Norwegian 10th graders are doing increasingly well at school, in everything except the core subjects of mathematics, English and Norwegian.
A review of exam and final grades was made by the newspaper Dagsavisen for 10th graders in the years 2009 to 2016. It shows that they increasingly improved grades in subjects like German, social studies, science, Christian and religious studies and food and health.
Pupils get good grades, especially in the new elective subjects, and most leave school scoring 4 or better.
But the development is not as positive when it comes to core subjects. In mathematics, the overall marks have remained at a standstill since 2009.
Almost every fourth student received 1 or 2 as a final grade, while 27% got their worst exam grade.
Nor have grades improved in Norwegian. There has been a slight decline in ‘Nynorsk’ and a very small increase in the primary language, ‘Bokmål’.
In English, there has been a slight improvement in overall achievement grades, but exam results are slightly worse.
On Tuesday, the results of the ‘Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study’ (TIMSS) will arrive, where Norwegian students are measured against those of 60 other countries. Kjersti Waeger at the National Centre for Mathematics Education at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) fears bad news
‘Previous TIMSS showed that Norway didn’t perform so well, and that we do especially poorly in algebra. I hope we have improved, but we await results. Norwegian students are not good enough in mathematics’, said Waeger.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
