Status of school closures in Norway during the pandemic
Early childhood education: Closed from March–April 2020.
Primary school: Closed from March–April 2020. Adjusted operations from July–October 2021.
Secondary school: Closed from March–June 2020. Adjusted operations from January–February 2021.
Higher education: Closed from March–June 2020. Adjusted operations from November–December 2020. Closed from January–February 2021. Adjusted operations from March–September 2021 (Norlén, Gassen, & Randall, 2022).
School closures primarily affected older students in the Nordic region, but Norway and Denmark were the only countries to implement school closures on all levels, including kindergarten.
During the periods of adjusted operations, the schools in regions with low infection rates were allowed to remain open. A traffic light system with red, green, and orange lights was used to identify when infection rates increased. A red light meant that schools would close for a brief period until the infection rates fell – and a green light meant that schools could reopen (Helfer, Aapola-Kari, & Trane, 2023).