The content of school activities is defined in a syllabus for different subjects or groups of subjects and in guidelines for educational and vocational orientation and free activities. A syllabus consist of goals and main teaching items. The goals define the focus of the subject and the central concepts within different fields of subject matter which have to be mastered by the pupils, as well as the skills they have to practice. With reference to different main items, subject matter is indicated which sheds light on the central concepts and which the pupils are to study, as well as different ways of practicing skills. Within the scope of a main teaching item, teachers and pupils in different classes and work units are at liberty to select those project areas which arouse their involvement and interest. This can imply individual tasks or different tasks for different groups.



Against the background of a historical perspective, work must be done in the present and made to focus on the future so as to leave the pupil well prepared to respond to changing circumstances and new demands.

The choice of subject content, therefore, always involves tension between the immediately perceived needs and interests of the pupils and the knowledge they will require in the long run in order to be able to cope as members of the community at large. It is the task of schools to try to bridge this gap and to harness the motive power of the pupils' spontaneously experienced cognitive requirements as a means of venturing into areas further afield.

Speaking, reading, writing and counting are the foundations of most of the work done in schools and in adult life. The ability to form concepts, to think and to acquire knowledge, as well as a child's trust and inward security, are to a great extent dependent on the child's ability to communicate with other people by these various means. Basic skills have a vital bearing on other studies, or vocational activity, on recurrent education and not least on people's ability to stand up for their rights in the community. One of the central concerns of school work must therefore be for the pupils to practice and systematically develop the basic communicative skills of speech, reading, writing and arithmetic.

Aptitudes for the comprehensive development of skills vary from one child to another. Schools can contribute towards the positive development of their pupils above all by enabling them to practice and develop their skills systematically and at their own pace.

Schools must allot sufficient time for this. It is important that the foundations of communicative skills be laid as early as possible and then consolidated throughout the pupils' school careers.

Training must not be made to focus one-side on the teaching of English and mathematics. It must also be naturally included in other subjects and activities and not conducted in isolation during lessons, without any motivating context. Here as in other school work, the pupils should set themselves readily attainable, individual goals and evaluate their progress together with their parents and teachers.

Schools must attach great importance to a comprehensive development of the pupils' skills. The foundation of individual development in the broad sense also includes other skills, e.g. the ability to express oneself with the aid of pictures, to organize one's studies and to work in harness with other people in teams and groups.

Similarly, schools must emphasize everyday skills of a technical and practical nature. Everybody needs these skills in order to cope with the demands of the home, working life and leisure.

People are acquiring more and more technical aids. The introduction of everyday knowledge and skills in many different subjects provides an opportunity of inducing children to respect the conservation of resources and artifacts and the opportunities of recycling everyday objects.

Schools must inculcate an understanding, based on the children's everyday experience, of the major problems of survival which are confronting the world. Everybody must be made to realize the importance of conserving the earth's resources of energy, water, timber and cultivable land, as well as the crises with which the world community may be threatened as a result of overpopulation, unemployment and widening gaps between rich and poor countries. A historical perspective should be employed in acquainting pupils with the role of science in the evolution of our present-day society and standard of living, and also with the dangers involved in the utilization of technology.

Schools must provide upbringing. This means that they must actively and deliberately condition and encourage children and young person's to embrace the fundamental values of our democracy and to express those values in practical and everyday actions.