– Difficult to set aside time – NRK Vestfold and Telemark – Local news, TV and radio

Selling waffles, raking gardens, cleaning shops.

For 60 years, young people have given a school day to help young people elsewhere in the world.

This year, the collection from Operation Dagsverk goes to indigenous youth in Guatemala.

But well before NPD Day on 31 October, the management of Operation Dagsverk has found it necessary to send a letter to all the county municipalities.

They ask for answers to why it is so difficult to set aside time to carry outøre OD day.

– We have seen some cases where county councils have made calls based on a little ignorance of what the NPD is and what we do in schools, says NPD leader Tobias Dahle.

He reminds that the students in the upper secondary school are on a long educational journey and asks the school owners to think long-term.

– The school must educate people who will function in society and function in local democracy. Then I think it is important not only to think about subjects, but to raise your gaze a little.

The NPD management has also received reports from schools that the planning tool the schools use makes it difficult to set aside time for interdisciplinary solidarity days because everything has to be linked to subjects.

Rejects that they give the schools guidance

Helge Galdal, county manager for education in Telemark, believes the computer program they use does not make it difficult to plan such alternative days.

– It may feel that way, but if you plan well, it shouldn’t be a problem.

He also rejects that those who are school owners advise the schools not to join Operation Dagsverk.

– Over several years, we have not given any guidance other than that the schools can make up their own minds.

– Do you want the schools to participate?

– There are schools with us that want to facilitate other types of solidarity actions that are locally rooted, either with an international commitment or perhaps in collaboration with local voluntary work.

Asked to use the day off

At Skien upper secondary school, OD was canceled last year when the alternative was to use a day off.

– When students have time off, they prefer not to work, and we learned that the logistics for doing so during school time were too complicated, says then student council leader Tommy Ly Hoang.

Headmaster Stein Thomas Tusvik says it is more difficult than before to add NPD to a school day because of the number of hours students must have in the various subjects.

– The students have a fairly tight timetable during the year.

There was also too short a deadline to get this into the school plan.

The solution both last year and this year is that the students will instead work for a friendship school in Congo-Brazzaville. This is done together with “Schools in collaboration”, which is a project between nine schools in Greenland and 16 schools in the African country.

– We have a more direct connection to that project and have the opportunity to distribute the timetable itself and over the year, says Ly Hoang.

He also believes that fewer people will participate in OD in the coming years.

– We will never know how the case goes, and every year there is a new project. It becomes a bit distant for me as a student.

– Challenging competition

Last year, young people collected NOK 18.2 million for OD, almost NOK 4 million more than the previous year.

Around 90,000 pupils participate each year. Last year, the number of schools increased from 384 to 400.

The NPD management is nevertheless aware that in recent years there have been more players and solidarity organizations who want to enter the school.

– Greater competition is of course challenging, but it forces us in a positive way to be relevant to the students, says NPD leader Tobias Dahle.