In Estonia and Lithuania increasing numbers of newly arrived migrants and returning nationals has emphasized the importance of an inclusive education system. Furthermore, long-living cultural minorities in both countries contribute to the diverse linguistic and cultural landscape in the region. This calls for policymakers and education institutions to take specific measures to facilitate the integration of children with a migrant background. The education systems in Estonia and Lithuania face several challenges related to migrant education. One of them is uneven school preparedness to address the needs of diverse learners and teachers lacking competences and skills to deal with diversity in the classroom. The latter aspect is of utmost importance as the success of migrant inclusion in education system in many ways relies on pedagogues and professional support staff in schools. Thus, a growing number of newly arrived immigrants and returnees highlights the importance of multicultural competence and language awareness to be introduced systematically in teacher education programmes. This has become an important policy priority in both Estonia and Lithuania, though the issue has been addressed inconsistently to date.

In relation to higher-education, both Estonia and Lithuania have undergone various reforms in higher education and teacher training over the past years. However, in Lithuania, the higher education reform did not yield the desired results. In Estonia, the current preparation for teaching in linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms in teacher training modules is not consistent in. Overall, the life-long learning strategy and general agreement on the need to address teacher preparedness to work with diversity is present both in Estonia and Lithuania and is addressed in policy documents mostly through the emphasis on inclusive education, the linguistically responsive and culturally sustaining pedagogy should be enhanced. Ongoing discussions and strategy planning at the ministerial levels in both Estonia and Lithuania represent a window of opportunity for SIRIUS to feed into the process.

Baltic National Roundtable 2019 

The SIRIUS Policy Network on Migrant Education was the first EU-focused actor to publish a statement with policy recommendations for education systems in the post Covid-19 era. This was released several weeks into the uniform school closures across the EU. As a multi-stakeholder initiative that uses inclusive mechanisms to advocate for inclusive education policies, we are seeking a relationship with a forward-thinking foundation who wishes to be part of a new world that we are helping to build in the post Covid-19 era. This relationship will allow us to use our unique capability to connect and mobilise a wide network of actors to weave resilience into our educations systems so that they can respond to anticipated trends and threats. See our statement on Covid-19 below released 20th April 2020.

Moving Educational Policy Forward After Covid-19

A SIRIUS Perspective

We are now several weeks into a ‘lockdown’ resulting in almost uniform school closures across the European Union. Several countries intend to start back at school this week or in early May. In an effort to support these countries and others still undergoing school closure, the SIRIUS Policy Network on Migrant Education has collaborated on this statement to produce guidance moving forward.

During this pandemic we have seen many Ministries of Education instruct schools to move to various forms of distance-learning. Yet availability of advice, tools, guidance and support to do so, as well as preparedness of schools to implement such a shift smoothly, has been very mixed. The OECD “Framework to guide a response to the Covid-19 Pandemic” reports that a large number of countries surveyed offered no initial guidance to “support the ongoing academic instruction of schools”. However, in many European Union countries we saw a slightly better response. Many countries are broadcasting educational programs on national television (Portugal, France, Belgium, Latvia, Serbia, Romania and more) and some countries have launched specific websites or worked with technological providers (Czech Republic, Romania) to deal with the delivery of educational content.

Some countries already had their educational content on-line (Estonia) whom, in particular have been key in sharing learnings from their past experiences with other countries. In addition, in some countries, the Ministry of Education has quickly produced tools and guidance for schools and has been active in supporting teacher implementation of digital learning (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Italy, Denmark and more.)

With all this work in place, the 2^nd Education EU Council meeting on the Covid-19 pandemic held on 14^th April 2020 demonstrated that the battle is not yet won when it comes to catering to the needs of vulnerable learners, including migrant students, and in general inclusive education. As mentioned by Blaženka Divjak, Croatian Minister of Science and Education, social equity and teacher support/development remain challenges for the group as a whole.

As a network of researchers, policy-makers and migrant-led initiatives, SIRIUS has been collecting information from their members on current practice. We have turned this into initial policy implications for both Member States and the European Union. We must use the lessons of this experience to improve and weave more resilience into our education systems thereby making them more inclusive for all.

