In a very few days, parents will be readying their children for school. Here in the U.S., we take this activity for granted. However, in Norway, this becomes a time of vital concern. In Norway, children born before September 1st are legally guaranteed a place at a local kindergarten for the next year. Those born after this date may have to wait two years before finding a place for their youngster..
Evidence increasingly suggests that Norwegian parents are planning pregnancies in order to qualify their children's school career. Officials from a number of urban hospitals confirm this pattern to Aftenposten.
Several large hospitals in Oslo and Bergen have had to send patients away to smaller hospitals in order to cope with maternity service demands. Bergen's Haukeland University Hostpital recorded 550 births in August 2010 compared to 436 on average during August over the last seven years..
------------------- Bergen's Haukeland University Hospital --------------------
The head of the women's clinic at Trondheim, Runa Heimstad stated that "We get the impression that parents try to plan when they will have children with a view to the kindergarten year."
Full coverage of kindergartens not only reassures working parents that their children will be receiving adequate care during the work day, it provides children under the compulsory school age with good opportunities for developement and activity.
Norway is striving to achieve full coverage of kindergartens. Such coverage is essential to the participation of parents of small children in working life, and helps to explain why Norway has one of the highest birth rates in Europe.
Is this "kindergarten" in the same sense as American kindergarten, or is this more like "pre-school" or "day care"? It just seems to bizarre to deny children education for two years, and have them start school at 7 or 8 years old, because of their date of birth.
ReplyDeleteThe kindergarten Act provides care for ages 0-5. At age 6,compulsory school begins. Children born before Sept 1st are guaranteed a spot in the system paid for by the state and the parents. Those born later have to search. The program is to provide day-care for children and a means of equality between gender in the working force.All highly regulated.
ReplyDeleteI guess I can’t blame these parents. Who’d want that to happen to your child? How are they so good at this planning a child? That never seemed to work for us. I didn’t get to choose when I wanted a baby.
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