The Norwegian Education Mirror 2022

Most pupils are happy at school

The majority of pupils, 86 per cent, stated in the Student Survey that they enjoy or very much enjoy being at school. 11 per cent of pupils stated that they only slightly enjoy school, and 3 per cent answered that they do not enjoy school. These results cover pupils from Year 5 to Level Vg3. Enjoyment of school is rather stable across grades, and there are small differences in enjoyment between boys and girls (Wendelborg and Utmo 2022).
Pupils' enjoyment of school has also been quite stable over time, though there has been a downward trend for Grade 7 over the past five years.

Most pupils experience belonging and friendship

A number of surveys show that most children and young people experience that they have friends with whom to spend time. In the Student Survey, 93 per cent of pupils stated that they often or always have someone to be with during breaks (The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training 2021). The Norwegian survey Ungdata shows that 9 out of 10 young people have close friends, and nearly all have friends to be with during school breaks. Nevertheless, 7 per cent state that they do not have anyone to be with in their spare time (Bakken 2022). Nearly 80 per cent of pupils say that they never or rarely feel lonely, while 6 per cent say that the often or always feel lonely (The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training 2021).

Figures from the Ungdata survey, collected in spring 2022, show basically the same: Most young people are not particularly troubled by loneliness, but 10 per cent state that they have been extremely troubled by loneliness in the last week. Nearly twice as many girls as boys experience loneliness; 13 per cent compared to 6 per cent. The number of young people who say that they are very troubled by loneliness has increased throughout the entire 2010s, after which it levelled off somewhat. Seen in light of the pandemic, and all the restrictions that led to fewer social meetings and meeting places, there have been relatively small changes in the proportion of pupils who are very troubled by loneliness (Bakken 2022). The loneliness figures have gone down a little from 2021 to 2022.

At secondary school level, 19 per cent of pupils feel that they don't fit in with the other pupils at school, and this figure has increased over the last three years, especially among girls (Bakken 2022). This trend can also be seen in the PISA survey from 2018, and is not a phenomenon unique to Norway. From 2003 to 2018, the number of pupils who do not experience a sense of belonging has gradually increased in all OECD countries (Jensen et al. 2019).

Good relationships between teachers and pupils

A good relationship between a teacher and pupils is important for pupils' learning and well-being.

Around 85 per cent of pupils report that they receive good support from their teachers. They feel that most or all teachers care about them, believe in them, treat them with respect, and give them good academic help. The proportion of pupils who say that they have this support is highest among the lower grades. As pupils get older, this proportion reduces somewhat. This proportion is lowest among pupils in Years 9 and 10, while the experience of support increases a little at Level Vg1 (Wendelborg and Utmo 2022).

Even though the majority of pupils think that teachers care about them, the Ungdata survey shows a small decrease, especially among girls, over the last three years (Bakken 2022).

Teachers largely experience having a positive relationship with their pupils. This is shown by Norwegian findings in an international survey of the everyday working life of lower secondary school teachers and school leaders. 99 per cent of the teachers that participated in the survey answered that teachers and pupils usually get along well (Carlsten et al. 2020).

Tendencies towards lower motivation and a more negative relationship with school

Even if most pupils enjoy school, some findings may indicate that the school environment has become slightly worse over time.

The Student Survey shows a decrease in pupils' experience of the learning environment in Years 5 and 7 over the last four years, a trend which thus started before the Coronavirus pandemic (Dahl 2022). Pupils in Year 7 have become less motivated, are enjoying themselves less and are also receiving less support at home (Wendelborg and Utmo 2022).

The Ungdata survey also shows that more and more pupils have a negative relationship with school. This negative trend started before the pandemic and continues after the pandemic, i.e. in spring 2022 (Bakken 2022). For example, in the 2022 Ungdata survey, 77 per cent of pupils at secondary school level say that they are bored at school, as opposed to 70 per cent in 2019. Since this trend started in around 2015, the proportion of pupils who enjoy themselves at school has decreased by 6 percentage points, while the proportion of pupils who are bored at school has increased by over 10 percentage points. Truancy has also been an increasing phenomenon in recent years, especially among girls (Bakken 2022).

A relatively large number of young people also experience school stress, and this number has increased in recent years. In the Ungdata survey 2022, over half of pupils reported that they often or very often feel stressed by school work. Stress is most highly experienced in Year 10 and Level Vg3, and higher among girls than boys. In Level Vg3, 78 per cent of girls state that they often or very often feel stressed by school work, while 45 per cent of boys say the same. In Year 10, 71 per cent of girls and 42 per cent of boys experience school stress. The number of pupils who dread going to school has also risen slightly over the last two years, especially among girls in lower secondary school (Bakken 2022).

Municipalities want more expertise on how to strengthen the school and learning environment

In the 'Spørsmål til Skole-Norge' survey in spring 2022, the majority of school leaders said that their school has the relevant expertise in what is needed to create a good learning environment (Bergene et al. 2022). School leaders also state that the employees in their schools have the relevant knowledge of regulations connected to learning environments. Both school leaders and municipalities say that they work systematically with knowledge development in the field of the learning environment to a great extent.

In the same survey, 85 per cent of municipalities say that schools do not have sufficient competence to work with mental health; so do 69 per cent of primary school leaders and 56 per cent of upper secondary school leaders. Nearly 80 per cent of municipalities say that they want more competence on how to strengthen schools' learning and general environments to promote good mental health, on how schools can prevent conditions that contribute to poor mental health in everyday school life, and on how schools can facilitate effective cross-sector cooperation. In primary and lower secondary schools, 59 per cent of school leaders and 70 per cent of school owners say that there are few resources available for the prevention of poor mental health in everyday school life.