Changes in the organisation of the state
education administration in Norway
Following
the adoption of parliamentary bill no.1 Addition no.1 (2002-2003),
parliamentary bill no.65 (2002-2003) and budget bill S. no.12 (2003-2004) a renewal
of the state education administration in Norway has been carried into effect.
The
point of departure of the renewal has been to keep the three levels of the
state administration and to strengthen the national level under The Ministry of
Education and Research through a conversion of the Norwegian Board of Education
into a directorate with delegated responsibility and authority for the
administration of a number of education policy instruments. The Directorate for
Primary and Secondary Education was formally established On June 15th 2004 as a new organisation under the Ministry
of Education and Research. The new
entity inherits all the rights and obligations formerly contracted by the
Norwegian Board of Education. By a revision of a letter of assignment to the Norwegian Board of
Education for the period January-June 2004, a new letter of assignment of June 21 2004 to the Directorate gave the Directorate
the authority to take over and manage the allocations and tasks of the former Norwegian
Board of Education.
The reorganisation of
the state education administration also includes the incorporation of the Support
System for Special Education into the Directorate. Economic resources for internal
administration of the Directorate and for the administration of national policy
instruments will be allocated on a yearly basis to the Directorate through the
Ministry´s letter of assignment to the
Directorate.
The
Directorate is established as an agency for competence and administration with
challenging and demanding professional and administrative tasks. The
Directorate is responsible for the national quality assessment system and has
the overall responsibility for supervising and supporting local school owners –
the municipalities, counties and independent schools in their work with quality
development in education in Norway. Through the agency of the County Governors the Government will ensure that this
quality meets the required national standards. The Directorate is also
responsible for the professional governance of the work done by the 18 regional
County Governors’ education departments.
The
Directorate :Webpages
