Today, I would like to write about education and schooling, although it is in the midst of the school holiday time. Last year, too, I did that because I think it is a good time to do so when students and teachers are off and have more time to reflect on education issues, together with parents, other adults, politicians and education experts. It is necessary to have time and distance when asking the big questions about issues, this time about the education model we all follow worldwide.

Education has become very expensive and is not leading to the results that we had expected, and many children and youth are unhappy and miserable at school, not once in a while but every day, year in and year out. Some students become unruly and disturb the class, and bullying has become a problem, affecting the victims and those who disturb fellow students and teachers; some who dislike school just become quiet and withdrawn, feeling like losers and lesser than their fellow students.

In the West, as in Norway, up to a quarter or a third of the students finish the ten-year compulsory school without proper skills in basic reading, writing and arithmetic, the 3Rs. They are unable to get into the three-year upper middle school, neither academic nor vocational, which today is common for almost all youth. Without it, it will be difficult to get a job, and certainly if one has only done the compulsory ten years. Some will begin taking drugs and drift into crime and illegal activities, living on social benefits from the government, and remain permanent outsiders in society.

In spite of good intentions, the Western education model, based on a technocratic analysis of the world and political decisions with little or no common sense and good advice from pedagogical, psychological and other........

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