Pdf copy here

Member State Level

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Inspiring Practice – Individualised support

SIRIUS Member Don Bosco shared this from their Spanish Member Pinardi Federation of Social Platforms of the Community of Madrid. “At Pinardi we work with all the members of the family…For this reason, the first days from our homes, an individualized follow-up was carried out on all the families to continue offering our accompaniment and to inform how to do it in a different way, to know their particular situation and to be able to support, as we have been doing until now: psychological support, educational and directed leisure ”, says Marta Raimundo, head of communication for the Pinardi Federation of Social Platforms of the Community of Madrid.

Policy Implication – Mainstream and expand the application of Individualised Education Plans

Many countries already employ an ‘Individualised Education Plan’ for students with special needs, such as learning needs or non-native language needs. The plans should include an element on communication between teachers and families/students during crises to ensure there is a regular check-in and support. The plans could also include a student or family-directed self-assessment of ‘readiness for distance learning’ including factors such as availability of a computer, tv, high-speed internet and a quiet desk area to work on.

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Inspiring practice – Providing digital literacy lessons through phone calls

 As SIRIUS member Terremondo, based in Italy has experienced, “some students and families have a low level of digital literacy and in some cases are unable to sign-up to the various services offered.” This means that students and parents of young students that are helping their children connect to the internet and use novel platforms are struggling to continue the learning experience.

Policy Implication – Improve school provision of digital literacy education for students AND parents (particularly parents of young children) 

Whether part of a pandemic/school shut-down response plan or not, schools need to ensure that all students and in particular families have the digital skills to get their children online and learning on the first day of school shut-down. Parents may need non-native instruction or guidance and any guides or materials should be translated into all languages that are present within the school community. These sessions should also undertake the administrative aspects of students and families signing up to any services that can facilitate the regular communication between parents and the school and will be used during school closures.

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Inspiring practice – Use of social media to keep up motivation with adolescents

SIRIUS member Don Bosco shared this from their partner in Italy.

“motivational initiatives through social networks which [adolescents and youth] can access privately, such as Instragram [have been successful] at the María Auxiliadora Foundation.”

Policy Implication – Ensure ‘understanding social-media’ is included in professional development for school social support workers and teachers.

Youth workers, school psychologists and educational social support personnel working with adolescents already have a strong understanding of the importance of peer and adult relationships in motivating adolescents. Moving this knowledge to the practical realm of how to use online social networks to positively impact motivation for adolescents will be critical in aiding these workers to continue their functions during times of digital learning. In-loco training and practice in regular school-time should occur.

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Inspiring Practice – Recognising increased vulnerabilities in certain communities to adhere to educational time-table.

Our member ETUCE reports that French Union SNES-FSU is lobbying the government for a solution that “does not unfairly penalise the students who [are] expected to sit exams this year, especially those in poorer or more vulnerable communities.”

Policy Implication- Providing opportunities for inclusive policy-making

Vulnerable students may struggle more in terms of exam preparation, pace of learning, access to computers and internet more than others during this time. Member states should  ensure that the voices of vulnerable students including migrant students and families are included in decision-making at this present time.

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Inspiring Practice – Activating peer networks for non-native speakers

 The nature of on-line interaction can make it challenging for non-native speakers, particularly young children to get enough ‘talk-time’ and ‘listen-time’ with peers to continue the improvement of the native/medium of instruction language. Our member Terremondo worked to connect non-native peers with native-speaking peers to ensure that they have a higher opportunity to interact socially in the native language.

Policy Implication – Foster an on-line whole school community approach

Schools provide a rich socio-linguistic feeding ground for non-native students to integrate. Being cut off from this environment has adverse linguistic and educational impacts. Fostering a whole school online community approach within schools (peer relationships, mentoring) builds real relationships both on-line and in person that can become a necessary life-line for students and families when schools close.

EU Level Actions

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Inspiring Practice – Providing computers and devices to students and families in need.

Our member Minderheden Forum in Belgium, and many other migrant organisations (HumanAid in Vinius, Lithuania) are providing laptops and digital devices to migrant students who do not have them.

Policy Implication – Utilise Digital Education Action Plan to mobilize funding for hardware for schools (and families) in need.

Action 1 of the plan discusses financing and vouchers for connectivity but not hardware for schools. Hardware could also be discounted or vouchers made available so that schools are able to allow students from vulnerable backgrounds to continue learning at home during non-school time and in the future event of school closures. Current data from PISA (2018) shows that there is a significant difference between the educational attainment of students who have a computer at home that they can access for learning and students who do not.

