ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Kurdish schools are set to open in Norway with support from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, and Kurdish centers in Oslo, aiming to help Kurds in the diaspora stay connected to their language and identity.

A Kurdish-language school is set to open in Norway, offering instruction in Sorani and Kurmanji, with volunteer teachers, as several more schools are planned to help the diaspora maintain their language, culture, and heritage.

Rezvan Warmeli, head of the Kurdistani diaspora in Norway, told The New Region that the school will open with four classes, each with up to 17 students, and will offer instruction in both the Sorani and Kurmanji dialects.

Warmeli also emphasized that the school is being established with support from the KRG and the Kurdish Language Confederation.

The Kurdish Language Confederation in Norway informed The New Region that the KRG’s Ministry of Education will provide the school’s books and supplies, with a curriculum initially following the Kurdistan Region’s system and plans to eventually adopt Norway’s Finnish-based system.

In March 2025, Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, the Ministry of Education, and the Kurdistan Diaspora Centre signed a memorandum of understanding to expand Kurdish education abroad, incorporating Kurdish culture and national events, as well as the historical struggles of the Kurdish people.

“We plan to open more Kurdish-language schools across Norway,” said Derin Mahmoud, a volunteer teacher at the school, noting that no students have officially enrolled yet but about 50 are initially ready to study there.

Thousands of Kurds have migrated abroad over the past decades in search of a better life in Western countries, with many coming from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the Kurdish areas of Turkey, Iran, and Syria amid long‑standing political conflict, cycles of repression, and periods of violence in their homelands.