The Norwegian Education Mirror 2022

In the 2021-2022 school year, more than 70,000 teachers worked in primary and lower secondary schools. Furthermore, there were also 22,000 assistants, 1,500 school counsellors and 1,200 education and vocational advisers with pupil-oriented work. School counsellors and education and vocational advisers have defined areas of responsibility, they must help pupils with personal and social problems, and to make well-founded educational or vocational choices. Assistants, on the other hand, are a more diverse group with more varied work tasks. Many assistants have tasks related to supporting pupils receiving special education support.

Improved pupil-to-teacher ratios following the introduction of the statutory requirement

In Years 1-4, 90 per cent of public primary and lower secondary school fulfilled the statutory pupil-to-teacher ratio, with 96 per cent of schools at Years 5-7, and 92 per cent of schools at Years 8-10 also fulfilling the requirement. In total there are 15.5 pupils per teacher in Years 1-10, which is a decrease from 16.6 five years ago.

We mainly see a decrease in the number of pupils per teacher in Years 1-4. At upper primary level and secondary school level, this decrease is smaller. In Years 1-4, the pupil-to-teacher ratio was 13.6 in 2021-2022, while it was 16.2 in 2014-2015.

In the 2021-2022 school year, 86 per cent of pupils in Years 1-4 went to a school which had 15 or fewer pupils per teacher. This figure was 35 per cent in 2017-2018.

More common to choose a two-teacher arrangement than to create multiple classes

NIFU has evaluated the statutory pupil-to-teacher ratio in the period 2019-2022 on behalf of the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training. This evaluation will provide increased knowledge of how pupil-to-teacher ratio requirements and required qualifications are followed, and how municipalities and schools manage resources in light of the requirement.

The evaluation shows that extra teachers are mainly used to strengthen existing groups and to strengthen the basic subjects (Sandsør et al. 2020). Many state that they provide intensive training in Years 1–4, and that they reduce group sizes in certain subjects. This is probably connected to the Norwegian Parliament's 2018 decision on intensive education for pupils in years 1–4. Extra teachers are rarely used to establish new classes or groups. A lack of space on school premises can also explain why schools do not establish new classes (Sandsør et al. 2020).

The requirement has not meant that other professional groups in the school are given lower priority

NIFU also found that the statutory pupil-to-teach ratio requirement has not affected the use of assistants, special education support and special language lessons. Special education support and special language lessons have been used just as much as before the requirement was introduced, and the use of assistants has continued to rise (Pedersen et al. 2022). They also found that the proportion of teachers without formal qualifications has not increased after the introduction of the statutory pupil-to-teacher ratio requirement.

A majority of school leaders and school owners state that the requirement has worked to some or a large extent. They elaborate that the requirement gives more time to each pupil, but they also believe that it reduces the scope of action of schools (Sandsør et al. 2020). Many school owners and school leaders that the requirement reduces the scope to adapt to pupils' needs and to prioritise other professional groups. At the same time, school leaders found that improved pupil-to-teacher ratios gave more flexibility in the 'red level' during the pandemic (Pedersen et al. 2021).

The requirement particularly affects schools in Østlandet and in the big cities

Before the introduction of the statutory pupil-to-teacher ratio, it was large schools with many pupils in particular that did not meet this requirement. These schools were mainly in highly populated municipalities in Østlandet, and in large cities like Bergen, Trondheim and Stavanger. Small schools, with under 100 pupils, mostly had pupil-to-teacher ratios that were already better than the statutory requirement. The statutory pupil-to-teacher ratio has therefore affected big schools the most (Pedersen et al. 2022).

Large schools in more vulnerable neighbourhoods are often allocated extra teaching resources based on a model that takes socio-economic conditions into account. Schools with many pupils of low socio-economic status have thus had pupil-to-teacher ratios within, or close to, that stipulated by the statutory requirements even prior to its introduction. However, funds to support the statutory pupil-to-teacher ratio requirement are allocated to a greater extent based on how many extra full-time equivalents would be needed to meet the requirement. The result is that it is often schools in areas with a low proportion of minority speakers and a high proportion of highly educated parents who are affected by the requirement. These schools have pupils who initially achieved relatively good school results (Pedersen et al. 2022).