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Norweigen School-Leavers party in red overalls, a common sight on Norway’s National Day on May 17th
After 13 years of school, Selmajembin Steinsvag and his classmate Axel were running to catch the Oslo Metro in red overalls. “Then all written exams will be held,” Selma said.
The sight of the school rever, known here as Russe, is like an adult tradition that brightens up a few weeks before Norwegian National Day on May 17th.
It shows you the day you finally relax after the exam and have one last party. However, to increase the number of young Norwegians, parties have begun a few weeks before the exam is over.
Selma and Axel are two of this year’s Russe.
And the celebration celebrates parents and politicians’ increasingly vigilant.
“It’s a party bus! We go out every night for a month, get drunk, party with friends, and it’s just fun!” says 19-year-old Edvard Arnstad, who graduates from school on the west side of Oslo.
The fear is that every week of the party and the pressures of the peers involved have a detrimental effect on the overall well-being of the teenagers and their performance.
Small amounts of wealth are often spent borrowing buses and decking them, and many school reelers go into debt to pay it all.
“Russebuss drives all night from midnight until early morning. We’ll party with really, really big music all night,” says Henrik Wasne, 18-year-old friend of Edvald.
In addition to all the fun, there was a complaint that the celebrations were heavy drinking, drug use and little sleep. There is also concern that many teenagers can’t afford to spend money and feel left out.
And all of that currently coincides with the exam period.
Aramie
Norwegian teenagers spend their final weeks at school in overalls before graduating
Prime Minister Jonas Garh Sto said last year that he also enjoyed graduating, but the party’s bus culture has become out of control.
His intervention followed years of public debate, and challenged by authorities and many school liebers and their parents.
“We are concerned about some negative trends in schools, our neighbourhoods and in Norwegian youth culture in general,” says Solveig Haukenes Aase, whose eldest son is graduating this year.
Her two younger children have not yet started high school, so she complains that the culture will also affect younger teenagers. “In recent years, it has begun to have an impact on middle school students.”
Together with other parents, she formed a group aimed at making the environment safer for young people.
“The attitude of the school authorities previously was that it was a private issue and that Russe celebrations are something that happens in your spare time,” she told the BBC.
“However, there has been a change in mentality among teachers, principals and school authorities, and now we are widely acknowledged that a new precision culture has a major impact on the school environment.”
Party bus for Norwegian school rever has become a trend of worrying about school and parents
“The intertwining of celebrations and exam periods has been a problem for many years,” said Kari Nessa Nordun, Norwegian Minister of Education.
She told the BBC that school reeber had struggled to concentrate on exams for the party, and the results were reduced.
“We can see that celebrations have also become highly commercialized and exclusive, and that these negative effects are spread all the way to middle schools where there is less negative impact.
“We hope to put an end to social exclusion, peer pressure and high costs for many young people. We are now working to create a new, more inclusive graduation celebration.”
The current plan is to ensure that the celebrations move to the post-exam period starting next year.
The party bus tradition dates back to Oslo in the early 1980s and tends to become more common among more elite schools.
But now on a national scale, Ivar Brandvol, who wrote about tradition, believes that the overall point of the bus has changed, so instead of the entire school class, the bus celebration involves a selection group instead.
“Another change is the amount you need to be part of a bus group. Some bus groups will have a budget of up to 3m kroner (£220,000), even if you choose to rent,” he says.
“The sound system ships from all over Europe. To pay the bill, groups often sell toilet paper to make a little profit to friends, family and neighbors. However, children have to sell a large amount of toilet paper to earn enough, and usually end up using savings to earn debt.”
Edbird (L) and Henrik have saved for years for the party bus (the shirt partially blurs and blurs offensive words)
In Norway there is a widespread acceptance that the party bus culture at school revers must be reduced.
The government is also concerned about potential risks to teenager safety. Because they dance on buses that are driving in the middle of the night.
“We hope this year’s graduation class will be the last class that is allowed to use converted buses with sideways seating and standing rooms while driving,” says John Iver Nygard, Norwegian Minister of Transport. “We can no longer send young people on unsafe buses.”
For many future school leabers in Norway, government plans are overdue.
“The government just takes the sidelined seats on the bus and has group seats. I think that’s the wrong way,” complains Edbird Earnstad.
And when it comes to dealing with the issue of bus inclusiveness, he and his friend Henrik believe the authorities are taking the wrong approach.
Only half of his 120 school revers in his year are part of the party bus group, and they agree that part of the reason is high costs.
But the two young men say they spend years planning celebrations and even get a job to pay for the entire experience.
“This will not help us tackle exclusion,” warns Edbird. Edbird points out that banning some buses means fewer buses will travel. “If anything, that’s the opposite, so that’s the wrong way.”
