Our date
12.10.2007
Your date
Our reference
07/01640-7
Our officer
Harald Skulberg
Department
Avdeling for utredning
Your reference
File code
370.1
Direct phone
24142069
Union of Education Norway
European Commission
Education and Culture
Schools for the 21th century - consultation
Union of Education Norway is the third largest trade union in Norway with 143 000 members.
The union has members working in all areas of the education system – ranging from early
childhood education and care (called barnehage in Norway), primary and secondary school
level to colleges, universities and adult education. The union has also members with special
education and administrative support functions.
The consultation document has been discussed in the central sections of Union of Education
Norway. These sections cover primary and lower secondary, upper secondary, higher
education and school leaders.
General comments
Union of Education Norway will make the following comments:
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The term “modernisation” is not clear. In our country the term is by many associated
with efficiency, structural changes and cuts of budgets. In our opinion there is a need
for modernisation in the meaning of quality development and enhancement. There is
also ambiguity with what shall be modernised.
The questions in the consultation document are important ones. The questions also
cover very wide themes. There are no fixed or easy answers. The realities are rather
complex.
To question 1: How can schools be organised in such a way as to provide all students
with the full range of key competences?
Union of Education Norway will make the following comments:
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Address
Pb. 9191 Grønland
0134 OSLO
The national states are responsible for the organisation of education and training
systems.
We share the broad concept of key competences as it is adopted in the European
Framework of Key Competences.
e-mail/Internet
Hausmanns gate 17
0182 OSLO
Telephone
[email protected]
www.utdanningsforbundet.no
Telefax
tel + 47 24 14 20 00
fax + 47 24 14 21 00
Organisation registration no.
Org.nr. 843 239 102
Bankkonto 1600 40 30714
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To question 4: How can school systems best respond to the need to promote equity, to
respond to cultural diversity and to reduce early school leaving?
Union of Education Norway will make the following comments:
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The system of education must be seen in a whole perspective. More attention must be
placed on the transition from one level to another; from early childhood education and
care to primary, from primary to lower secondary, from lower secondary to upper
secondary and from upper secondary to further studies or work. In Norway the
government has tried to link the lower secondary school with upper secondary school
by taking themes from upper secondary and teach them while students are still in the
lower secondary school.
One important task for the schooling is to develop the general abilities of the students,
such as ability to cooperate, creativity, ability to solve problems and democratic
understanding. The strong focus on learning outcome can shadow the whole
perspective to schooling.
It is important for the education system to pave the way and ensure that everyone is
included in good learning processes at an early stage. Early childhood education and
care is the key. Studies show that early language stimulation can prevent social
differences in later learning achievement in school. Research indicates that there is a
great potential for reducing differences in learning achievement by initiating measures
in early childhood, especially in the case of children with a minority background,
children with disabilities and children in danger of developing reading and writing
difficulties.
In Norway one main principle is the comprehensive, non-streamed model of schooling.
This principle is important to promote equity.
Another overriding principle in Norway is adaptive learning. One precondition for the
realisation of adaptive learning place the development and tutoring of the students at
the centre, and at the same time protect and preserve community fellowship. Another
precondition is that the framework conditions in the form of pedagogic resources, time,
managerial and administrative resources, expertise and supporting apparatus is
strengthened. We wish to see that the teaching profession shall have a high level of
competence in adaptive learning, that the teaching profession shall be a driving force in
creating common understanding for the need for adaptive learning, that the individual
teacher has broad freedom in the choice of method of work. Also important is that the
management, owners and governing authorities accept overall authority for providing
the proper conditions to enable us to achieve the objectives stipulated for adaptive
learning and that research and development on adaptive learning is carried out on the
basis of social ideals.
Classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse with a lot of students of different
cultural and religious backgrounds. Teachers are expected to work for social cohesion
and integration. This can be a big challenge for teachers. The governments must be
more supportive to teachers, and also it is important that teachers are not the only ones
responsible for this task.
Development over the last years in Norway shows an increasing drop-out rate and poor
progress and continuity of study in upper secondary education and training. The
question of drop-outs in upper secondary education is a big and complex problem and
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that must be reflected in the actions. Close follow-up of the individual student is the
most important single factor.
The needs of the children with disabilities and student with reading and writing
difficulties are not paid special attention to in the document.
The role of the parents and the cooperation between the school and the homes are
missing in the document.
Schools have a role to counterbalance undesirable tendencies in society.
To question 7: How can school staff be trained and supported to meet the challenges they
face?
Union of Education Norway will make the following points:
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A system of initial, induction and in-service teacher education should be fully adopted
as established policy. Because of the nature of their work, teachers more than any
groups, should be lifelong learners. Professional development for teachers must be
integrated throughout their career. Investment in good quality induction and in-service
training is crucial for teachers in a lifelong context.
There is a need for overt partnerships between schools and teacher training institutions.
There is also a need for much closer collaboration between teachers in their classrooms
and university researchers. The evaluation of general teacher education in Norway
showed that only to some extent are educational research included and used in the
teacher education programmes.
Admission qualifications for general teacher education was introduced by the
government in Norway from the 2005/06 year of study. Our union supports this policy,
which main goal is to increase quality. Union of Education Norway have developed
and approved on its own policy for recruitment to teacher education. Main goals are
among others to increase the status of the teaching profession in Norway and to work
on improved quality in teacher education.
In principle in Norway, the employers are obliged to give the teachers the in-service
training that are necessary for them to do their job properly. Likewhise and as part of
the conditions of employment, teachers in principle are bound to participate in inservice or post-graduate training when needed. However, there are no national
agreements or systematic arrangements integrated in the conditions of employment that
guarantee a teacher to have in-service or post-graduate training for a considerable
period of time. In stead, this is often a matter of resources and therefore conditions for
in-service or post-graduate training may vary according to available resources on local
and regional level.
National governments need to ensure that teacher salaries and conditions of work are
maintained at a level which makes the occupation of teaching attractive and enables the
teacher to operate at a high quality level with all of their pupils.
Many teachers and school leaders testify to the increased amount of bureaucratisation
and record-keeping which is now required. There is a need to analyse and to start a debureaucratisation.
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Policies of lifelong learning and education reforms need to locate the teacher
strategically within the reform developments. Consultation and dialogue with teachers
unions and supportive action to teachers are essential.
An important strategy towards retaining teachers in the workforce is to secure working
conditions that prevent for instance burn-out syndromes or early retirement.
To question 8: How can school communities best receive the leadership and motivation
they need to succeed? How can they be empowered to develop in response to changing
needs and demands?
Union of Education Norway will make the following points:
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School principals and other school leaders are often perceived as critical for the
success or failure of a school.
There is a need to provide school leaders with significantly improved training and
upgraded support services than they received in the past.
Principals need additional administrative support to gain more time for important tasks
related to educational leadership.
The work of school leaders is dependent on good relations to authorities and actors
outside the school, such as the police and the health service.
In Norway we have a debate about school as learning organizations and leadership.
How are the connections between high quality in the education system and the
competences and qualifications needed in school leadership? Norway took part in the
OECD-project “Improving School Leadership”. The follow-up of the project will help
to clarify if there is a need for a formal leadership education, and what kind of content
is needed in such a education. There is no doubt that we need more research of school
leadership. School leadership is an important development area and we need a new
policy for recruitment.
Yours sincerely,
Union of Education Norway
Harald Skulberg
Expert on documentation