Sami school in Hattfjelldal, Nordland.
Dinner at the boarding school, 1953
(Photo: Sigrid Bergli Sørnes)

Sami school history

Sámi skuvlahistorjá

Skoganvarre school, Porsanger, autumn 1962.
2. and 3. grade with teacher Birgit Bergh.
(Photo: Richard Bergh)

that

- Sami language was medium of instruction in schools almost 300 years ago.

- later Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Russian authorities used the school to extreminate the Sami language and culture - and they almost succeeded.

- there were teachers who taught in Sami even though it was forbidden by law.

- while other Sami teachers refused their children to speak their mother tongue.

- there were Norwegian teachers who in the 1950:s called the language policy "a crime against the children".

- in the 1950's there was a Sami vocational training with a Sami content and Sami language as a subject, but later this disappeared.

- Sami pupils in Norway have since 1998 had the legal right to education in Sami language - but many have not got it.

This and much more you may read about in Sami school history.