The Nordic vision of an upper secondary school for all faces major challenges. Particularly the high number of students leaving school with no formal qualification raises political and public concerns. To meet and reduce the dropout problem, a range of targeted and irregular programmes are offered. This study examines irregular programmesand how their educational purposes play into the construction of a school for all. Three cases of irregular programmes are presented and analysed: Schools of Production in Denmark, Alternative strand of courses with extended workplace practice in Norway and (the Individual programme and) the Introduction programme in Sweden. A cross-case analysis suggests that the intent to prevent dropout by means of irregular programmes is tenuous. Upon completion, students do not hold an upper secondary qualification. Indications of some students continuing in and graduating from regular upper secondary school do not obliterate the fact that too many do not. They enter the dropout category. Moreover, the authors argue that the educational purpose is the Achilles heel of the irregular programmes; their averred educational roles and worth are encapsulated by structures and discourses of inferior students. Rather than offering conditions for a ‘good education’, the question is raised whether the irregular programmes constitute ‘the moment when education retracts’. If all students are to participate in a just and responsive education, the authors advocate transcending the distinction between regular and irregular programmes, thus constructing an irregular school where student differences are acknowledged and addressed. © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014.