| Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research |
|
|---|---|
| Minister of Higher Education and Research and Minister of Lower Education |
Tora Aasland and Kristin Halvorsen |
| National education budget (N/A) | |
| Budget | N/A |
| General Details | |
| Primary Languages | Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk) |
| System Type | National |
| Current system | since 1990s |
| Literacy (2007[1]) | |
| Total | 100 |
| Male | 100 |
| Female | 100 |
| Enrollment | |
| Total | n/a |
| Primary | 99.9% (graduating) |
| Secondary | N/A |
| Post Secondary | N/A |
| Attainment | |
| Secondary diploma | N/A |
| Post-secondary diploma | N/A |
| Secondary and tertiary education divided in academic and vocational systems | |
Education in Norway is mandatory for all children aged 6–16. The school year in Norway runs from mid August to late June the following year. The Christmas holiday from mid December to early January historically divides the Norwegian school year into two terms. Today the second term begins in the beginning of January.
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Organized education in Norway dates as far back as medieval times. Shortly after Norway became an archdiocese in 1152, cathedral schools were constructed to educate priests in Trondheim, Oslo, Bergen and Hamar.
After the reformation of Norway in 1537, (Norway entered a personal union with Denmark in 1536) the cathedral schools were turned into Latin schools, and it was made mandatory for all market towns to have such a school.
In 1736 training in reading was made compulsory for all children, but was not effective until some years later. In 1827, Norway introduced the folkeskole, a primary school which became mandatory for 7 years in 1889 and 9 years in 1969. In the 1970s and 1980s, the folkeskole was abolished, and the grunnskole was introduced.
The Norwegian school system can be divided into three parts: Elementary school (Barneskole, age 6-13), lower secondary school (Ungdomsskole, age 13-16), and upper secondary school (Videregående skole, age 16-19).
Elementary and lower secondary school are mandatory for all children aged 6–16. Before 1997, the mandatory education in Norway started at the age of 7. Students almost always have to change school when they enter lower secondary school and upper secondary school, as most schools only offer one of the levels.
In the first year of primary school, the students are mostly playing educational games, learning social structures, learning the alphabet, basic addition and subtraction, and basic English skills. In grades 2 through 7 (years 3–8 or P3/4-S2/3), they are introduced to maths, English, Norwegian, science, religion, esthetics and gymnastics, complemented by geography, history, and social studies in the fifth grade (year 6 or P6/7). No official grades are given at this level, however, the teacher often writes a comment – analysis and sometimes an unofficial grade on tests. Tests are to be taken home and shown to parents. They also have an introductory test to let teacher know if the student is above the grade average or is in need of some assistance at school.
When the students enter lower secondary school, at age 12 or 13, they begin getting grades for their work. Their grades together with their location in the country will determine whether they get accepted at their high school of choice or not. From the eighth grade (Yr 9 or S3/4), the students can choose one elective (valgfag). Typical subjects the students are offered are the languages German, French and Spanish as well as additional English and Norwegian studies. Before the educational reform starting August 2006, students could choose a practical elective instead of the languages.
A student may take the Grade 10 exam in a particular subject however early as long as he or she has been granted an exemption from further instruction in the elementary/middle school curriculum of that subject.[2]
In 2009, Norwegian 15 year olds performed better in OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment than other Scandinavian countries, with significant improvement since 2006. In mathematics, however, the top scoring 10% were estimated to lag 3 years behind the top scoring students in Shanghai.[3]
Upper secondary school (akin to high school) is 3 years of optional schooling, although recent changes to society (few jobs available for the age group) and law (government required by law of 1994 to offer secondary schooling in one form or another to everyone between 16 and 18 who submit the application form) has made it largely unavoidable in practice.
Secondary education in Norway is primarily based on public schools: In 2007, 93% of upper secondary school students attended public schools.[4] Until 2005, Norwegian law held private secondary schools to be illegal unless they offered a 'religious or pedagogic alternative', so the only private schools in existence were religious (Christian), Steiner/Waldorf, Montessori schools and Danielsen. The first "standard" private upper secondary schools opened in the fall of 2005.
Prior to 1994 there were three branches of upper secondary schooling: "General" (language, history etc.), "mercantile" (accounting etc.) and "vocational" (electronics, carpentry etc.) studies. The high school reform of 1994 (Reform 94) merged these branches into a single system. Among the goals of the reform was that everybody should have a certain amount of 'general studies' large enough to make them eligible for higher education later, meaning more theory in vocational studies, and it should be possible to cross over from one education path to another without losing too much credit. In the old system, two years of carpentry would be wasted if you wanted to switch to general studies, in the new system you could keep credit for at least half of it.
Since the introduction of the reform Kunnskapsløftet fall 2006 (the knowledge promotion), a student will apply for a general studies (studiespesialisering) or a vocational studies (yrkesfag) path. Inside these main paths there are many sub-paths to follow. The new reform makes the incorporation of IT into the schooling mandatory, many counties (responsible for the public high schools) offer laptops to general studies students for free or for a small fee. Kunnskapsløftet also makes it harder to switch betweens electives that you take in the second and third year in the general studies path.
Students graduating upper secondary school are called Russ in Norwegian. Most of them choose to celebrate with lots of parties and festivities, which, impractically, take place a few weeks before the final examinations of the final year.
Higher education is anything beyond upper secondary school, and normally lasts 3 years or more. To be accepted to most higher education schools you must have attained a general university admissions certificate (generell studiekompetanse). This can be achieved by taking general studies while in upper secondary school or through the law of 23/5 where a person must be above 23 years of age, have 5 years of combined schooling and work experience and have passed exams in Norwegian, mathematics, natural sciences, English and social studies. Some degrees also require special electives in second and third grade (e.g. maths and physics for engineering studies.)
Higher education is broadly divided into:
Before the 19th century the main source for higher education of Norwegians were the University of Copenhagen.
Norway has multiple different grading systems, both unique ones and ones that have been based on foreign grading systems. The formerly most common system of grades used at university level was based on a scale running from 1.0 (highest) through 6.0 (lowest), 4.0 being the lowest passing grade.
The way the new Bologna system was introduced implies that students who had started their studies while the old system still was in effect will graduate with transcripts containing grades from both systems (i.e. both numbers and letters).
Lower levels of education use a scale running from 1 through 6, with 6 being the highest and 2 the lowest passing grade. For non-final tests and mid-term evaluations the grades are often postfixed with + or - (except 6+, 1+ and 1-) and it is also common to use grades such as 5/6 or 4/3 indicating borderline grades. However, the grades students get on their final paper are either 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6.
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