Folk high schools, long courses, 2000-2001

This was shown by a survey of pupils at folk high schools during the 2000-2001 school year.

Around six out of 10 pupils (59 per cent) attending folk high school are 19 years old. Twenty-five per cent are under 19 and 17 per cent over. The percentage of females is particularly high among 19-year-old pupils 81 per cent against 64 and 62 per cent respectively in the age groups under and over 19 years of age.

Why go to folk high school?

Pupils were asked to take a position on a number of claims concerning their reasons for attending a folk high school this year. Nineteen-year-old pupils answered to a greater degree than others that their choice is connected with the desire to do something else and to think about what they want to do in the future. The decision of pupils under the age of 19 seems in somewhat greater degree to be linked with a need to build up points to get into higher education, while those over the age of 19 seem to a greater degree to be motivated by personal development reasons.

The idea that folk high schools are often chosen to get away from more traditional schools is enhanced by the fact that nearly two-thirds (64 per cent) of the pupils say that the social environment is the most important thing that they have experienced so far during the school year. Socializing and the programmes offered come next at 39 and 38 per cent respectively.

First upper secondary school...

Eight out of 10 pupils have completed upper secondary school before they started folk high school. The gender breakdown shows that 83 per cent of the female pupils and 67 per cent of the male pupils completed upper secondary school first. With respect to age we find that the percentage who completed upper secondary school is far higher among 19-year-olds than among pupils older than 19 (98 compared with 84 per cent).

...then higher education

Nearly eight out of 10 say they have plans for further education or work after completing folk high school. Forty-three per cent say they will continue their education at a university or college in Norway and around 10 per cent have plans to start working. It is particularly the 19-year-old pupils who want to continue their education at universities or colleges afterwards (57 per cent).

Over half (51 per cent) of the pupils applied to more folk high schools than the one they are currently attending. Female pupils were much more likely than male pupils to apply to more schools (56 vs. 36 per cent). The figures also show that 19-year-old pupils were much more likely than other age groups to apply to several schools, and the difference in the over 19 group is particularly considerable (57 against 38 per cent).

More than eight in 10 (83 per cent) of the pupils only applied to folk high schools for the school year in question. Nineteen-year-old pupils were slightly more likely than others to apply only to folk high schools.

Grants important factor

More than eight in 10 (83 per cent) of the 19-year-old pupils say that the additional grant from the State Education Loan Fund meant a lot or very much for their own decision to enrol in folk high school. Only 8 per cent would have enrolled regardless of the grant.

Over half of the 19-year-old pupils believe they would not have applied to go to a folk high school if the current additional grant for this group had been converted into a loan.

Four out of 10 (40 per cent) said they would have attended folk high school regardless of whether a year as a pupil at a folk high school gives them three points towards being admitted to higher education. Thirty-two per cent say that it meant quite a lot or much and 25 per cent little or very little. The significance is less in the age group over 19 years of age than among pupils under the age of 20. Only 21 per cent say that the points mean quite a lot or much for their decision to attend folk high school, against 35 and 32 per cent respectively in the age groups 19 and under 19. The figures also show no major differences between those who have completed upper secondary school and those who have not.