Norwegian school puts e-sports on the curriculum

A tech-savvy Norwegian school is giving its students the option to play competitive video games, all in the name of education.

Playing video games might not sound like something that children should be doing at school, but today a growing of entrepreneurs are calling for schooling systems to adopt a game-style of learning,promise that it could help cut school’s costs by as much as 30%.  Now a school in Norway is putting video games on the curriculum.

Starting in August of 2016, Garnes High School will let its students study five hours a week of competitive e-Sports, in place of their traditional physical education classes.

Pro gamers are the new athletes

eSports is now a huge global industry worth more than £400m, with cash prizes are soaring into the millions and top players becoming icons to children.With the booming profile of e-Sports it’s not surprising that kids today are dreaming of becoming professional gamers rather than footballers.But the school says it won’t all be sitting in front of a computer screens.

Taking gaming seriously

e-Sports classes will be split with 90 minutes of physical training focused on reflexes, strength and endurance, and students performance, game knowledge, skills, communication and cooperation will all be assessed in classes.

Garnes High School’s decision to offer e-Sports isn’t the first time a school has made the unusual decision, Arlanda School in Sweden last March adopted e-Sports onto its curriculum on the back of growing demand from its students.

Garnes hasn’t decided which games students will be taught, but says the popular games of Starcraft II, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2 and League of Legends are all under consideration.

The school says some 30 or so kids can enroll on the course in August but, with Garnes School’s head of science promising a curriculum and assessments akin to that of a pro-athlete, it won’t all be fun and video games.

This article was originally posted on the Memo.