Norway has a little different educational system than
America, and they have a much different way of paying for it.
From first to seventh grade, the system is somewhat like
American elementary schools where the children are in one classroom with a few
dozen other children, but the same teacher follows the students throughout
those grades. When they reach 8th
grade they go off to our equivalent of Junior High for three years, where they
have different teachers for each subject, just like America.
When students have completed 10th grade, legally
they are done with their schooling and can begin to work at age 16, even though
they can’t legally drive until they are 18.
It’s very common, however, for students to continue on for another three
years of schooling, in a system that’s a cross between high school and
community college, called “videregående skole.” They must pick what field of study they want
and if it’s a trade that can be learned in three years, they will be ready for
full-time employment when they are done at age 19, otherwise they may go on to
our equivalent of college, which they call “høgskole.”
Because Norway has so many remote villages and not that many
people overall, there are only so many cities around the land that even have a videregående skole, so it’s common at age 15 or 16 to send children away from home for
their high school years. It’s no
coincidence that traditionally, Norwegians considered a child completely grown by
age 15.
The cost
of living away from home is expensive, so the government picks up the tab by
giving students a stipend to cover about half the costs, and a low-interest loan
to cover the other half. If they don’t
complete the school, or their grades aren’t high enough, all the money they’ve received
from the government reverts to a loan and they have to pay it all back.
If the
student lives close to a videregående
skole and only needs help buying books and a bus ticket, then the amount of
the stipend and loan is low. If the
student goes far from home and must endure the cost of food, housing,
transportation and books, then the stipend and loan can be upwards of twenty
thousand dollars a year. It’s not common
for parents to assume that loan as most students are responsible for their own
education at that level, in Norway.
The
system used to pay for college/høgskole
is much like paying for high school, but with a twist – for women anyway. If, in the last few months of college, the
student gives birth, then the government forgives ALL college loans, upwards of
eighty thousand dollars. This ”benefit”
now has many female students sharpening their math skills in order to calculate
out exactly when to get pregnant.
No comments:
Post a Comment