Teacher competence in the primary and lower secondary school

This report presents the results of a survey conducted in 2018 on teachers’ formal qualification in the subjects they teach, in primary and lower secondary school. The report also includes continuing education among those who are teaching mathematics, Norwegian and English. Anyone with a teaching qualification can teach in primary and lower secondary school. In addition, teachers must have specialized in and achieved 30 credits in the subjects mathematics, Norwegian and English. Teachers at lower secondary level must have achieved 60 credits in the same subjects.

Nine out of ten teachers are employed in permanent positions. However, our sample only includes those who are registered in at least a 50 per cent teaching post. Three out of four primary school teachers are women. There are not major differences in the formal qualifications between men and women who are teaching Mathematics, Norwegian and English. However, in several other subjects, there is a higher proportion om male than female teachers that have formal qualification in the subject they teach.

The proportion of teachers who fulfill the requirements for formal qualifications varies from subject to subjects. Nevertheless, many of the school teachers in primary and lower secondary school have formal qualifications in the subject they teach. In general, the proportion of teachers with formal qualification is higher at lower secondary level than at primary school.

Within the primary subjects there is a huge lack of teachers with formal qualifications among those who teach English. This applies to all school levels, but we find that 64 per cent of English teachers at primary school lack formal qualification in the subject.

At both school levels, a high proportion of teachers in Norwegian have formal qualification compared to teachers in other subjects. On the other hand, the subject food and health have the largest proportion of teachers without formal qualifications.

One out of three teachers with up to four years of seniority has either another or no pedagogical education. Almost half of the mathematics teachers with more than 19 years of seniority, lacs adequate formal qualifications in the subject. Nevertheless, three out of ten mathematics teachers with more than 19 years of seniority have taken continuing education in the subject.

In the past few years, great emphasis has been placed on the science subjects. Without directly comparing this survey to the previous ones, we nevertheless see that the proportion of teachers with credits in mathematics has increased. Among the mathematics teachers, 85 per cent have credits in the subject in 2018/2019, while the corresponding proportion was 81 per cent in the survey conducted in 2013/2014.

Continuing education appears to be more popular among mathematics teachers than Norwegian and English teachers. However, it is a higher proportion of the English teachers that lack formal qualifications in the subject. Two out of ten English teachers who lack formal competence or continuing education in the subject state that they plan to take continuing education in the future, while as many states that they teach the subject temporarily.