Frustration grows over school attendance rules for reindeer herding families in Norway

Wanja Blind, a reindeer herder from Røkland in the Saltdal municipality of Nordland, has expressed her frustration over the discrepancies in school attendance rules concerning her children. Blind, alongside her husband and their three children aged 16, 20, and 22, participate in reindeer husbandry within the Saltfjellet grazing area. However, the children have accumulated invalid absences from school due to their involvement in this family tradition.

“When they can’t contribute, it affects the entire reindeer operation,” Blind states. To circumvent this issue, the family began bringing along entire school classes to the reindeer pen, ensuring that the children’s attendance was documented and validated.

Morten-Børge Ludviksen, head of the growth and culture department in Saltdal, maintains that there is a way to obtain valid absences for such activities. He indicates that if parents inform the school of the students’ absence for legitimate reasons, invalid attendance is not recorded. Families can also apply for longer-term leave, which is officially documented.

In contrast, in Kautokeino, a Sámi village in Finnmark, Eli Ristin Skum finds that her children are actively encouraged by both the school and the local government to engage in reindeer herding. Skum acknowledges that securing valid absences was more challenging when she lived elsewhere, primarily due to a lack of understanding from schools about the importance of such activities.

In Kautokeino, municipal director Karin Hætta advocates for the cultural significance of reindeer herding and offers employees two weeks of unpaid leave annually to assist with such work, emphasizing flexibility in supporting families engaged in traditional practices.

Despite understanding the necessity for regulations, Skum hopes for changes that would facilitate participation in traditional practices against the backdrop of current schooling requirements, which she believes should acknowledge the educational value of reindeer herding.