Education in Norway

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Education in Norway

Educational oversight Minister of Knowledge	Kunnskapsdepartementet Øystein Djupedal
National education budget	Not available (N/A)
Primary languages	Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk)
National system Current system	since 1990s
Literacy (2004)  • Men  • Women	100% 100% 100%
Enrollment  • Primary  • Secondary  • Post-secondary	n/a 99.9% (graduating) Not available Not available
Attainment  • Secondary diploma  • Post-secondary diploma	Not available Not available
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 late August to mid June the coming year. The Christmas holiday from mid December to early January divides the Norwegian school year into two terms.

Contents 1 History of education in Norway 2 Education today 2.1 Children's school (Barneskole, grades 1-7, age 6-13) 2.2 Lower secondary school (Ungdomsskole, grades 8-10, age 13-16) 2.3 Upper secondary school (Videregående skole, grades VG1-VG3, age 16-19) 3 Higher education 4 Grading 5 References 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] History of education in Norway

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 obligatory for all market towns to have such a school.

In 1736 training in reading was made compulsory for all children, but it was not effective before 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.

[edit] Education today

The Norwegian school system can be divided into three parts: children's 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 change school when they enter lower secondary school and upper secondary school.

[edit] Children's school (Barneskole, grades 1-7, age 6-13)

In the first year of children's school, the students are mostly playing educational games and learning social behaviour. In grades 2 through 7, they are introduced to math, English, Norwegian, religion and gymnastics, followed by geography, history and society studies. No grades are given at this level.

[edit] Lower secondary school (Ungdomsskole, grades 8-10, age 13-16)

When the students enter ungdomsskolen, lower secondary school, at age 12 or 13, they get grades for their work. The grades determine whether they will get accepted at their high school of choice. From eighth grade the students can choose one or more subjects themselves (valgfag). Standard subjects students can choose from are the languages German, French and Spanish.

[edit] Upper secondary school (Videregående skole, grades VG1-VG3, age 16-19)

Videregående skole is 3 years of optional schooling, although recent changes to society (few jobs for 16-years olds) 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, and is attended by 96% of the students. Until 2005, Norwegian law held private secondary schools to be illegal unless they offered a 'religious or pedagogic alternative', meaning that the only private schools in existence were religious (Christian), Steiner/Waldorf and Montessori schools. The first "standard" private upper secondary schools opened in the fall of 2005.

Since the High school reform of 1994 (Reform 94), the branches have been merged 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 would keep credit for at least half of it.

Since the introduction of the reform Kunnskapsløftet fall '06 (meaning knowledge lift), a student will apply for a General education (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 2nd and 3rd year in the general studies path.

Graduating general studies students are called Russ in Norwegian. They celebrate with lots of parties and festivities, which, surprisingly, take place a few weeks before the final examinations of the final year.

[edit] Higher education

Higher education is anything beyond High School, and normally lasts 3 years or more. To be accepted to higher education you must have taken General Studies while in upper secondary school, often even special electives in 2nd and 3rd grade.

Higher education can be broadly divided into:

• Universities, that concentrate on theoretical subjects (arts, humanities, natural science). Supplies bachelor (3 yrs), master (5 yrs) and doctor (8 yrs) titles. Universities also run a number of professional studies, including law, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and psychology, but these are generally separate departments that have little to do with the rest of the university insitution.

• University colleges (høgskoler), which supply a wide range of educations, including university bachelor degrees, engineering degrees and professional educations like teacher and nurse. Grades are the same as for universities.

• Private schools, that tend to specialize in subjects not offered by public schools, like business economics (microeconomics), marketing and MBAs. Again, private schools do not loom large on the horizon, although the fraction of students attending private schools is 10% in higher education, compared to 4% in secondary and 1.5% in primary education.

[edit] Grading

Norway has and has had 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+ 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 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• List of universities in Norway
• Government agencies in Norway
• Education
• Primary, secondary and tertiary education

[edit] External links

• Kunnskapsdepartementet
• Samordna opptak