Training

Compulsory education in Norway is compulsory and runs for ten years. It covers all children aged 6-16.

The Norwegian education system is similar to Swedish. In Norway there are preschool, elementary school (classes 1-7), secondary school (classes 8-10), secondary school (classes 11-13) and higher education (2-4 years for basic education).

The first three levels are run by the municipal authorities. The upper secondary school is run by administrative units that correspond to Sweden’s regions and county councils. At these levels there are also private schools. 1.5 percent of pupils in elementary school and secondary school attend private schools. The corresponding figure for students in secondary school, which corresponds roughly to the Swedish high school, is 4 percent. Higher education is primarily a government task, but there are also private units that provide higher vocational education. There are also private schools in secondary vocational education. Some vocational programs include two years of theoretical studies and two years of internship.

From the eighth grade, students can choose any subject. The upper secondary level comprises three programs: general high school (3 years), vocational education (2–4 years) and sports, art and music schools covering a varying number of years (2–4 years). The general upper secondary education is 3 years, while the vocational courses are 2 or 3 years. One of the years in vocational schools is devoted to practice. There are nine professional lines. In general, general upper secondary education gives admission to higher education. There is also another opportunity to enter higher education and it is that you are 23 years old, have five years of professional experience (or mixed professional experience and studies) and have completed high school diploma in the five most important subjects.

As Norway is not part of the EU, Norway is not bound to follow the Bologna process but has nevertheless chosen to do so. Higher education thus encompasses the same levels as in other European member states: basic education (3 years), master’s degree (2 years) and postgraduate education (3 years). More than 272,000 people study at a university or university. Just over 40 percent are men and about 60 percent women, which is a comparatively high proportion of women. More women than men take a master’s or doctoral degree. Male students tend to go on 2-year vocational college courses.

There are some 70 public and private higher education institutions. The country has seven universities. 10 percent of all students in higher education study at private units, predominantly in vocational education.

Adult education is primarily intended for older individuals who have not completed upper secondary or vocational education.

In July 2015, the National Institution of Human Rights was established with direct reference to Parliament. It had been part of the National Center for Human Rights since 2002 at the Faculty of Law in Oslo.

During 2015, Norway received 31,145 asylum seekers. A triple compared to the previous year. The vast majority of them were Syrians fleeing the West and Gulf States in Syria. Human rights organizations criticized sharply when the government changed the asylum law in November, so that asylum seekers who entered Norway from Russia were automatically barred from seeking asylum and thus automatically expelled.

While Denmark in 2015 removed the incentives to buy electric cars rather than petrol-driven cars (with the result that electric car sales at the end of the year had fallen to almost 0), the incentives remained strong in Norway. So strong that Dagens Næringsliv in July 2016 estimated that already 2025 Norway could become the first country in the world to completely ban petrol and diesel-powered cars. In June 2017, 42% of all newly registered cars were electric. Please see COUNTRYAAH for list of countries that start with N.

In April 2016, the government made 40 proposals to amend the refugee legislation. The proposals came from the country’s right-wing xenophobic minister, Siv Jensen, and aimed to ensure that Norway had “Europe’s most restrictive refugee policy”. The proposals included, among other things, that in the future it would be the arbitrary passport officer at the border that would determine whether a person needed international protection – in line with the Refugee Convention. The proposals contained drastic restrictions on the right to family reunification – contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights – and drastic restrictions on the rights of asylum-seeking minors – contrary to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The worst austerity measures were not adopted when the rest of the package was adopted in June, but the other restrictions were implemented from August. Refugees who wanted a permanent state of residence should in future be able to prove that they had been financially self-sufficient for 12 months. At the same time, a “crisis mechanism” was introduced which would allow arbitrary rejection of asylum seekers at the border if many suddenly arrived at the same time. There was a serious setback to the image of Norway as a human state.

In early December, 40 young Afghans were forcibly returned to Afghanistan, despite saying they were under 18 and not having their age tested. The return was in violation of both the Refugee Convention and the Children’s Convention.

Prime Minister Erna Solberg changed his Facabook profile in September when Facebook removed an iconic image of naked 9-year-old Vietnamese girl Kim Phúc, who ran away from a North American Naples attack in 1972. The prime minister posted the image in protest of first author Tom Egeland and since Aftenposten had the same photo removed from Facebook. Egeland had originally posted the picture as one of seven to illustrate photos that had changed the “history of the war”. But Facebook is an honorable media that probably allows Nazi and IS propaganda, but not nudity. Among other things. Peter Øvig Knudsen had previously removed photos of dancing naked women. Following major international scandal surrounding Facebook’s censorshipthe media giant now crawled to the cross and allowed the image of the nine-year-old victim of the United States napalm. There was only one exception to its otherwise censored censorship policy. (Facebook shared Norwegian PM’s post as ‘napalm girl’ row escalates, Guardian 9/9 2016).

Pr. On January 1, 2017, the Norwegian People’s Church and State were separated. Denmark was then the only Nordic country with a state church. In 2016, 55.3% of all newborn children in Norway were baptized and about 60% were baptized later.

In March 2017, the Government Pension Fund had a value of DKK 913 billion. US $ corresponding to US $ 182,000 per Norwegians or 178% of GDP.

Norwegian LO adopted at its congress in May with 193 votes in favor and 117 against voting for an international economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel. The backdrop was Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians, the settlement policy on the occupied West Bank and the Israeli state’s opposition to a peace settlement. (LO will boycott Israel, VG 12/5 2017). Israel responded again by calling for a boycott of Norwegian LO. In February 2018, Norwegian LO made a delegation trip to Israel and Palestine, where delegates should have visited Israeli and Palestinian comrades, but one of the delegates, Mohammed Malik, was retained for 12 hours, twice forced to undress completely, after which the Israeli authorities put him on a plane out of the country. Malik was a member of LO’s international committee and the Norwegian Food and Nutrition Workers’ Union. Israel’s treatment of the LO member sharpened the country’s rhetoric against Israel’s occupation policy.

The September 2017 parliamentary elections saw a decline for all 3 major parties: the Labor Party went back 6 seats to 49; the Conservatives went back 3 seats to 49; The Progress Party went back 2 mandates to 27. The major victor of the election was the Center Party which went 9 mandates until 19. Socialist Left Party went 4 mandates up to 11, and Red entered the Storting with a single mandate. For the Labor Party, the election was a disaster and the outcome unexpected. In 2015, the polls showed that the party had support from over 40% of the electorate, but at the election it only got 27%. A significant part of the cause was attributed to party leader Jonas Gahr Støre, who had been involved in a case of undeclared work and questionable investments. Despite the President’s questionable financial dispositions, he survived the subsequent Congress in the party.

Despite the decline, Conservative Erna Solberg again formed government consisting of the Conservatives, the Progressive Party and the Liberals. The Christian Democrats had also participated in the process, but withdrew when it became clear that Solberg wanted the Progress Party too.

During the election campaign there was a diplomatic crisis in relation to Sweden, when the Minister of xenophobia, Siv Jensen traveled to Sweden with a number of Norwegian journalists to show how wrong the handling of refugees and integration could go. The Swedish government protested to the Norwegian that one of its ministers had traveled to Sweden for the purpose of swine it.