Christian school teams are discriminated against at Nydalen upper secondary school

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Nydalen upper secondary school has 11 student clubs which the management believes contribute to a safe and good learning environment. Nydalen Christian school team is not one of these.

When Eilif (18) contacted the principal about access to rooms for her student-initiated school team, she replied that Oslo municipality forbade religious gatherings at the school. Such guidelines are completely unknown to us, and the principal has not wanted to explain them.

In contrast, Oslo City Council has asked school leaders to engage in dialogue with students to find “good practical solutions for student-initiated religious gatherings”. The principal at Nydalen’s dialogue with the pupils is unfortunately anything but solution-oriented.

Rather than showing interest in the student’s initiative, the headmaster chose to reject them with reference to section 9 A of the Education Act – often referred to as the bullying section. A Christian school team will contribute to exclusion and social control, she claimed, without wanting to explain why. That the school’s highest official makes such accusations against his own students before they have held a single team meeting is a gross violation.

Unfortunately, the case is not unique, but highlights serious attitude problems in parts of the Oslo school when dealing with religious people. Because what makes a Christian school team so much more exclusionary than the school’s other offerings, consisting of clubs about knitting, yoga, chess and sign language, not to mention the Be who you are club. The fact that far from everyone is interested in knitting or chess does not make these clubs exclusionary, so why should a Christian team meeting apply?

Thus, it is the religious dimension of the students’ involvement that is the basis for the refusal. With such a decision, it is not the students in the Christian school team who contribute to exclusion, but the school management at Nydalen upper secondary school who are in danger of discriminating.

The signals this sends to the students at Nydalen upper secondary school are very unfortunate. That is why I am happy that the City Council is now working on new guidelines for the Oslo school. I expect this to be followed up at Nydalen upper secondary school.

Karl-Johan Kjøde

Norway’s Christian Student and School Youth Association