Most of the 10th graders in Oslo think that the current admission scheme for upper secondary school is fair

Oslo City Council will have new admission rules to avoid segregation of upper secondary schools. It is not a call for a new arrangement among students, conservatives believe.

Oslo’s red-green city council has announced that they will present an alternative admissions model for current grade-based admissions to upper secondary schools this spring.

They believe that the current system creates segregated schools, where some schools have an overcrowding of good students, while other schools have many students with low grades, often in combination with significant social problems.

Oslo students deserve a new admission model, said Councilor Raymond Johansen (Labor Party) and Councilor Inga Marte Thorkildsen (SV).

Yet a survey of the capital’s tenth graders shows that a majority of 62 percent of students believe that current grade-based admissions are fair. Of these, 16.8 say they “completely agree” and 45.2% say “slightly agree”.

– This shows that there is no call for a new admission system by students. They understand very well that in the absence of an obvious fair solution that fits all, the closest thing to justice and equal treatment is a free school choice and grade-based admission, says Øystein Sundelin, leader of the Conservatives group. at the Oslo City Hall for NTB.

Big differences

The county leader of the Oslo Student Organization, Hana Mulalic, says the Student Organization believes that segregation between schools is a problem and that they want a new admissions model that avoids it.

She says there is a big difference between students when it comes to how fair they think the current model is.

– Most of the people with good grades who enter as a first choice, they think it works well, but many are placed in schools they do not want to go to and are not happy, he says.

The survey shows that students who expect a GPA of more than 5 agree much more than those who expect a GPA of 3 or less that the current scheme is fair.

The survey had a response rate of 37.4 percent. Of a total of 49 invited schools, 35 responded.

Odds and lottery

A sample has considered five alternative admissions models, including a model to measure progression rather than bottom line, a modified rating model, as well as models based on draws, quotas, and a combination of draws and ratings. The city council has announced that they will conclude on a model this spring.

Mulalic says the student organization is positive about the progression model, but thinks it requires the assessment system to be changed and portfolio assessments introduced instead of exams.

– It will require a reform of much of the school system, he says.

Øystein Sundelin strongly cautions against changing the current admission model, and especially against the progression model, which he believes is easy to manipulate and does not encourage students to attempt stretching.

– We must not create a scheme that completely destroys the motivation to raise an additional level in upper secondary school, he says.

Warns against “political experiment”

Sundelin says she understands that the debate involves many.

– It’s a pretty big part of your whole life where you went to high school, what results you got and what networks you built yourself, and how it put you in a position to move on in life. So I don’t think we should do political experiments on eating patterns that satisfy different ideological approaches, he says.

– Aren’t the conservatives concerned about the segregated school in Oslo?

– What worries me most is that the Oslo school will perform worse, and what worries me the most is that all parts of the Oslo school improve, so that each student reaches their potential. And if we succeed, this will no longer be a problem, says Sundelin.