Education today
We can all agree that Norway as of today is a well-functioning country, but is there any way it could improve? If so, what should we change as far as education and school goes? Is elementary school necessary or should we choose a job for ourselves as a child so that we will be extra good at what we are doing? A very hot and discussed theme regarding school nowadays is grades and in how old the students should be when they start getting grades. We will also look into what kind of challenges will come in the future and if the youth today are prepared for them.
How is education in Norway and how should it be?
Here in Norway we start school at the age of five or six years, we go to elementary school for six years and then junior-high school for three years. After that you can start choosing what kind of education and job you´re going to go after. Very few students drop out before after the tenth grade. Up to this point you´ve only had one choice for education your whole life. But at this point, when you can start choosing your own education in high school, there is a high percentage of people dropping out of school. Why is this happening and what can we do to make it stop? First of all, I think it´s too big of a step from junior high school to high school, because junior high is very easy. Instead of this big change, I think it would be better if school slowly got harder and harder through junior high.
Is elementary school necessary?
Is it really that important to learn Norwegian, English, science and math when you´re going to be working with math? I wonder if Norway would be a better functioning country if we had chose a profession at an early age and then just worked on that throughout our years at school. We would probably get a bigger gap between what we were good at and what we were bad at. You would probably be extremely good at your profession of choice, but you would also meet bigger troubles with things you don´t know.
Another topic that has it´s good sides and bad sides is division of labor. If everybody chose early on what to be when they grew up, there could be too many people with the same jobs. The government would have to choose what kind of education you would get to fill in on the professions that lacked people. The problem then would be that a lot of people wouldn´t be happy with their job and when people are dissatisfied, it could lead to a lot of problems we don´t want or need. So, I think this whole thing works better in concept than it would do in reality and that the system we have today is more than good enough.
How early should you get grades?
As I said earlier, there is a discussion about how old the students should be when they start getting grades in school here in Norway. What is positive about getting grades in elementary school? Well, first of all it would make you take school more seriously from an early age and you get more used to grades. There is a lot of people, including myself that think you get grades early enough already.
I think grading elementary school students would make more people fall out earlier, because you might give up more easily at such a young age. I also think that as you grow older you learn to accept that some people are better at certain things than you are. One last reason for not getting grades earlier is that learning should be fun, especially when you´re young. If kids get grades school would become a lot more serious, making some people lose the fun and joy they have with school as of today. My conclusion is that I think the system we have is good and if we switched it, the gap between the good and bad students would become way bigger.
What kind of challenges will we face in the future and are we prepared for them?
These questions are hard to answer. Of course we know that the environment is in constant change and that there is a lot of spillage from the earth but there will also be unexpected new problems in the future. We need people in all kinds of jobs and everybody will have their own little troubles and challenges. The youth of today are probably very well prepared for the challenges of today but not quite as prepared for the unexpected challenges that will come. Since the adults of today have been able to master most of the unexpected problems they´ve come across I think our generation will be able to do the same in a couple of years.
The education and school system in Norway is good as it is and there is not much that could be changed for the better. The elementary school should be kept as it is and grades should be given at the same age they´re given right now. There will always be things to improve but I think the people of Norway should be happy with the opportunities we already have.
By Magnus Myre Mikalsen
We can all agree that Norway as of today is a well-functioning country, but is there any way it could improve? If so, what should we change as far as education and school goes? Is elementary school necessary or should we choose a job for ourselves as a child so that we will be extra good at what we are doing? A very hot and discussed theme regarding school nowadays is grades and in how old the students should be when they start getting grades. We will also look into what kind of challenges will come in the future and if the youth today are prepared for them.
How is education in Norway and how should it be?
Here in Norway we start school at the age of five or six years, we go to elementary school for six years and then junior-high school for three years. After that you can start choosing what kind of education and job you´re going to go after. Very few students drop out before after the tenth grade. Up to this point you´ve only had one choice for education your whole life. But at this point, when you can start choosing your own education in high school, there is a high percentage of people dropping out of school. Why is this happening and what can we do to make it stop? First of all, I think it´s too big of a step from junior high school to high school, because junior high is very easy. Instead of this big change, I think it would be better if school slowly got harder and harder through junior high.
Is elementary school necessary?
Is it really that important to learn Norwegian, English, science and math when you´re going to be working with math? I wonder if Norway would be a better functioning country if we had chose a profession at an early age and then just worked on that throughout our years at school. We would probably get a bigger gap between what we were good at and what we were bad at. You would probably be extremely good at your profession of choice, but you would also meet bigger troubles with things you don´t know.
Another topic that has it´s good sides and bad sides is division of labor. If everybody chose early on what to be when they grew up, there could be too many people with the same jobs. The government would have to choose what kind of education you would get to fill in on the professions that lacked people. The problem then would be that a lot of people wouldn´t be happy with their job and when people are dissatisfied, it could lead to a lot of problems we don´t want or need. So, I think this whole thing works better in concept than it would do in reality and that the system we have today is more than good enough.
How early should you get grades?
As I said earlier, there is a discussion about how old the students should be when they start getting grades in school here in Norway. What is positive about getting grades in elementary school? Well, first of all it would make you take school more seriously from an early age and you get more used to grades. There is a lot of people, including myself that think you get grades early enough already.
I think grading elementary school students would make more people fall out earlier, because you might give up more easily at such a young age. I also think that as you grow older you learn to accept that some people are better at certain things than you are. One last reason for not getting grades earlier is that learning should be fun, especially when you´re young. If kids get grades school would become a lot more serious, making some people lose the fun and joy they have with school as of today. My conclusion is that I think the system we have is good and if we switched it, the gap between the good and bad students would become way bigger.
What kind of challenges will we face in the future and are we prepared for them?
These questions are hard to answer. Of course we know that the environment is in constant change and that there is a lot of spillage from the earth but there will also be unexpected new problems in the future. We need people in all kinds of jobs and everybody will have their own little troubles and challenges. The youth of today are probably very well prepared for the challenges of today but not quite as prepared for the unexpected challenges that will come. Since the adults of today have been able to master most of the unexpected problems they´ve come across I think our generation will be able to do the same in a couple of years.
The education and school system in Norway is good as it is and there is not much that could be changed for the better. The elementary school should be kept as it is and grades should be given at the same age they´re given right now. There will always be things to improve but I think the people of Norway should be happy with the opportunities we already have.
By Magnus Myre Mikalsen