Education in Norway, a brief introduction

Our school has students from many different countries and with a different level in education. In Norway everybody has a right for primary school if they don’t have a comparative education from their home country.
Some of these students apply for our primary education, which in Norwegian is called, GRUNNSKOLE.
After a brief conversation with a counselor they are tested in English, mathematics and Norwegian.
The tests are done in May/June before start in august.

We have had some problems with these tests.
• Was they good enough?
• Did they give us the answers we want to now?
• Were they too easy or too difficult?
• And how did other schools solve these problems?
These questions led us to contact the school for adult education in Oslo in summer 2007. They are the largest school for adult education in Norway, and we learned that they had developed a test we also could use. The test was not a standard for the country, but several other schools in different communes used it.

The tests are internet based. The results are produced automatically after the student is finished. This does the work easier.

Norwegian grunnskole is 10 year. We are offering 3, 2, and 1 year courses depending on the results from the test. Each student gets a new meeting with a counselor. The results are discussed together with economy, final goals for the education and future occupation.

This was a brief introduction. I will try to follow up this blog what happens to the new students that begun at our school this august. I appriciate any comments, and I also want to know how this is done in your country.

Knut Aarvig.

Without Barriers in the radio

En la mañana de hoy acudimos desde Monterroso a la emisora de radio Onda Cero, en su programa "entre murallas" dedicado hoy a la reinserción social. En el programa presentamos nuestro proyecto Grundtvig "sin barreras" y comentamos los aspectos esenciales de su desarrollo.Agradecemos a la cadena Onda Cero por permitirnos la oportunidad de dar a conocer nuestro proyecto a sus oyentes. Hemos solicitado una grabación del programa para que esté a vuestra disposición y para su posterior inclusión en la memoria del proyecto.


Today in the morning we went from Monterroso to the radio station Onda Cero, in its program "within walls" dedicated today to social reintegration. We presented our Grundtvig project "without barriers" and discussed the essential aspects of its development. We thank to Onda Cero for giving us the opportunity to present our project to his listeners. We have requested a recording of the program for your interest and for its inclusion in the project report.

Musa is a member of our project we meet him once a week, we make conversations with him and pronounciation activities. He is from Senegal. He likes football. H e can speak French, English but we can communicate him in Turkish.

Alla is from Ukraine. She loves Turkey. She can speak English, Russian and Turkish. We visit her in order to do Pronounciation lessons and ask if she has a problem.

Arina has just come to Turkey we teach her Turkish. She is from Russia. She can Speak Russian, English, French and now a bit Turkish. Arina says that she has never had a problem in Yalova even she does not know Turkish. She is an English teacher in Turkey.

We have a nice group in Turkey for the project. We give Turkish&pronounciation lessons. We visit them and continually listen their problems. We have had a good friendships and all the group members say people in Turkey are really respectfull to us.

Turkey's projecthead has changed

We have changed our projecthead. Ilhami has moved to another city and he had to leave the project we are really sorry for him. According to Turkish laws if a person changes his place he cannot go on a project. But we continue to go ahead our work. So our @mail has changed from now on we use tuna.ahmet77@gmail.com for communication.

My understanding of the project "Without barriers"

After my participation to the second meeting in the project, here is a summary of what it is about (according to my understanding).

Our project, Without Barriers (WB), deals with integration of minorities or persons in marginal situation in the European society. Who are those persons?
They are a minority of citizens and residents of the respective countries who have limited chances or possibilities for access to the job market, understanding of the way the society functions, participation in the creation of values...
Examples: adult people with little or no school background, immigrants (refugees, asylum seekers), prisoners etc.

What is integration about?
According to my understanding, integration must be defined in relation with a mother society which functions on more or less well defined codes and frames that are understood, respected and accepted by a large majority of the members of that society. A well integrated person participates (and contributes) in an optimal way to the normal and harmonious functioning of the society

That means that the person:
• speaks the language in order to communicate and follow the daily and long term evolution of his environment
• Follows rules and laws of the society
• Works to generate needed resources for his personal and the society’s needs and wealth
• Participates in activities that bring personal and collective pleasure and happiness. That contributes to the harmony of the community. Examples: sports, free time and cultural activities

Integration is a relative issue, not constant. It might be wrong to say that one person is integrated and another is not. But it's more logical to say that a person is more integrated than another so long that person contributes better to the harmonious functioning of the society trough his individual actions .
Integration is a matter of possibilities and improvement of a potential. It's not a matter of failure. Working for a better integration is about exploiting individual recourses in order to build a better society. Everybody possesses a potential that is to be exploited.

In every European country, various politics and actions have been undertaken to ease and improve integration of minorities. Without Barriers’ aim (according to my understanding) is to put into system the work of some institutions representing the 5 country-members of the project. Then some experiences will be exchanged through articles, Q and A and meetings. At the end, the participants can isolate one or to themes on which they wish to focus deeper about, and come with conclusions and recommendations.

