Norway
In recent years considerable responsibility and decision-making authority has been delegated from the central government to municipalities and county authorities. Individual municipalities are responsible for running primary and lower secondary schools, while county authorities have responsibility for upper secondary schools.
Within the framework of statutes and national curricula, municipalities, schools and teachers are able to decide what learning materials to use and what teaching methods to adopt. Each school has a head teacher as well as various boards and committees.
County authorities are obliged by law to provide a follow-up service for young people between 16 and 19 who are currently neither attending a course of education nor are employed. Everyone between the ages of 16 and 19 has had a statutory right to three years’ upper secondary education leading either to higher education or to vocational qualifications or partial qualifications.
The State has responsibility for universities and colleges, but also provides considerable financial support for the running of primary and secondary schools.
The education in Norway is founded on the principle of a unified school system that provides equal and adapted education for all on the basis of a single national curriculum. All people are to share in a common framework of knowledge, culture and values.
The school is divided in four main stages:
- Lower primary (grades 1–4)
- Upper primary (grades 5–7)
- Lower secondary (grades 8–10)
- Upper secondary education (grades 11-13)
As a result of Norway’s scattered population, forty per cent of primary and lower secondary schools are so small that children of different ages are taught in the same group. Primary and lower secondary levels are often combined in the same school.
