Parliament says yes to using classrooms for prayer and detention in breaks

The Norwegian Christian School of Student and Educational Sciences, and others,will use schools and other public spaces for prayer and detention, said parliament.

 

In March,Kristelig Folkeparti (KrF) presented a representative proposal to parliament, where they asked “the government to draw up national guidelines for child and youth organizations’ access to the use of schools and other public spaces.”

The reason was that the Norwegian Christian School of Student and Educational Sciences has found that the rectors set foot to gather and pray for infringement of rules, wrote Dagen newspaper on Wednesday.

The case has been discussed in parliament’s Education and Research Committee.

In the resolution, which was finalised on Tuesday, parliament asked the government to enter into dialogue with KS (Municipal Sector Interest and Employers Organization) and the National Council for Children’s and Youth Organizations (LNU) to ensure that child and youth organisations use classrooms to meet. At the same time, the parties must work to ensure that school owners do not contribute to unequal treatment differentials.

“In practice, it means that parliament asks the government to put down a committee together with KS and LNU, where they will find out how to ensure that this is being followed up,” said Hans Fredrik Grøvan, spokesperson for the Christian People’s Party.

In the original representative proposal from KrF, Grøvan agreed that national guidelines had to be prepared, but the recommendation the committee had reached was not so binding.

‘’We believe that the parliamentary proposition now gives the government a clear
signal.The entire committee is in favour of this,’’ said Grøvan.

In 2012, Fremskrittsparti (Frp) presented a proposal in parliament to ban prayer
rooms in public schools throughout the country. However, they were voted down by all the other parties, wrote Vårt Land newspaper in February last year.

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today