Record number of applicants to folk high schools

Elverum folk high schools. Photo: Cornelius Poppe / SCANPIX .

Never before have folk high schools received more applications than this year. ‘Fantastic’ said information consultant for the folk high schools, Marit Asheim.

‘’It shows that more than ever, the youth need a respite after upper school before continuing with other studies.

The folk high schools are able to give the students the desire and motivation to learn more without grades and exams’’ said Asheim to Nationen newspaper.

During the past ten years, student growth at folk high schools in Norway has risen by more than 20%, and this school year accounted for student records with more than 7,700 students at the 80 Norwegian folk high schools spread across the country.

‘’There is no longer any doubt that it is popular to go to folk high school. This is actually the fourth year in a row with a new student record, and therefore it is particularly gratifying to see that preliminary search numbers for the next school year are higher than ever.

So far this year, the folk high schools have received 11% more applications than at the same time last year, and that is the highest number of applicants ever.

One of the folk high schools that is experiencing an enormous increase in applicants this year is Sogndal, which this school year has 98 students. Rector at the school, Ole Karsten Birkeland, believes that much of the growth that folk high schools are experiencing, is a corollary to the development called “generational achievement”.

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today