Education authorities and parents of non-Norwegian students in Norway were shocked to learn that a high school in Oslo was segregating ethnic and white students to prevent Norwegian students from transferring to other schools.

Some 50 students also demonstrated outside the Bjerke Videregående Upper Secondary School in Groruddalen district on Thursday to protest its officials' decision to put 14 Norwegian students in only two classes for general subjects leaving a third class filled with only students from immigrant parents.

Head of Section Hanna Norum Eliassen admitted to the newspaper Dagsavisen that the school was forced to segregate the students because the Norwegian ones felt lonely in a class with more foreign students and were transferring to other schools were there are more Norwegian students in a class, according to The Foreigner.

However, Bjerke's rector, Gro Flaten said the school will stop the segregation policy and revert to the practice of mixing ethnic Norwegian and non-ethnic Norwegian students in a class.

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Oslo City Council's Torger Ødegaard ordered the rector to reverse the policy saying it is unacceptable.

Professor of Law, Henning Jakhelln described the policy as apartheid, violates the country's education and anti-discrimination laws and violates the United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Parents of non-Norwegian students also felt slighted by the school's policy telling the Dagsavisen that the school fails to value their children. Foreign students also complained that the practice promotes division among non-Norwegians and students from other ethnic backgrounds.