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When the Director of Education Marte Gerhardsen replaced Astrid Søgnen, she promised in an interview with VG to go from 22 to six directors.
Throughout the fall, Dagbladet has shown that the level of director at Norway’s largest municipal agency has risen considerably. This has happened because Gerhardsen has introduced a new level of senior management at the Education Agency as part of a reorganization.
Dagbladet can now report that the agency plans for a total of 30 principals to run the Oslo school. As of today, there are 27 directors at work and another three are on the way.
– I am concerned that Inga Marte Thorkildsen’s agency is bureaucratic and heavy. The most important thing is not the number of directors, but what their tasks are. Without any idea what each of the directors should do, it seems like a list of many nice and fun director titles. Take, for example, the director of student administration and student rights. Who should schools contact if they have challenges? I’m afraid this will lead to resignations and pulverization of responsibility, Mehmet Kaan Inan tells Dagbladet.
He is the leader of the faction for education in the Oslo Conservative Party.
– Affects students
All the principals at the Oslo school have a salary of one million, and several of them have received solid salary increases outside of the salary agreement this fall. The salaried party has been publicly justified with changes in the areas of responsibility, but in the SMS it seems that considerations on equal pay are also the basis.
This information was not received by the Oslo City Council until it was published by Dagbladet.
– One of the most important factors for the Oslo school to have performed well is that we have had area directors who are in charge of monitoring a certain number of schools. Now we fear that each individual school’s path to principals will be longer and that follow-up will be worse. We are concerned that it goes beyond students and teaching, Inan i Høyre continues.
Keeps text messages secret: – Shocking
– No one should lose their job
Mars Gerhardsen claims it was senior management team he was referring to when VG promised fewer directors in the Education Agency.
– I have said that the senior management group should go from 22 to six people. Currently, senior management consists of five division directors and myself. At the same time, I said that there would still be management positions below the top level, that the reorganization was not a downsizing process, and that no one should lose their job. So it is a mistake to think that fewer people were planned with a director in their job at the agency, Gerhardsen told Dagbladet.
Merciless Verdict: – A Battlefield
Earlier this fall, Dagbladet showed how school leaders in Oslo feared strikes after revelations about pay matches and money to spend. The dialogue with the leader of the Education Association in Oslo was also close, too close according to several.
Gerhardsen is subject to the political control of the Oslo school counselor, Inga Marte Thorkildsen (SV).
Keeps text messages secret
Thorkildsen has previously said that over time he expects the number of directors in the agency to decline, but that he cannot control Gerhardsen’s agency in detail on matters like this.
In Oslo City Hall, both Thorkildsen and Gerhardsen have come under harsh criticism following the Dagbladet article.
Union leaders and the city council discussed the strikes via SMS
After weeks of revelations about pay distributions, American leadership training and expensive use of consultancies, Dagbladet was also able to report that the Oslo school is the weakest in the country in recent indicators of school contribution.
After several revelations regarding access to text messages between Gerhardsen and Thorkildsen earlier this fall, the municipality of Oslo has now denied Dagbladet further access.
Municipal Director Erik Blom-Dahl stopped responding to Dagbladet’s questions when asked for a comment on the new interpretation of the Public Access to Information Act in Norway’s largest municipality.