Presentation in Study Visit Grup.No. 192 (Barcelona), March 2012

1. Inclusion at schools
and
student entrepreneurship
In Norway
Ada Faroppa Furnes Språkservice

2. Agenda
1. Some background information
2. What happens when the children start school
3. During the years at school
4. Students entrepreneurship

3. Social dimension of the language
• Norway is a multilingual country in which many languages
are spoken. Norwegians are plulingual people who speak
and/or understands several languages.
• By the end of compulsory education (10 years), all young
people have at least:
- An ability to read and write in two varieties of
Norwegian (Nynorsk and Bokmål)
- An ability to use a spoken variety of Norwegian and
understand other people speaking their own varieties
- Productive and receptive competence in written and
spoken English
- Receptive competence in spoken and written forms of
Swedish and Danish

4. Additional language competence
• Competence in at least one variety of Sami
• Competence in one of the many recently
arrived languages (often from another
continent and language family)
• Competence in a second foreign language
(French, German, Spanish)
• Much of this linguistic wealth is taken for
granted and underestimated

5. Background information about
immigration
• In Norway there are about 12 percent
foreigners.
• In Oslo about 28 percent foreigners.
• There are schools in Oslo with almost no
Norwegians
• There are schools in Oslo where the pupils
starting school doesn`t understand Norwegian
• Some pupil disappear

6. Background information about
handicapped pupils
• There are 52.000 pupils at elementary school
in Norway with special education
• In 1991 there was a reform for handicapped in
Norway with aim inclusion (living, school,
work)
• Currently the government is evaluating the
reform. One conclusion is that the pupils
today are less integrated at schools than in
1991

7. Handicapped pupils
• Some schools have special classes
• Each handicapped pupil has his own program to
follow
• The parents decide if the child should go to special
classes or ordinary classes
• Pupils with only minor disability, are quite often
partly integrated in the normal classes
• Special classes covers similar situation
independent from age of the pupil
• The pupil has often the right to go to school in taxi

8. What happens when children
starts school
• 4-years old – test of all children
• Children that don`t understand Norwegian is
followed up
• Areas with lots of foreigners have discount at
kindergarden (free core time – 4 hours/day)
• Pupils that don`t speak Norwegian get extra
lessons

9. During school
• Every school is obliged to have a counselor
• The counselor has pedagogic education
• All follow up according to inclusion (language,
social, special needs, problems etc) is included
in the counselor`s job

10. Students entrepreneurship
• During school teamwork is motivated
• Some secondary schools have
entrepreneurship as a subject
• Earn money for a school trip or a good case
(Operasjon dagsverk)
• Studentbedrift – Pedagogic program that
establishes a real company with help from
school and local business

11. Concluding remarks