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Inspiring Practice – Recognise the social divide, not just digital

While it is recognized that the digital divide is a massive barrier to educational equity both from the perspective of technology in schools and technology in homes (Despite a 15 billion euro investment in the period 2014-2020, the goal of providing high-speed internet in all homes in the EU (necessary for streaming on-line classes) will not be met by the end of this year.) As seen above, all our members across the EU are actively working hard to access those that are socially excluded from the digital learning experience.

Policy Implications – Lead on social equity

We encourage the European Commission to lead on true equity in education by adding an additional point on their Digital Education Action Plan to recognize the importance of overcoming the social divide.

Inclusive education means that each learner has their strengths, challenges, and personal set of circumstances. It means that methods used to reach each student and deliver content need to be adapted to their particular situation. More well-funded user-centred/led research with migrant and vulnerable students and families at the heart should be funded.

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Inspiring Practice – Estonia Ministry of Education and Online preparedness

Our member PRAXIS in Estonia shared the following details on Estonia’s smooth move to digital education during this pandemic. “When schools in Estonia switched to the remote-learning system on 16 March 2020, the number of users of e-learning platforms increased by ten folds. The smooth transfer was ensured by regular use of national electronic homework diaries/communication points eSchool and Stuudium by all schools. Investment for good internet connection, development of electronic study materials and development of teachers´ digital skills benefited the situation. Over the past years, the schools have been able to apply for funds to develop the areas where their school needs most support – from obtaining computers and training teachers to composing strategic plans for IT developments.”

Policy Implications – Overcoming structural inequalities and forward-looking responses, rather than isolated reacting

The EU should incentivize Member States to act seriously and prepare an education system shut-down plan which not only includes actions related to the move to digital learning but guides local education authorities, schools, school directors, teachers and other school support staff on their domains of responsibility for future shut-down occurrences. The plans should encourage all parties to work together and build on the resilience that has already been weaved into the system by ensuring inclusive policy-making occurs.

Sources

 A framework to guide education response to the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020

https://www.hm.ee/sites/default/files/framework_guide_v1_002_harward.pdf

 

Education ministers discussed the challenges of the distance learning

https://eu2020.hr/Home/OneNews?id=243

 

Soluciones Originales Compromiso Esfuerzo Frente La Crisis La Covid-19

https://psocialessalesianas.org/soluciones-originales-compromiso-esfuerzo-frente-la-crisis-la-covid-19/

 

Il Coronavirus ci mette tutti alla prova

https://www.salesianiperilsociale.it/noicisiamo/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=messaggio-don-roberto-coronavirus&utm_term=post-organico

 

PISA data explorer

https://pisadataexplorer.oecd.org/

 

Broadband in the EU Member States: despite progress, not all the Europe 2020 targets will be met

https://op.europa.eu/webpub/eca/special-reports/broadband-12-2018/en/

 

The Comparative National Roundtable Report for 2019 can be accessed below.

NRT 2020

Between 1990 and 2017, the total number of international migrants grew from 153 to 258 million people, an increase of 69 % (OECD, 2019). The slow but continuous increase in the number of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers globally is predicted to continue in the future (European Education and Training Expert Panel, 2019a; IOM, 2017). Increase in migration is particularly crucial for the European labour force in light of the falling birth rate and the ageing population in Europe. At the same time, it results in more ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms (De Backer et al., 2016), posing both challenges and opportunities for education systems in Europe and calling for current teaching, learning and assessment practices to become more culturally and linguistically sensitive (Miller, 2018).

Read the Full Report here: SIRIUS Watch 2019_03-03 (1)

CONTEXT

Equal access to education in the world’s richest countries appears to be different for children within the same school system. In Sweden, many children especially those coming from socioeconomic vulnerable areas, enter the education system being challenged by systemic dominant discourse, and consequently remain further behind in experiencing all the advantageous outcomes of education that could favour them to reach their full potential for a better quality of life. Current educational policies and practices seemingly do little to reduce the gap between them and their peers. They consequently drop further behind due to the current educational policies and practices, rather than reduce the gap between them and their peers.

According to UNICEF report ‘’Unfair Start’’, equal opportunity has dropped significantly for children in Sweden to reach their full potential, to pursue their interests and to develop their talents and skills. The report focuses on educational inequalities in 41 of the world’s richest countries, all of which are members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and/or the European Union (EU). The report examines inequalities across childhood – from access to preschool to expectations of completing secondary education – and explores in depth the relationships between educational inequality and related factors such as gender, parents’ socio-economic and educational background and the design of the school system.

