Fewer people want to become teachers

teachersTeachers.Photo pixabay.com

The new requirements for student teachers may have frightened several young people from applying. This year the number of people applying for the largest teacher education program, elementary school teacher 1st to 7th grade, decreased by 11 percent.

In 2016   this study was the first choice of 2,377 applicants. That’s a decline of 295 applicants from last year,  Aftenposten writes.
Stricter admission requirements have been mentioned as a likely cause for the decline. This year,  a requirement for at least the grade of 4 in mathematics, was introduced, and this may have scared many students away from applying.
– Absolutely. If you haven’t got the grade of 4 in math, there is no point in applying, student teachers Cecilie Kristoffersen and Rikke Borg Damsgaard say.

The Ministry of Culture believes the decline in the number of applicants is only temporary, and will increase again and points out that the same thing happened when the requirement of a grade of 3 in mathematics and Norwegian was introduced a few years ago

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today