Comprehensive Education in Norway: A Developing System

Abstract

the publication of a Norwegian educational yearbook intended to serve as a central work of reference on Norwegian education.* It is never easy to keep abreast of change in a rapidly developing educational system, and this well-edited volume fills a keenly felt gap. The first edition provides a general survey of the Norwegian educational scene in twenty-five articles, each written by an authority in the field. Future volumes will both keep this survey up-to-date and provide more detailed studies of particular aspects of education which seem from time to time to merit attention. A select bibliography of the most important government publications, circulars and instructions is included. Although this is useful, the selection has perhaps been too sparing, and a case could be made for a fuller list, in which the most important documents might be indicated either by asterisk or by bold type. Every aspect of Norwegian education is given authoritative, if brief coverage. There are sections -most including several separate articles-devoted to school administration, elementary education and special schools, secondary education and folk high schools, vocational schools and training, universities and other higher institutions, teacher-training, school building, education committees, research and methods and teachers' qualifications and conditions. Perhaps most interesting to the British reader is the material on the development of comprehensive education in Norway. The framework of the 1959 Folkeskole Law embraces both the old seven-year folkeskole and the developing comprehensive school, originally pioneered on an experimental basis in schools administered under the Law concerning Experiment in the School (Lov om forsek i skolen, 8 July 1954). A series of research reports has plotted progress and a new normal plan (instructions on syllabus and methods) has been produced in two successive forms. The Norwegian comprehensive school provides 9 years of compulsory education from the age of 7 to 16. The master pattern divides this period of schooling into six years of barneskole (lit. child-school), followed by three years of ungdomsskole (lit. youth-school.)t, but the 9-year school is regarded in the Norwegian mind as essentially one school. Exigencies of accommodation or difficulties of transport may divide it between buildings, and in any case several barneskoler will commonly feed one ungdomsskole; but there is felt to be a real unity of spirit, and the whole structure is regarded as a unified common school or comprehensive school.