Equal Education in Practice!

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Aims for this introduction:

• Background information on immigrant children in Norway, integration and learning outcome

• Language support policies and curriculum development for immigrant children

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Increased cultural diversity • Linguistic and cultural diversity is increasing

• Linguistic minority children provide vital resources

• The education system should take care of this diversity

• Kindergartens, schools and other educational institutions are vital in the work of securing inclusion and participation by linguistic minorities

• Immigrants in all 434 municipalities

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Immigrant children: Pre-school

• An increased participation of immigrant children in kindergarten

• Since year 2000 the number has doubled

• Lower proportion of immigrant children in kindergartens compared to the majority population

• Kindergarten has proved to be crucial as Norwegian language stimulation

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Language in school

• 120 different languages represented in primary and lower secondary school

• 40 000 pupils receive special teaching in Norwegian

• 22 100 pupils receive mother thong teaching and/or bilingual subject teaching

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Learning outcome

• First generation immigrant pupils have lower score than second generation and majority pupils (national tests 2007)

• The last PISA results confirm this; pupils with immigrant background perform significantly lower than majority pupils

• However, minority pupils spend more time on homework and are more motivated for learning than majority pupils

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Equal Education in Practice!2007-2009

• The strategy has been effective since 2004• Revised version 2007• Also published in

English

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Strategic plan: Goals for linguistic minorities

1. Improve language skills among pre-school children

2. Improve the school performance in primary and secondary education and training

3. Increase the proportion who commence and complete upper secondary education and training

4. Increase the proportion students in higher education and improve opportunities for completing education

5. Improve Norwegian language proficiency among adults to increase opportunities for education and active participation in work and society

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38 concrete measures

• Language training • Early efforts in kindergarten, maternal

and child health centre and primary school

• Improve the training in Norwegian

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Language support policies and curriculum development for immigrant children

Old curriculum did not work according to intentions

-no platform for transition to ordinary curriculum in Norwegian

-many students continued special teaching throughout school attendance

-lack of competence among teachers-no standardized assessment procedures to

clarify the pupils’ level of knowledge

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New curricula in basic Norwegian for linguistic minorities and in native languages based on levels

• A new curriculum for basic Norwegian for linguistic minorities has replaced the curriculum in Norwegian as a second language

• A new curriculum in native languages• Level based subject curriculum in basic

Norwegian and native languages are based on the European Framework for Foreign Languages

• No grade assessment• Goal: As soon as possible learn sufficient

Norwegian to follow ordinary curricula

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New curricula cont.

• A standardised assessment tool

• Guidance material for teachers in basic Norwegian

• Post-qualifying courses developed for teachers in basic Norwegian

• The implementation of the new curricula will be evaluated over a period of 3 years

• Guidance material for teachers in native languages will be introduced

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New curricula cont.

• However, still some issues to be solved:- lack of grade assessment is a problem for pupils who arrive to Norway as youths

- Adults who attend primary /secondary education on a short period of time

Strengthening rights-Introduced the right to Special language

education in upper secondary school-Proposed bill: compulsory language

assessment of children with low Norwegian skills

-Will propose a bill: right to until to years extra in upper - secondary education for pupils with low Norwegian skills

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The idea of inclusion

• Universal rights and measures /see cultural diversity as part of the ordinary

• In combination with targeted measures • Everyone attend public school• Diversity as a resource• Intensify the work to improve the quality of

education• Increased emphasis on basic skills• White Paper: Quality in Education• White Paper: Language Build Bridges• Committee for equal education for linguistic

minorities in kindergarten, school and higher education

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Concluding remarks:

• New policy, legislation and measures are being implemented

• Research is being done to learn from new measures

• Too early to conclude on the results

• The issue of learning outcome and inclusion has a high priority for the Norwegian government