It was early recognized by the Norwegians that through the means of education, better than any other way, they could develop a people qualified to pursue the arts, to cultivate the sciences, to appreciate and enjoy the highest culture, and to maintain and develop their noblest ideals of citizenship and richest conceptions of statehood. Having these objects in mind they endeavored to establish schools of instruction and training along every legitimate line. Beginning with the most essential they worked unceasingly, providing additional worthy kinds of instruction as rapidly as possible, until their efforts resulted in their present school system.
Perhaps the most important feature of their work was the establishment of primary schools, which furnish general education. These schools provide seven years of elementary instruction for children between the ages of seven and fourteen years, and are literally the people's schools (_Folkeskoler_). The law requires that pupils must be regular in attendance, and that parents, who fail to have their children in school in harmony with the provisions of the law, be fined according to the seriousness and extent of the offense. It is further provided that these schools shall be in operation for at least twelve weeks in the year, and that this time may be extended according to local demands or needs. As a matter of fact, nearly all of them in the cities and many of them in the country operate forty weeks per year. As a consequence of liberal provisions and enforced regulations, Norway has achieved an eminent place educationally among the nations of the world.
In the rural sections primary schools are held in comfortable, well equipped, and conveniently located schoolhouses and are taught by competent teachers who live near by in homes provided for them. In a few remote, rugged sections of the country, where children are few and scattering or where locations accessible to all cannot be found, they have no fixed schools, but instead what are termed ambulatory schools (_Omgangskoler_). There are no schoolhouses in these districts but the officials designate certain houses[3] as the places where children go at stated times to receive instruction. The teacher meets the children of the neighborhood in a given home and teaches them for a specified time, passes to the next designated place, and continues until his rounds are completed. Formerly, a very large number of these schools existed, but as roadways were extended or improved and the people became able to erect and maintain schoolhouses, the demand for ambulatory schools decreased until now nearly all of them are supplanted by fixed schools. In 1837, ninety-two per cent of the children attending school in the country were taught in ambulatory schools, while in 1907 this was the case with less than one per cent of them.