Besides, the OECD report “Equity in education” shows that the lack of equality is a problem for school systems around the world. The report points out, among other things, that the proportion of adults with lower educational levels or qualifications compared to their parents is 17 percent in Sweden, which is lower than the average in the OECD. According to an equality measure based on seven factors, the Swedish schooling system has deteriorated within five. When it comes to how much a child’s social background affects the feeling of belongingness at school, Sweden is one of six countries where development deteriorates – the proportion of students from resource-poor homes who feel they belong in school has decreased from 81 percent to 66 percent, which is below the OECD cut.

At the same time Sweden is facing a national shortage of school buildings due to rapid population growth in recent years. At the beginning of 2017, Sweden’s population passed 10 million and it is anticipated that it will reach 11 million in 2028. A large part of the population growth occurs at school age and according to Statistics Sweden’s forecast, in ten years there will be 107,000 more at school age, 6-15 years. For example, many school buildings are more than 40 years old, in poor conditions, and not suitably adapted to offer adequate learning and teaching environments. Inadequate environments negatively impact student learning, performance, outcomes and their overall educational experiences. The school staff are invariably included in this problematic situation.

The population growth and inadequate facilities may result in a shortage of pre- and primary schools in Sweden. According to Magdalena Andersson, Minister of Finance, 1400 new preschools and schools will be needed by 2026. Shortage of school buildings affects the whole of Sweden, both large cities as well as smaller urban areas.

The shortage of school buildings in Sweden need to be acted upon in the years to come. Caution should be taken when investing state funds to meet the higher demand for building these new learning and teaching environments. Poor decisions and incompetence can potentially lead to lowered equitable opportunities of children’s quality educational experiences in Swedish schools, especially for those children already marginalized.

CONTEXT

The law in Spain states that the public Administration is responsible for implementing practices that promote the integration of pupils with a migrant background into the education system. Consequently, it is up to the regional governments (comunidades autónomas) to develop such integration in their contexts. The outcome of all is a heterogeneous map of 17 education programmes that implement this regulation in a diverse way.

Spain hosted 797,618 pupils with a migrant background in its classrooms at all levels of education during the 2018-2019 academic course. All those students were integrated in an education system that was ruled under the principle of equity. In terms of schooling, pupils with a migrant background were supplied with full universal access to compulsory education between the ages of 6 and 16 as their native peers, with no discrimination at all, and children between 3 and 6 years attended to pre-school establishments in rates higher than 95%.

However, the Spanish education system shows a significant gap in schooling from 0 to 3 years old, as well as in vocational education. This prints a significant impact on migrant population, with low rates of schooling of their youngest children. Surprisingly, the migrant population rates in vocational education are higher than the average, as this education has a low prestige in Spanish society, and it is mainly devoted for early school leavers and those without an academic accreditation.

In terms of academic achievement, data show that there is still a long way to go. Recent research states that the probability of repeating a low socioeconomic quartile pupil is almost 6 times higher than that of a high socioeconomic quartile pupil. If we consider that pupils with a migrant background are mostly concentred within the low socioeconomic quartile, we easily conclude that these pupils achieve worse academic results than their native classmates in big proportions. Grade repetition rates are also higher for migrant pupils than their native peers.

The policy measures for moving on equity for all (migrant pupils included) are clear: a significant budget increase, better school management, improving the curriculum model, improving the both internal and external school assessment system, improving teacher training, promoting a democratic management, introducing community education and increasing schools’ autonomy. The more the education system becomes better for all, the more the pupils with a migrant background will become more successful at school.

In 2019, the Spanish SIRIUS National Round Table focused the attention on three of these measures: the promotion of a democratic school management through the improvement of migrant parents participation, the teacher training addressed to those teachers working in highly concentrated settings, and the participation of youngsters in non-formal education, especially those identified as unaccompanied minors.

CONTEXT

At the first NRT in 2018 main challenges of implementing the national strategy of migrant children inclusion into education system in Slovenia were identified. At the second NRT in 2019 the focus on the central theme was maintained: the premises of multilingualism in an inclusive learning environment, and three main topics were addressed. They underlie the problem of inclusion of migrant children to school and represent the main issues in the Slovenian context regarding national reform priorities and changes:

• Multilingualism in the pedagogical process: How to successfully implement the translanguaging and plurilingual approaches into education practice, which emphasize the right to individual’s use of all his/her linguistic resources in the process of learning.
• The gap between the mastering of language of schooling/language of the majority and academic achievements of migrant children and young people: How to enable inclusive and equitable education environments regardless of their cultural and language background, socio-economic status and the ‘temporary staying’ status.