Each country is working with a different group:
• Norway works with immigrants
• Spain works with inmates
• France generally works with education and training for youth, inmates and people who for some reason is unemployed
• Turkey works with illiteracy and immigrants
• Germany works with younger people from various origin

Although every country works with different groups and use a variety of methods, in common we focus on integration in our respective societies. The work is about giving persons at risk more possibilities so that they can function better and live in harmony in their society. That is my understanding of what the project is about

Every comment, remark, critic to this reflection is more than welcome, it is needed. I hope every country will react to my article, otherwise, its worth nothing

Best regards,
Cherif Ousman
(ex-immigrant of Norway)

Le projet "without barrieres" selon moi

Apres ma participation a la deuxieme reunion du projet, voici ce en quoi il se resume d'apres ma comprehention personnelle.

Without barriers traite de l'integration des minorites ou des personnes en situation marginale dans la societe europeenne.
Qui sont ces personnes? Ce sont des citoyens ou residents dans les pays respectifs ayant des chances ou des possiblilites reduites vis a vis de l'acces au marche de l'emploi, de la comprehension du mode de fonctionnement de la societe...
Exemples: les adultes analphabetes, certaines personnes issues de l'imigration (refugies, demandeur d'asile...), la population carcerale.

L'integration, c'est quoi?
Selon moi, l'integration se definit par rapport a une socite mere qui fonctionne selon des codes, des cadres et des principes plus ou moins definis, compris et appliques par la grande majorite. Autrement dit, une personne bien integree dans une societe y paricipe de facon optimale et contribue ainsi au fonctionnement normal et harmoieux de ladite societe.

Pour etre plus concret, etre bien integree dans sa societe implique que l'on:
- Comprend bien la langue afin de communiquer avec les autres et de suivre l'evolution quotidien et a long terme de son environnement
- Respecte les lois et regles normes.
- Travaille pour generer les ressources necessaires pour son bien etre personnel et celui de la societe
- Paricipe activement aux activites generatrices de plaisir et de bonheur propre et collectif, ce qui contribue a l'harmonie de la communaute. Exemple: activites recreatives, loisir, sportives de societe....

L'integration est un terme relatif, pas absolu. C'est plus difficile de dire qu'un individu est integree et que l'autre ne l'est pas. Par contre c'est logique de dire que l'un est mieux integre par rapport a l'autre du moment ou le premier contribue mieux au fonctionnement harmonieux de sa socite a travers ses actions indivuduelles. Il est donc question des possibilites d'amelioration et non des constats d'echec.
Travailler pou une meilleure integation conciste donc a exploiter les ressources individuelles etant donne que chaqu'un dispose d'un potenciel qui ne demande qu'a etre exploite.

Dans tous les pays d'Europe, des politiques et des actions aussi diverses que variees ont ete entreprises pour faciliter et ameliorer l'integration des minorites. Le projet "without barriers" a (d'apres moi) pour objectif de rececenser le travail fait par certaines institutions dans les 5 pays membres du projet. Ensuite il sera question d'exenges d'experiences. Enfin les participants au projet peuvent isoler un ou plusieurs themes sur lesquelles il souhaitent reflechir et tirer des conclusions et donner des recomendations.



Les differentes delegations travaillent avec des groupes differents:
La Norvege avec l'encadrement des refugies, demandeurs d'asile et etrangers en general
L'Espagne avec la formation et le suivi de la population carcerale
La France avec la formation professionnelle des jeunes des quartier, la population carcerale, les chaumeurs...
La Turquie avec l'analphabetisation des personnes adultes
L'Allemagne avec les jeunes d'origines ethniques variees

Quand bien meme les groupes et les methodes different, le denominateur commun est l'integration dans les societes respectives




Cherif Ousman
(Norvege)

Les lions libérés

Depuis 4 mois de préparation le musical de St. Petri Kinder und Jugendhilfe (partenaire de « Sans Barriers») s’est réalisé dans le «village de la diaconia«, un part de la Convention des Eglises Protestantes allemandes en Mai 2009. Une répétition se prépare à présent. Enfants et juvenils precédants de l’est de Bremen (école maternelle, maintenance après-scolaire, maisons des jeunes et institutions de l’aide à l’éducation) ont travaillé unis pour la réalisation : Ils sont valiants et confident de leur-même et leur message est « Nous sommes multicolorés, multi-lingual et nous voulons vivre ensemble.». Le musique et le theâtre sonst des insturments pour la realisation de ce but.

"The Lions are set free!" - Musical Project of St Petri Bremen

The Dance and song performance at the German Protestant Church Convention by a multicultural initiative arranged by St. Petri Kinder und Jugendhilfe Bremen (German partner in the “Without Barriers” Initiative) is going to be repeated in autumn.
4 Months of preparation were necessary to realize this project by St. Petri Kinder und Jugendhilfe Bremen end of May 2009, to be repeated now. The participants’ message is: “Living at Bremen “eastside” and coming, from Kindergarten and after-school-care, the houses of youth, Day-Care and 5-day care-institutions, we young people and children all worked together to realize this performance and stage it within the Diaconical village at the German Protestant Church Convention . The motto of the convention being “Mortal, where are you?” we shouted from the stage “Look, here we are! We are colourful and multi-lingual and we all are here and wish to live together.”
With music, dance, recitation, pictures, songs and masks we saw children and young people full of creativity, self-confidence and with a message. Sharing Experience and acting together they use theatre and music as inter-cultural links.
A grateful donation by Lions Club “Gräfin Emma” made this project possible. The Performance will be repeated in the “Schlachthof” Cultural Centre in Bremen.