The Norwegian Education Mirror 2022

Average grades are still high compared to before the Coronavirus pandemic

Average grades in the individual common core subjects have gradually increased over the past ten years, but in the 2019–2020 school year, average grades went up in all of the common core subjects. The increase was connected to assessment practices being changed as a result of cancelled exams, and a change in everyday school life during the Coronavirus pandemic. The average grades for the 2021-2022 school year are still higher than they were before the pandemic. Within general study programmes, the average grades in the biggest common core subjects and programme subjects are on a level with 2020-2021. In the subjects where grades have changed, there is still a tendency for grades to drop slightly.

Girls have higher average than boys in nine out of ten of the biggest common core subjects This difference varies between 0.2 to 0.5 grade points, depending on the subject. Boys only had the highest average in physical education in Level Vg3.

3 per cent lack basis for assessment in one or more subjects

Just under 5,000 pupils were registered as having 'no basis for assessment' ("ikke vurderingsgrunnlag" or "IV" in Norwegian) in at least one subject in 2021-2022. This is around the same number of pupils as last year. 70 per cent of them were marked as IV because they lacked grounds for being assessed. Before the pandemic, half of these pupils were marked as IV because they lacked grounds for being assessed. There can be many reasons as to why a pupil has no basis for assessment, e.g. a pupil has not participated in a sufficient number of exams.

The remaining 30 per cent were marked as IV due to high absences. Normally, the rules state that pupils with more than 10 per cent undocumented absence in a subject – the so-called limitation of absences – do not receive average grades and are thus marked as IV. The government introduced a temporary exception for recording absences in the last three school years for pupils in both Year 10 and in upper secondary schools. For the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years, absences for health reasons should not be entered on diplomas or vocational training certificates as long as the pupil has submitted confirmation of the absence. Documented, health-related absences are also exempt from the limitation of absences.

The proportion of pupils who are left without a basis for assessment is quite stable, but fewer are marked as IV due to the limitation of absences. Pupils who would have normally been marked as IV due to the limitation of absences have instead been marked as IV due to a lack of basis for assessment in recent years.

More than 90 per cent of candidates passed qualifying examinations

A total of 31,400 professional and apprenticeship examinations were taken in 2020–2021, and 94 per cent of the tests were passed, either with the grade "passed" or with "passed with merit".

The highest proportion of passed exams are within Technological and Industrial Production, where 96 per cent of candidates passed. In Design and Crafts, 90 per cent of candidates achieved vocational or craft certificates.

The proportion of those who achieve vocational or craft certificates varies between counties, from 97 per cent in Innlandet to 90 per cent in Oslo. Nordland was the county where most people got top grades; 41 per cent achieved "passed with merit". In comparison, 23 per cent achieved "passed with merit" in Oslo. Each county has its own examination board which assesses everyone who is to sit a practical qualifying examination. Examination board members are appointed by the county municipality for a during of four years.

Of those who achieved vocational or craft certificates, 62 per cent were apprentices and 33 per cent were experience-based candidates. Only 4 per cent of those who achieved vocational or craft certificates were pupils who had taken vocational training in school. Moreover, just over 1 per cent of vocational or craft certificates were achieved by candidates through the vocational certificates at work scheme.