The challenges of involvement of migrants in school and developing the strategies for encouraging their active involvement in the democratic processes of the school: How to include migrants (migrant parents and other adults in local communities) in various school activities as translators, teaching assistants, leaders of extra-curricular activities or volunteers, in order to connect school with the local community and encourage better integration of migrant children and young people.

CONTEXT

Immigration to Portugal started to increase significantly in the late 90s and early 2000s, increasing from 1.3% in 1991 to 8.3% in 2015 (Eurostat, 2016). In 2017, the percentage was 13,9%, with a total number of 480.300 residents with legal status (SEF/GEPF, 2018). The countries of origin with the highest percentages are Brazil (21,9%), followed by Cape Verde (7,2%), Romania (6,4%), Ukraine (6,1), UK (5,5%), China (5,5%), France (4,1%), Italy (4,1%), Angola (3,9%), Guinea (3,4%) and a percentage of 3,4 % for other nationalities (SEF/GEPF, 2018).

The Governing of Education is under the Ministry of Education (MoE), which has the mission to conceptualize, conduct, execute and evaluate national policy concerning the education system, from preschool education, to basic and secondary education, as well as extra-school education . Other organizations under government action or outside this scope play an important role in promoting formal and non-formal education.

There are laws that try to support the integration of migrants, but are not specific to immigrant children’s education: Decree-law nº 6/2001 of 18th January, which ensures basic education for all, no matter their nationality, and the integration of the curriculum of education for citizenship; implementing order nº7/2006 which defends the recognition and respect for the individual needs of all students and ensures the support to learn the Portuguese language; in July 2005, the Guidance Document for Portuguese as Non-Mother Tongue was published.

Concerning the migrant population, the High Commissioner for Migration (HCM) is articulated with the MoE in the field of education. The HCM is a governmental institute, dependent of the Council of Ministers, which promotes public policies that favour social inclusion, equal opportunities and diversity appreciation. Worthy of note, at this level, is the Strategic Plan for Migrations, aimed at fostering answers to address complex problems, towards the development of a modern and fair migration policy. As mentioned on the website of the HCM: “The High Commission for Migration, Public Institution, directly dependent of the Presidency of the Ministers Council, has the mission of collaborating on determining, executing and assessing the public, transversal and sectorial policies concerning migrations, which are relevant for the integration of migrants in the national, international and Portuguese-speaking contexts, for the integration of the immigrants and ethnic groups – in particular, the Roma Communities – and for managing and valuing the diversity between cultures, ethnicities and religions” . Under the aforementioned strategic plan, there are specific measures to promote intercultural education and to address school abandonment.

Under the promotion of social inclusion of children and young people from vulnerable socio-economic contexts, there was the creation of the Programa Escolhas [Choices Program], a national governmental program with the central mission of promoting social inclusion of children and young people from vulnerable socio-economic contexts, including migrant children and young people.

Educational policies for immigrant children

Under the promotion of social inclusion of children and young people from vulnerable socio-economic contexts, there was the creation of the Programa Escolhas [Choices Program], a national governmental program with the central mission of promoting social inclusion of children and young people from vulnerable socio-economic contexts. This is done by involving children and young people in after school programs to enhance their engagement in informal educational activities, aiming to also promote school engagement among at-risk children and young people, as well as promote several activities, such as computer learning, language learning, sports, etc. The Choices Program is applied in vulnerable socio-economic contexts, not exactly schools, but in connection with schools that serve those contexts. Students in many schools from those contexts attend this program.

An ‘Intercultural School Stamp’ policy initiative has been developed since 2012, involving the General-Directorate of Education (MoE), the HCM and the Aga Khan Foundation, and it evaluates schools and assigns them to different levels, depending on how school practices 1) promote the recognition and value of diversity as an opportunity and source of learning for all; and 2) implement specific strategies/actions to promote interculturality, equal opportunity and educational success for all. This framework also aims to provide means for schools to critically examine and improve their practices toward interculturality, and to motivate schools to share knowledge and experience (Szelei et al, 2019: 179).

Another joint initiative to promote Intercultural Education in Schools is the Intercultural Schools Network.

