The MDG opens the door to the introduction of a new enrollment system for secondary schools in Oslo. Therefore, the scores will be lower for future school students to enter.
The Oslo MDG’s annual meeting decided on Saturday that they were “open”.
Changes in Secondary School Admission Pattern.
They made it a prerequisite that the new intake model should be comprehensible and predictable for the students.
A difficult case
The city council has long struggled to find an enrollment system that resists segregation. Today, admission is based on marks only.
Last year, both Oslo Ap and Oslo SV agreed to change today’s enrollment, but the MDG said no.
They wanted a possible change in the plan they were going to vote on — so that voters could have their say before the system was changed. While it is now in place, it opens the way for Oslo to have an entirely new intake system.
According to the cooperation parties
At its annual meeting on Saturday, the party had to decide on three different proposals: preserve the current system, be open to changes in the admissions model, or explore a new model where parents’ educational level counts for admissions.
To allow for changes in the intake model, the adopted alternative also allows for a so-called composite model adopted by Ap and SV.
The model indicates that half of the students will enter because they have good grades. Remaining seats are distributed among students of different grades.
– good news
– This is good news for the city’s children and youth, says SV’s school councilor Sunniva Holmås Eidsvoll in a comment to Aftenposten.
– Now we can move forward to have a new model, where those who get the best grades can have the opportunity to enter the school of their choice, he says.
Eidsvoll says he will present a proposal for a new intake system to the city council before the summer, but it won’t be implemented until after the election in the fall. As the right-wing party is clearly against changing the admissions model, he will wait for the election results to confirm the students’ prognosis.
If the Red-Greens retain power, they will strive for a majority for change. If you have a seat today, you have to bring red to get a majority. The party had earlier said it wanted to move away from a purely quality-based intake, but had not taken a stand on a mixed model.
A new admissions model will soon apply to students applying to secondary school in 2025, he says.
– disappointment
The Right is disappointed with the outcome of the MDG. They want to keep a free school choice system based on grades.
– This is disappointing. If the Red-Greens win the election, those who have chosen a secondary school will be among the last to choose their own school, says Høyre’s city council leader candidate Eirik Lae Solberg.
– He says it is now up to voters to decide whether to keep free school exams or introduce an “impossible model” of SV.
– What do you mean it’s an impossible model?
– I call that because it doesn’t help schools that are currently struggling and have many students with low average grades. There will be even stiffer competition to get to fewer places. And it’s a complex model that no one understands, says Solberg.
He believes that if students go where they want to enter, it will now be pure bingo.
This is the proposed intake model:
Protected quality-based program
Several MDG representatives argued strongly during Saturday’s debate to preserve the current quality-based intake. Many warned from the pulpit against what they called the “lotto model” and “raffle model” of AB and SV.
One of those who warned was Raund Ismail, MDG’s school policy spokesperson.
– It’s true that I don’t want the left to win sales at this year’s meeting too, he said, suggesting that less freedom of choice in choosing a secondary school would solve the Oslo school’s big problems.
Ismail insists after the decision that this does not mean that the MDG endorsed the mixed model.
– We have said that it is important for students to understand and predict when applying any new model to school. There are no models that have been discussed so far, in my opinion, he tells Offenposten.
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