“I learned almost nothing. I couldn’t speak neither English nor Norwegian.”
Nameh is 16 and lived in Oslo, Norway at the time of the interview. During the pandemic, Nameh and her peers were immigrants studying for a certificate of lower secondary school. The certificate is mandatory for admittance to upper secondary school. Nameh had just started the course to secondary school in autumn 2020.
Nameh found the transition to online education almost impossible. It was both imprudent and unreasonable to be assigned to online education, as she lacked the necessary language skills. She believes she should have spoken up about it but found it challenging and was unable to find the courage to say anything.
According to Nameh, everything became easier when schools that provided intensive courses for newly arrived immigrants were allowed to reopen in the autumn of 2021. Even though it was just a few days a week, Nameh felt that being at school and meeting her friends made the learning process easier. She believes many of her peers felt very lonely during the lockdown and the periods of home schooling. She thinks it would have helped if she and her peers had been given an opportunity to attend some leisure time activities during the lockdown.