign wars. Carl I. Hagen, chairman of the Progress Party, wants to change the practice in which the Government only lays the question of participation in a war before the extended Foreign Affairs Committee, and wants the full Storting to vote on Norway’s offer to provide military forces for the war in Afghanistan. The other parties, with the exception of the Socialist Left Party, have rejected this proposal. The Socialist Left Party was the only party in the Storting yesterday which criticized the Government’s decision to offer Norwegian forces to the USA to support the military action in Afghanistan.

Welfare Norway makes people ill (Dagbladet)

Each year 200,000 man-years are lost because employees take time off sick. This is despite the fact that Norway is among the best in the world when it comes to health. "The Norwegian authorities have created a system which makes ordinary employees sick," said Geir Riise, who is about to take up the position of chief medical officer at the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry. "If we are to get more people back into the workforce, the role of the doctor must be toned down and more of the responsibility transferred to negotiations between employer and employee," said Dr Riise.

Ghettos have benefits (Dagsavisen)

Norway will not be hurt if minority groups live together in ghettos. On the contrary, such social groupings could increase respect for social diversity, according to Susanne Søholt, a researcher with the Norwegian Building Research Institute. Children and youths from multi-ethnic communities place little emphasis on religion, skin-colour or ethnicity in their choice of friends. Instead they choose their social circle based on common interests rather than differences, she says.

Worth Noting

• Labour’s representatives to the Sami Assembly have called on the Parliamentary Council of the Sami Assembly to ask the Norwegian dairy cooperative, Tine Norske Meierier, to label its dairy products in the Sami language. Tine’s initial reaction was, however, negative. (Nordlys)

• Only one in 25 complaints or charges brought for discrimination or racist behaviour on the part of the police leads to any reaction, according to the first analysis the Justice Ministry has ever carried out of complaints of racism against both city and rural police forces. (Aftenposten)
• Defence counsel for former UNICEF chief, Haavald Heide Schjerven (56), has asked for his client to be acquitted on all counts of corruption for which he is charged. The day before, counsel for the prosecution had asked the court to sentence Mr Schjerven to six years imprisonment and order him to pay NOK 26 million in compensation to UNICEF.