The number of Oslo children attending relatively new summer school programs in the Norwegian capital has doubled in the past three years, reports newspaper Dagsavisen. Around 13,000 students from elementary through high school are taking part this year, and it’s popular with both them and their parents.
The city’s education department offers summer school programs for two weeks in late June-early July, then again in early August, before the regular school year resumes. Courses include everything from swimming to math and foreign languages, with a combination of academic and athletic activity. All use a creative approach, to make learning more fun than in the normal school year.
“We really want the children to be motivated by their desire to take part,” Kirsten Riise, Sommerskolen principal told Dagsavisen. “It is their summer holiday, at the same time we have some school structure.”
Summer school was almost unheard of in Norway until a few years ago, with the exception of the International Summer School for older students run every year at the University of Oslo. Oslo schools started opening to the concept a few years ago and now offer 14,500 spaces to those needing extra help or wanting advanced instruction in certain subjects.
Around 600 teachers, student teachers and aides secured extra jobs in the summer school, while working parents don’t need to worry what their offspring are up to during Norway’s two-month summer holiday season. Torger Ødegaard, the city politician in charge of education, said the summer school program helps Oslo recruit new teachers, while offering constructive activity to the children.
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