Fritaksproblematikken som forsvant : norske grunnskolerektorer og skolens fritaksbestemmelser

Abstract

How are the exemption provisions due to personal belief managed in Norwegian schools today? How many parents and students claim exemptions from parts of the teaching? This article presents some results from an empirical inquiry aiming to answer these research questions. The study is built on a quantitative survey inquiry directed to all headmasters in the primary schools in the Norwegian counties Vest-Agder and Oslo, combined with an qualitative interview inquiry. The inquiry was carried out in the period of 2007-2008, i.e. while the compulsory RE subject was changed and a new object clause was passed. The main finding is that there are almost a similar number of demands of exemption in the two counties. Hence there seems to be no correlation between the level of multiculturality and the number of demands of exemption. After some problems the first years due to the new compulsory RE subject in the autumn of 1997, the number of demands for exemption has been low.