Teachers without pedagogical education in the primary and lower secondary school 2018/19

This report presents the main results from a survey conducted in 2018 on teachers without the required pedagogical education to teach elementary and lower secondary school. The report looks at who these teachers are, where they live, how old they are, their level of education and whether they have the required amount of credits needed to teach in mathematics, Norwegian and English. The requirements are 30 credits for elementary school, and 60 credits for lower secondary school.

Even though, none of the teachers presented in this report have completed a pedagogical education, most of them have the required credits needed to teach the aforementioned three subjects. The subject where the least number of teachers have the required credits is English, while the subject with the highest amount is Norwegian. Teachers who teach mathematics and English have the highest number of teachers without the required amount of credits among those who work at small schools. For those who teach Norwegian, the highest number of teachers without the required credits, work both at the smallest and the largest schools. The number of teachers that have the required credits for teaching these subjects are slightly higher among those that teach in a lower secondary school than among those who teach in an elementary school or in a combined school.

Almost 9 out of 10 teachers without the required pedagogical education have completed a university degree. More than half of these, have started but not completed a degree within the field of education.

Two out of three teachers without the required pedagogical education in elementary and lower secondary school have a permanent position. This high percentage must be viewed in unison with the fact that the population for this report includes only teachers who work at least 50 per cent. 7 out of 10 teachers without the required pedagogical education are women. However, 75 per cent of all teachers are women. The percentage of teachers who do not have a pedagogical education is a little higher among men than women.

The highest percentage of teachers without a pedagogical education is among the youngest teachers, but this is also the age group in which the largest percentage is still attending university.

For teachers who work in 1st through 4th grade, 80 per cent have the required pedagogical education, 5 per cent have completed kindergarten-/preschool education after 2007, and an additional 8 per cent have the required education to teach grades 5 through 7, or 5 through 10. It is again, among the youngest, we find the highest percentage of teachers who do not have the required education.