Equal Education in Practice!

1. Equal Education in Practice!

2. Aims for this introduction: • Background information on immigrant children in Norway, integration and learning outcome • Language support policies and curriculum development for immigrant children

3. Increased cultural diversity • Linguistic and cultural diversity is increasing • Linguistic minority children provide vital resources • The education system should take care of this diversity • Kindergartens, schools and other educational institutions are vital in the work of securing inclusion and participation by linguistic minorities • Immigrants in all 434 municipalities

4. Immigrant children: Pre-school • An increased participation of immigrant children in kindergarten • Since year 2000 the number has doubled • Lower proportion of immigrant children in kindergartens compared to the majority population • Kindergarten has proved to be crucial as Norwegian language stimulation

5. Language in school • 120 different languages represented in primary and lower secondary school • 40 000 pupils receive special teaching in Norwegian • 22 100 pupils receive mother thong teaching and/or bilingual subject teaching

6. Learning outcome • First generation immigrant pupils have lower score than second generation and majority pupils (national tests 2007) • The last PISA results confirm this; pupils with immigrant background perform significantly lower than majority pupils • However, minority pupils spend more time on homework and are more motivated for learning than majority pupils

7. Equal Education in Practice!2007-2009 • The strategy has been effective since 2004 • Revised version 2007 • Also published in English

8. Strategic plan: Goals for linguistic minorities • Improve language skills among pre-school children • Improve the school performance in primary and secondary education and training • Increase the proportion who commence and complete upper secondary education and training • Increase the proportion students in higher education and improve opportunities for completing education • Improve Norwegian language proficiency among adults to increase opportunities for education and active participation in work and society

9. 38 concrete measures • Language training • Early efforts in kindergarten, maternal and child health centre and primary school • Improve the training in Norwegian

10. Language support policies and curriculum development for immigrant children Old curriculum did not work according to intentions -no platform for transition to ordinary curriculum in Norwegian -many students continued special teaching throughout school attendance -lack of competence among teachers -no standardized assessment procedures to clarify the pupils’ level of knowledge

11. New curricula in basic Norwegian for linguistic minorities and in native languagesbased on levels • A new curriculum for basic Norwegian for linguistic minorities has replaced the curriculum in Norwegian as a second language • A new curriculum in native languages • Level based subject curriculum in basic Norwegian and native languages are based on the European Framework for Foreign Languages • No grade assessment • Goal: As soon as possible learn sufficient Norwegian to follow ordinary curricula

12. New curricula cont. • A standardised assessment tool • Guidance material for teachers in basic Norwegian • Post-qualifying courses developed for teachers in basic Norwegian • The implementation of the new curricula will be evaluated over a period of 3 years • Guidance material for teachers in native languages will be introduced

13. New curricula cont. • However, still some issues to be solved: - lack of grade assessment is a problem for pupils who arrive to Norway as youths - Adults who attend primary /secondary education on a short period of time Strengthening rights -Introduced the right to Special language education in upper secondary school -Proposed bill: compulsory language assessment of children with low Norwegian skills -Will propose a bill: right to until to years extra in upper - secondary education for pupils with low Norwegian skills

14. The idea of inclusion • Universal rights and measures /see cultural diversity as part of the ordinary • In combination with targeted measures • Everyone attend public school • Diversity as a resource • Intensify the work to improve the quality of education • Increased emphasis on basic skills • White Paper: Quality in Education • White Paper: Language Build Bridges • Committee for equal education for linguistic minorities in kindergarten, school and higher education

15. Concluding remarks: • New policy, legislation and measures are being implemented • Research is being done to learn from new measures • Too early to conclude on the results • The issue of learning outcome and inclusion has a high priority for the Norwegian government