The Norwegian Education Mirror 2022
Status of the core staff ratio and teacher-to-child ratio in kindergartens
Core staff ratios have significantly improved since the introduction of core staff ratio requirements. 99 per cent of kindergartens met the core staff ratio requirements at the end of 2021. The pupil-to-teacher ratio in kindergartens has also significantly improved; 7 in 10 kindergartens meet the teacher-to-child ratio requirements.
Nearly all kindergartens meet the core staff ratio requirements
On a national level, staff ratios have improved from 6 children per employee to 5.7 children per employee in the period 2016–2021. On average, there are 5.6 children per employee in municipal kindergartens and 5.7 children per employee in private kindergartens. For some time, municipal kindergartens have had slightly better staff ratios than private kindergartens; this difference has only evened out in recent years.
53 kindergartens do not meet core staff ratio requirements, and they do not seem to share specific characteristics related to geography, form of ownership or size. On average, kindergartens that do not meet core staff ratio requirements have 6.3 children per employee. 7 of the kindergartens have 6.5 or more children per employee, the same as in 2020.
17 kindergartens have dispensations from the core staff ratio requirements. This makes up 32 per cent of the kindergartens that do not meet the core staff ratio requirements. In total, 870 children go to kindergartens that do not meet core staff ratio requirements, which is a large reduction from 2020, when the figure was around 2,420.
In 2021, 99 per cent of kindergartens met the core staff ratio requirements. This figure has increased from 55 per cent in 2016, with a clear leap in 2019 when the core staff ratio requirements came into force.
About the core staff ratio and teacher-to-child ratio requirements
- The core staff ratio requirements state that kindergartens must have at least 1 employee for every 3 children under the age of 3, and 1 employee for every 6 children over the age of 3.
- The norm for pedagogical staffing (teacher-to-child ratio requirement) states that kindergartens must have at least 1 pedagogical leader for every 7 children under the age of 3, and 1 pedagogical leader for every 14 children over the age of 3. Pedagogical leaders must have kindergarten teacher qualifications, or another kind of three-year pedagogical qualification with further education in kindergarten pedagogy.
- The municipality can give a dispensation from the qualification requirement for up to one year at a time, so that a person who does not meet the qualification requirement can work as an educational leader.
Source: The Kindergarten Act § 26, regulations for pedagogical staff and dispensations in kindergartens §§ 1 and 2.
An increasing proportion of kindergartens meet the teacher-to-child ratio requirement
In 2021, 71 per cent of kindergartens met the teacher-to-child ratio requirement, an increase from 69 per cent in 2020. 23 per cent of kindergartens met the teacher-to-child ratio requirement with a dispensation (see the fact box), while nearly 7 per cent of kindergarten did not meet requirements.
*Teacher-to-child ratio requirements were tightened in 2018
A person can be employed as a pedagogical leader in a kindergarten without having a kindergarten teaching qualification or equivalent, as long as that person has a dispensation from the qualification requirements. Nearly 6 per cent of pedagogical leaders had a dispensation from the qualification requirements in 2021, a decrease of 0.9 percentage points from 2020.
| Dispensations | 2016 | 2017 | 2018* | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full-time equivalents pedagogical leaders with dispensations | 1 427 | 1 266 | 2 968 | 2 560 | 1 486 | 1 730 |
| Proportion of pedagogical leaders with dispensations | 5,7% | 4,9% | 10,2% | 8,7% | 6,8% | 5,9% |
*Teacher-to-child ratio requirements were tightened in 2018 Source: The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training | ||||||
On average, there are 13 children per kindergarten teacher
The number of children per kindergarten teacher went down from 13.3 to 13.1 from 2020 to 2021. There are relatively small differences between municipal and private kindergartens. On average, private kindergartens have 13.3 children per kindergarten teacher, while municipal kindergartens have 13.0. Out of the 10 biggest municipalities, Bærum has the most children per kindergarten teacher with 16, while Fredrikstad has the least, with 12.