Marks and national tests, lower secondary school, 2015

Even though there is little change in average school points from one year to another, there has been a small increase over the past six years. A big part of the increase is due to optional subjects now being included in the calculation of school points. Pupils in Vestfold and Aust-Agder have had the greatest increase of 2 school points since 2009. Girls had an increase of 1.5 school points compared to boys, who have had an increase of 1 school points since 2009.

The county with the highest marks is Akershus – with an average of 41.8 school points – in comparison with the average of 40.8 for all the pupils in Norway. Looking at gender and county together, girls in Akershus and Hordaland achieve the highest marks, with 43.8 school points, and the boys in Finnmark achieve the lowest average of 36.8 school points. Among all pupils, girls have 4.4 school points more than boys.

Marks vary by immigration category

On average, pupils with an immigration background achieve lower marks than other pupils, but the marks also vary within this group. Immigrant pupils have 36.2 school points on average. While Norwegian born to immigrant parents have 39 school points, other pupils have 41.2 school points on average.

There has been a positive development among pupils with an immigration background over the past six years, especially among pupils who have immigrated. Since 2009, immigrant pupils have had an increase of almost 2 school points, compared with the other pupils who have had an increase of 1.3 school points since 2009.

There are also some variations in school points looking at country background and gender among immigrants. Immigrants from the EU/EEA, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand achieve higher marks than immigrants from Asia, Africa, Latin America, Oceania except Australia and New Zealand, and Europe except the EU/EEA. Furthermore, girls achieve higher marks than boys in all of the different categories. The smallest disparity is between boys and girls among Norwegian born to immigrant parents from the EU/EEA etc., where boys have an average of 41.8 school points and girls have an average of 44.5.

Social background has impact on marks

While pupils with parents with primary, lower secondary or no formal education have 34.5 school points on average, pupils whose parents have a university and college education (more than 4 years) have 11.4 school points more. The disparity is even greater when we look at gender together with social background. Boys with the least educated parents have for instance 32.5 school points, while girls whose parents had the most education have 15.4 school points more.

The increase in school points over the last six years has been slightly greater among pupils with the least educated parents than the other pupils. Pupils whose parents have the least education have had an increase of 1 school point since 2009, while pupils whose parents had a long higher education had an increase of 0.3 school points. On the other hand, there have been fewer pupils whose parents have little education in recent years. This is a trend that coincides with the increasing level of education in the general population.

While 57 per cent of the pupils had parents with an upper secondary education or lower in 2009, the figure had dropped to 49 per cent by 2015.