The Norwegian Education Mirror 2022

The aim of national exams is to inform schools about pupils' skills in reading, arithmetic and English. Information from these exams form the basis for formative assessment and quality development at all levels in the school system. There are 3 levels of mastery in Year 5 and five levels of mastery in Years 8 and 9.

Average marks and examination marks both provide information about pupils' competence at the end of teaching subjects. Marks are also the basis for admissions for upper secondary school education and are therefore important in deciding whether pupils get into the school or education programme they want.

Small changes to pupils' national exam performance during the pandemic

Pupils' performance in national exams for reading, arithmetic and English have been relatively stable on a national level, despite the pandemic. Average scale points have not changed significantly since the trend measurement started, with the exception of Year 5 English (see the section below). There is therefore little to suggest that the pandemic has had major consequences on Norwegian pupils' basic skills.

The pandemic has of course hit some municipalities harder than others, but development is still relatively stable in the ten municipalities outside of Oslo that have had the highest infection pressure. Pupils' normal school days have been most affected in Oslo, but for Oslo as a whole, there is also little to suggest that the development particularly deviates from previous development patterns. The development trend in the five districts in Oslo with the highest infection pressure has been somewhat more negative (The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training 2022b).

The five districts with the highest infection pressure (Søndre Nordstrand, Stovner, Alna, Grorud and Bjerke) are also the districts with the most living condition challenges and the highest proportion of families that live in cramped conditions. In a study done during lockdown in spring 2020, researchers found that families living in cramped conditions experienced more limited opportunities for having online meetings and using the internet than families with more space (Brattbakk 2020). Limited access to digital equipment and the internet may have made it more challenging for pupils in cramped city districts to follow along with and make use of online teaching. Furthermore, it is fair to assume that high infection pressure has also contributed to higher pupil absence due to illness and quarantine in the five city districts.

More pupils in Year 5 earning high marks in English

In 2021-2022, the average scale mark in English in Year 5 increased from 50 to 51. 30 per cent of pupils achieved the highest level of mastery, level of mastery 3. In comparison, 21 per cent and 25 per cent of pupils respectively performed at the highest level of mastery in reading and numeracy. The proportion of pupils achieving the highest level of mastery in English has been rising since trend measurement started in 2014-2015, but the largest increase has been over the last two years. The proportion of the highest level of mastery increased by 3.5 percentage points from 2018-2019 to 2021-2022, while the proportion of pupils with the lowest level of mastery has been more stable.

Boys perform better than girls in numeracy and English

The biggest different between boys' and girls' performance is in numeracy. On average, boys have five more scale points in Year 5 and three more scale points in Year 8 in 2021-2022. In English, boys also perform better than girls on average, but the difference is just one scale point in both years. Girls perform highest in reading, with an average of two scale points more than boys.

High average marks since the Coronavirus pandemic occurred

Primary and lower secondary school points are an expression of pupils' average marks on their diplomas. Pupils receive an average of 43.4 primary and lower secondary school points in 2021-2022, a slight increase from 43.3 the previous year. Average grades have increased steadily over the last ten years. In 2019-2020, average grades increased more than normally, by an average of 1.2 primary and lower secondary school points. High average grades have persisted for the last two school years. The increase was due to the fact that the exam grades were no longer included in the calculation of average grades and to the fact that pupils received higher grades in a number of subjects. Exams were cancelled in the 2021-2022 school year, just as they had been during 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, owing to the consequences of the Coronavirus pandemic.

On average, girls received 4.3 primary and lower secondary school points more than boys in 2021-2022. The difference between girls and boys has been relatively stable over time.

* From and including the 2014-15 school year, average grades from elective subjects are included in the calculation of primary and lower secondary school points.

** All exams for primary and lower secondary school pupils were cancelled in 2019-2020 and 2021-2022. Primary and lower secondary school points for these school years are therefore only based on average grades.

Stable average grades despite new curriculum

Average grades in 2021-2022 are unchanged for most of the biggest subjects compared with 2020-2021. The exception is Natural Science, where the average grade has increased from 4.2 to 4.3. The curriculum for English has undergone a major change. In accordance with the new curriculum, only one overall grade is given in English, whereas previously one written and one oral average grade was given. The average grade for the new English course is 4.3, while the average in written English and oral English in 2020-2021 was 4.1 and 4.4 respectively.

*Because English has gone from two grades (oral and written) to one overall grade, average grades for 2020-21 are not included in this figure

On average, girls have higher grades than boys in most subjects

Among the largest subjects, it is only in physical education that boys have a higher average than girls. Boys' average is 4.8, which is 0.1 higher than girls'. There are large gender differences in Food and Health and Art and Crafts, where girls' have an average of 0.7 grade points more than boys.

 Increase in the proportion of pupils without grades in more than half of subjects

Some graduating pupils in Year 10 lack grades in more than half of subjects for various reasons. These pupils are admitted to upper secondary education on an individual basis, and not on the basis of their average grades from primary and lower secondary school. These pupils thus do not get calculated primary and lower secondary school points at admission. In 2021-2022, 4,700 pupils (7.2 per cent of pupils) did not receive calculated primary and lower secondary school points (Statistics Norway 2022). This is 1 percentage point more than in 2020-2021.

From 2014-2015 to 2016-2017, the proportion of pupils without calculated primary and lower secondary school points increased by a relatively large extent. This increase was particularly related to the European migrant crisis in 2015 and 2016 (The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training 2018). After the migrant crisis subsided, the proportion fell slightly, before rising again from 2018–2019 to 2021–2022.

44 per cent of pupils without primary and lower secondary school points have parents with a secondary level education or lower, while 36 per cent have parents with college or university level education. The proportion of pupils with parents with college or university level education has increased most since 2016-2017. Newly-arrived pupils have parents who are often registered with 'undeclared' education. Even though this group of pupils makes up 1.4 per cent of all pupils in Year 10, they make up 20 per cent of pupils without calculated primary and lower secondary school points. It is natural to see the increase from 2020-2021 to 2021-2022 in relation to the flow of refugees from Ukraine.

In the 'Spørsmål til Skole-Norge' survey in spring 2021, school leaders and school owners were asked about possible reasons for the increase in the proportion of ordinary pupils (not newly-arrived) who do not receive calculated primary and lower secondary school points. School leaders cite high levels of absence and/or challenges with mental health as reasons why pupils who do not follow adapted education do not receive calculated primary and lower secondary school points. Furthermore, a majority of schools with pupils without primary and lower secondary school points say that the number of pupils with mental health challenges has increased (Bergene et al. 2021).