Today’s Pupils to become Businessmen Tomorrow

–Today we have a presentation of a Norwegian-Russian school. Students themselves will tell about the progress and results they have achieved, - opened the meeting Bjarne Berg, project coordinator.

In early April Gymnasia No.1 in Murmansk city received a large delegation from Troms fylke to evaluate the first results of Norwegian-Russian school.

As reported earlier on our web-site, the Norwegian-Russian class was created on the premises of Gymnasia No. 1 in September last year. The project has been largely supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Murmansk Oblast as well as Education authorities of Troms Fylke.

5 Norwegian and 8 Russian students have already spent about one entire year in Murmansk studying together in one class. The teaching staff is also mixed. The main subject is Entrepreneurship with a separate focus on Northern Regions.

Simultaneous process of teaching Russian and Norwegian students was not easy. In the first place it is connected with a cultural difference, diverse teaching methods and language barrier. The teaching was done in English. Apart from it the text books on entrepreneurship were successfully translated from Norwegian into Russian. Additionally the courses of Norwegian and Russian language were organized.

Despite such intensive curriculum students did their best. – The challenges were solved due to high motivation. Our students have shown a great diligence. Even in their free time they preferred to study, - the teachers proudly say.

Since entrepreneurship was the main subject students’ curriculum included the meetings with business representatives. Students highly appreciated so called guest lectures given by business people for their practical constituent. In their opinion such meetings should become more numerous.

While studying pupils paid several visits. Primarily some student set off to Moscow to talk to their counterparts from Moscow Norwegian-Russian School, to get some experience. Also they went to Tromsø to visit Kongsbakken school. During winter holiday some of them visited St. Petersburg on their own and enjoyed the trip. Quite soon the class will leave for Svalbard to have an exciting study trip.

The academic year is not over yet, but Russian students have already applied to Tromsø University. They have all chances to succeed since one year spent in the Norwegian-Russian school gives required qualification and Norwegian certificate.

– It is nice to see that such good results have been achieved. Now we have a common future, this project is one of the most significant achievements in the framework of Barents cooperation, - said Kent Gudmundsen, the Chairperson of Committee on Education and Health of Troms fylke.

The project will continue. Already this autumn there’ll be a new enrollment to Norwegian-Russian school.