Immigrant children are doing better in Norwegian reading

Kids reading

Children who have immigrated to Norway do worse than other children in national reading tests, but the standard has risen.

 

Children who have immigrated to Norway are the group who get the worst results in national reading tests. But there has been an improvement. In 2016, 43% were at the lowest level, yet by 2017, that figure had dropped to 39%, show figures from Statistics Norway (SSB).

All fifth formers are better at reading. For Norwegians born to immigrant parents, the percentage at the lowest level was reduced from 36 to 33%, while for the other pupils, the lowest-level had fallen from 23 to 22%.

In English, the differences are small between these groups. In total, the figures were virtually unchanged from 2016. 37% of immigrant children were at the lowest level in the fifth grade, for the other students, the figure was at 21%.

This is the 10th year of national trials, and in all of these, Oslo was the county that had the largest percentage of students at the highest level of mastery, both in Norwegian reading, and English in the 5th, and 8th grades.

According to Statistics Norway, the parents’ education level is an important factor. Children of parents with higher education scored, on average, higher on national tests than other students. On a national basis, 60% of those who took the exam had parents with higher education, but in Oslo the figure was 68%.

For pupils with parents who have upper secondary or elementary education, Oslo students did not differ as much, and several counties had results above, or in line with Oslo.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today