The Intercultural Schools Network is a program also promoted by the HCM,I.P., the General-Directorate of Education and the Aga Khan Foundation, to support the capacity building of schools and the sharing of good practices in intercultural education. The Network is composed of schools committed to promoting the reception, integration and educational success of all children and young people, regardless of their cultural or national origins, and to promoting a culture and practice of opening up to difference and establishing positive interactions between students and other members of the educational community from different cultures.

Participation in the network means to integrate intercultural education practices in the School Education Project and the Annual Plan of Activities in the following areas: culture of the School; Curriculum (content, resources and didactic activities) and Community engagement; to provide intercultural training sessions to different actors of the educational community; to participate in mentoring, supervision and monitoring activities and to share practices and resources using a collaborative platform. In 2017-2019 the network involved around 120 schools.

CONTEXT

The last project year did not bring about any major developments in the regulations concerning migrant education. Therefore the main policy priorities identified and discussed during the 2018 NRT also remain relevant in 2019. These were: 1) Monitoring the distribution, up-take and financing of support measures as well as monitoring the educational achievements of migrant students 2) Designing tools and procedures for the orientation and integration of both students and parents in the school community 3) Ensuring adequate psycho-social support, especially in dedicated counselling centers 4) Fine-tuning school placement procedures 5) Ensuring synergy and cohesion in all activities relating to migrant student education (for an elaborated analysis please refer to the 2018 synthesis paper).

The NRT attendees reported, however, substantial progress on the practice level relating to orientation and integration procedures. Major municipalities invested in creating or adapting welcoming brochures for migrant students and their families. These offer not only basic information on the Polish education system, but strive to explain the specificities of the Polish school and after-school-care culture. Also, some of the big cities, being major centers of migrant influx, addressed the need for orientation procedures by launching community-based tutoring and mentoring programs for migrant students/families (sometimes, as is the case in Gdansk, involving peer-to-peer student support). This form of assistance is gaining recognition among major municipalities in Poland, however it does not seem to be very feasible in smaller towns or rural regions. Even the large cities face major limitations in terms of financial resources and are forced to rely on volunteer work.

The additional stress put on the education system by two factors: 1) education system reform (changing the stages of education from a 6+3+3 system to an 8+4 system) and 2) the massive teachers’ strike in the spring of 2019 also translated into additional stress for migrant students and their families. As the system reform inevitably resulted in an accumulation of two years of student cohorts starting secondary school in 2019, resources had to be allocated for an increased number of mainstream classes, which might have constrained the ability to organise classes due to limited classroom space and staffing availability. Furthermore, a much higher number of graduates in the recruitment procedures for secondary schools and the higher level of competition connected to this affected all students irrespective of their background. However – as has been reported and can be reasonably be assumed – it was an even more challenging for migrant students (who tend to have both lower final exam scores and less know-how about navigating the recruitment system). It was therefore suggested that migrant students and their families should be supported by mentors/advisors in choosing optimal recruitment strategies and in navigating the school application process.

It was also indicated during the meeting that Poland may be dealing with the issue of unaccompanied minors among the Ukrainian migrant population on a greater scale than previously acknowledged. Teenagers, attending upper secondary schools, who use available boarding possibilities, are being periodically left without supervision. The extent of this phenomenon, however, is not known and would need to be more closely investigated.

CONTEXT

In October 2018, the government launched a new integration strategy. Ministry of Education and Research is responsible for primary and secondary school, upper secondary and tertiary vocational education, adult education and skills, and from January 2018 also integration, and in the new integration strategy, education is strongly emphasized. The strategy document is called “Integration through knowledge”. In Chapter 1, Education and Qualification, it sets clear goals and it offers measures. It mentions both the content and organization of the education, skills assessment and special measures are mentioned for newly arrived students.

In Norway, the municipalities are responsible for primary schools and the counties are responsible for upper secondary education, and all pupils who have left primary school, 16 years old, are entitled to upper secondary education. But even though all students have the right to upper secondary education, many drop out. And the group that has the most problems, is youth who come to Norway with little schooling from their home country. The Integration strategy addresses this, and proposes measures so that young people over the age of 16 can receive more primary education. To achieve this, municipalities and counties must work together, and the legislation has been amended to facilitate such cooperation.

NAFO has school owner networks, one for municipalities and one for counties. All county municipalities, all major cities and many smaller municipalities has participated in the networks. At the NTR in 2019, the two networks met in Tromsø.