UDIR will stop offering specialization studies combined with top sports for Oslo students. But now they have received a reversal order from the Ministry of Education.

– This clarification means that young people who are interested in sports and talented still get the opportunity to develop their talents in combination with study programs. In Oslo, we want to give all students equal opportunities based on skills, not on parents’ ability to pay, said the Oslo city council member for schools and care, Sunniva Holmås Eidsvoll (SV).

In early November, Utdanningsnytt wrote that the UDIR (Directorate of Education) would do so closed one of Oslo’s most popular school facilitieslearn specialties with top sports.

Since 2017, the municipality has offered Nydalen, Persbråten and Valle Hovin high schools. At Valle Hovin they have over 90 students specializing in the study of the top sport football. This offer is free and half of students are accepted based on a combination of skills and grades.

– The majority of our students come from Groruddalen and further east, and not everyone has the opportunity to send their children to private schools with excellent sports. Our offer helps to equalize economic differences in Oslo, school principal Trine Øiseth told Utdanningsnytt in November.

However when the school applied to resume in the spring of 2021, the response from the UDIR was that it could continue until 2022, but then ended.

In the fall, the school board got involved in this matter. And now UDIR is spinning.

“Better knowledge base”

In a letter to the city council it stated:

The Ministry of Education has asked the Directorate of Education to grant a trial application for admission to the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 academic years. The ministry reckons that the Oslo city government could continue the experiment in line with the request for extension, which could provide a better knowledge base for assessing permanent rule changes.

The trial grant requires the city government without being asked to submit an interim report after each school year, by September 1, 2022 and September 1, 2023 respectively. The final evaluation report must be submitted by September 1, 2024.

– I am very pleased that this case has now been resolved and this top sports offer will still be available to everyone, said Sunniva Holmås Eidsvoll.

– This is an important recognition of what Oslo is doing to be able to provide an attractive educational offer and I would like to thank the Minister of Education for clarifying this issue in a timely manner before young people have to submit a study offer for the next school year.