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The Norwegian Union of Education responds to the suggestions from Østberg Committee on language assessment.
morsmal.org sent a statement to some newspapers and organizations in Norway and invited to a debate on the conclusions of Østberg Committee. The press release emphasized that the proposals from the committee will affect all language minorities in Norway from kindergarten to high school. The number of language minority pupils is about. 8% of the total number of pupils in Norway.
We received a reply from the Union of Education where they agree with us and promised to help with spreading the debate on the conclusions of the committee.
Vice chairman of the Union of Education Haldis Holst was the first to comment on the conclusions and pointed out that she agreed with Østberg Committee that "you can not throw minority pupils without good enough competence in Norwegian language into mainstream education". But at the same time, she reacted against the proposal to implement individual measurements in kindergartens for language minority children.
"I disagree with the committee when you write that it is interesting to use the skills objectives in basic Norwegian upon the transit from kindergartens to schools. Such competence objectives are not relevant for children in kindergartens. Kindergarten is not school, and there will be no individual evaluations in kindergarten," said Holst.
Holst refers to the report "From oldest to youngest - cooperation and coherence between the kindergartens and schools" from the Ministry of Education, where it says:
"It may be difficult to pass depleted checklists and evaluation tools of individual children's level of achievement in various areas. It is best if the kindergarten, in cooperation with the parents, inform on the child's strengths and the overall functioning to the school and that the school is provided comprehensive information about what the kindergarten as a whole worked with so far".
Morsmal.org have previously written about the current assessments, or better described as "diagnosis" in kindergartens in Norway. It was mentioned that due to lack of expertise in kindergartens that many of language minority children are diagnosed and "made sick", a matter which creates more problems for these children. Equality and Discrimination Ombudsman agreed with us on this. We have also responded to some subjective assessment of Web-based educational materials with regard to the disqualification issue involving representatives from KIM.
In the case of newly arrived immigrants, Holst added that they should not be placed in mainstream classes from day one and that a special introductory offer with the active use of native language teachers are needed here for better results and inclusion. "It is very important that Østberg Committee comes with good recommendations with regards to that," said Holst.
The Education Union also agrees that the rights to an education for children of asylum seekers and minor asylum seekers must be improved.
Østberg-committee was appointed in October 2008, and chaired by Sissel Østberg, rector and professor at Oslo University College. Agneta Bolinder from the Union of Education sits on the committee. The committee was mandated to undertake a comprehensive review of the education for language minority children, adolescents and adults, and to propose changes and measures that can improve the learning environment and learning outcomes for minority language at all levels.
Multilingualism a resource Holst referred to the conclusion from the committee that multilingualism should be seen as a resource for both the individual and for society.
"There is no doubt that a good and relevant expertise is needed everywhere in education to ensure a good and stable offers for all, without the large variations between the municipalities," concluded Haldis Holst.
The deadline to provide input and comments directly to Østberg committee's secretariat is 1st March: ostbergutvalget@kd.dep.no
