Opening speech at the informal meeting of OECD Ministers of Education

Opening speech at the informal meeting of OECD Ministers of Education in Oslo 9. june 2009. The opening speech was held by The Norwegian Minister of Education Bård Vegar Solhjell. The meeting in Oslo is convened in order to discuss at ministerial level the results of the work of the OECD on equity in education.

Your Excellencies, Ministers, Ladies and Gentlemen

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to Norway and to this informal ministerial meeting on Equity in Education. I look forward to two days when we can discuss the topic and share experiences as ministers of education within the whole OECD area.

Equity in education has high priority in Norway. My government has introduced many measures to improve equity and quality at all levels of education, but we still have challenges. This occasion will be a possibility to deepen our knowledge and learn from each other.  I am most grateful that many of you have committed yourselves to give input to our discussions and to the OECD for making preparatory material and cooperate with the ministry on preparing this meeting. 

The OECD report No More Failures: Ten Steps to Equity in Education underlines early childhood education and care as one of the most important steps to give priority to. I consider high quality early childhood education and care as extremely important for all children, and especially for children at risk.

Early intervention is a key concept in order to make children succeed with their education. In this context one of my country’s most important means is to ensure every child a legal right to a place in a high quality kindergarten, that combines play and learning for children aged 1-5. A recent study shows there are large positive and long term effects of having attended kindergarten, both concerning level of education and on labor market participation. School drop-out was reduced, while possibilities for taking university degrees increased.

In Norway we have an inclusive approach, aiming at giving children with special needs the support they need within the mainstream education system. In 2004 the Norwegian Parliament stated that there should be full kindergarten coverage with low parental fees, and of course high quality. Early childhood education and care is one of the main priorities of this government.

I am proud to say that we have increased the state grants with more than a hundred per cent, parental fees are lowered, and this year all children from the age of one have a legal right to attend kindergarten, if they so wish.

For us time has come to turn from quantity to quality in early childhood education and care. Eleven days ago our government presented a White Paper to Parliament on this issue. The three main goals are to:

• Ensure high quality and equity in all kindergartens
• Strengthen the kindergarten as a learning arena
• Give all children the right to participate in an inclusive companionship

 Dear Colleagues, friends 

We know that education, knowledge and skills contribute to inclusion at the workplace, to an improved quality of life and better health for the individual.

In the past we have tended to look at pupils with learning difficulties as the problem. Today we have realized that we should maybe focus on the schools and the way we teach as possible solutions. In order to take equity in education seriously, we have to emphasize quality, relevance and adaptability in our schools. . It is also important to offer more practical training schemes for all students.

Here I want to tell you the story of Stephanie, a girl in secondary school I met a while ago. Stephanie was ready to drop out, as teaching and curriculum did not meet her needs. She became disinterested, and consequently failed her tests. The core of Stephanie’s problem, I believe, was that theories about how things work did not catch her interest – she was a hands-on kind of person. Stephanie did not learn by reading, she was learning by doing.

Luckily the school was able to offer her a practical training scheme, and for the first time Stephanie felt she was successful at school. The feeling of mastering motivated her to make a real effort to learn, and she has graduated with a diploma.

It is a goal for the Norwegian government to offer a more practical education for all students. This is vital in order to make the students feel what they do is of relevance in regard to their interests and future plans, and thereby enhancing their motivation.

We always have to cater for the children with special needs, but we should also remember the ones who are especially gifted, like

Magnus Carlsen, a wunderkind of chess. In 2004 he became the youngest Grandmaster ever, only 13 years old. Today, aged 18, he is ranked as the third best chess player in the world.

Magnus was as a 12 year old given a year off from elementary school in order to participate in international chess tournaments, and was coached at a Norwegian high school for athletes at a very young age. The exceptional talent of Magnus clearly needed an exceptional education, and I am happy to state that it has been possible to find a good solution also for his special needs.

A few months ago I had the pleasure of meeting Magnus in my office at the Ministry. It was interesting to learn about his experiences from our education system, and it was a special privilege for me to play a game of chess with him. I must admit the game did not last very long; I do not need to tell you the result, do I? However, I was comforted when Magnus said he could notice I had been playing before. Meeting a Grandmaster is inspiring, even if it not possible for a Minister to match his talent.

Schools clearly fail to interest if it is perceived as irrelevant to the individual or at the labor market, and it is costly for all parties involved if graduates are not able to find suitable jobs. Close consultations between education authorities and social partners is one important instrument for ensuring a good transitions from education to work.

One of the main goals for governments and policymakers in the Western world is to motivate and encourage young people to successfully complete their education. We know that the labour market in the future will demand even more specialized knowledge and skills than today’s labour market.

We need to discuss the right measures to stimulate, motivate and encourage our pupils through primary and secondary school. Many of us remember from our own school days a special teacher, someone we still admire, someone who perhaps became decisive for our later choices and career.

For me it was my teacher in the Norwegian language at upper secondary school, Mr Nils Fleten. He took special care of me, and encouraged me to develop my abilities. Nils Fleten made me feel special and talented; he gave me self confidence and an interest in learning.

The funny thing, was that I later learnt at a students’ reunion that all his students felt they were special and given privileged treatment by Mr. Fleten! Disappointed at first, this is actually how a good teacher should be, he should make every student feel special and give them instruction according to their needs and abilities. Being a teacher is no small task, it is perhaps one of the most important and challenging jobs you could have.

Providing for inclusion and equity in education and in society at large is indeed no easy task. There are social differences in participation, and there are differences in learning outcomes in all countries. We want all children to be able to go on to further vocational or university education, regardless of their social backgrounds – and we want them to succeed. No one has succeeded in wiping out these differences completely.

However, international comparisons show that there are differences between countries. Some are more successful than others in achieving social equality in their education system. This means that we can learn from each other.

In some fields there is a lack of internationally comparable indicators. Completion and drop -out in upper secondary education is one example. We have therefore conducted an ad hoc data collection among selected countries in order to give the meeting an impression of the magnitude of drop-out and completion in upper secondary education. In some countries, close to 9 out of 10 students complete upper secondary education within 5 years after entry, in other, less than half.

The large differences between countries – both in overall performance and in gender differences - indicate a high potential for improvement in low-performing countries. The findings also open up new questions. The consistently lower completion rates in vocational programmes deserve more research and attention. The data collection shows that few countries collect and disseminate completion data by student background. To fully assess the equity dimension of upper secondary completion, more countries need to collect completion data by student background.

It is my hope that this meeting will be an important arena for the exchange of experiences and ideas concerning best practice.

Tomorrow the land report on Norway in the OECD study Migrant Education is launched. The scope of the project includes pre-school, primary school, and secondary school. The overarching question of the review is what kind of policies will best promote successful education outcomes for first- and second-generation immigrant students. Early efforts and drop-out are among the topics being discussed in the report. 

Distinguished guests,

To sum up, inclusion and equity in education is in my opinion the best long-term instrument we have in order to secure economic progress, as well as democracy and social stability. It is certainly no coincidence that “Education for All” is one of the UN Millennium Goals.

In order to ensure equal access to education and lifelong learning, authorities need to take an active role in providing frameworks that span across geographic, social, economic and age-related boundaries.

I am really looking forward to learning about the experiences from your countries at our meeting here in Oslo.

Thank you for your attention.