Record number of teachers seek further education, but still not enough

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The Minister of Education, Jan Tore Sanner of Høyre (H), is pleased that more than 11,000 teachers have applied for further education in 2019. There are still many who don’t meet the requirements.

When the deadline for applying for further education expired on March 1, a new record was set with over 11,000 applications. Now it remains to be seen whether the school owners approve the applications of their teachers, which they must consider by
March 15.

The number of teachers seeking further education this year has increased by more than 1,100 from 2018 according to a press release from the Ministry of Education and Research.

‘’I hope that municipalities, county municipalities and owners of private schools approve as many applications as possible within the deadline, so that teachers who need academic qualifications will receive them’’ said Jan Tore Sanner.

More needed

According to Sanner, teachers who have taken further education say that their students are learning more and that they themselves have become more engaged and better at teaching.

There are still 25,000 teachers in Norwegian schools who do not meet the competence requirement in mathematics, Norwegian and English. The school owners are responsible for ensuring that teachers reach the competence requirements for the subjects they teach by 2025. This year, about NOK 1.6 billion has been set aside for further education.

Over 800 teachers, almost three times as many as last year, have applied for further education in programms this year.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today