70% of Oslo schools have employed too few teachers

Teacher Norm OsloTeachers wanted. Photo: Pixabay

94 out of 138 Oslo schools have not employed enough teachers to meet the Teaching Standards requirement.

Last autumn, parliament introduced Teaching Standards,which means that there should be a maximum of 16 pupils per teacher in the 1st to 4th grade, while in the 5th to 7th grade and in secondary schools there should be a maximum of 21 students per teacher. In Bergen, Kristiansand and Trondheim they are oln target, but in Oslo they are lagging far behind wrote Aftenposten newspaper.

Of a total of 138 public primary and secondary schools in Oslo, only 44 fulfilled the norm when the status was made on October 1st last year.

“We got about NOK 400,000 last year to hire, but the money only contributes to keeping the teachers we already have” said Vice-Chancellor, Tore Haugen, referring to a budget cut the city council imposed on the schools the year before.

Haugen said they can only afford to have one teacher per class in all hours. He said they obviously fail according to the law on teaching.

City council for information and knowledge, Inga Marte Thorkildsen of Sosialistisk Venstreparti (SV), believes that all schools have not had enough extra funds. She thinks the government is running from the bill.

‘’Parliament have decided that the teacher norm will not affect the municipalities’ finances, but Oslo was underfunded in 2018, and it is still unclear what will happen in the future’’ she said.