Norway suffers from a lack of qualified Spanish teachers / Spansklærere etterlyser kompetanse

Kart over den spansktalende verden.

Interesting article here from nrk.no on the bad state of Spanish education in Norway. Apparently a lot of teachers are choosing to spend time in Spain during their vacation time because they simply don't have the competence to teach a subject that has suddenly become quite necessary.

My translation from Norwegian probably isn't as good as it should be, so leave comments below if you wish and I'll update the post.

I dag tilbyr cirka 700 av 1200 grunnskoler i landet spansk til sine elever. I Hordaland tilbyr cirka 66 av 126 grunnskoler spansk.

Today around 700 of 1200 elementary schools in the country teach Spanish to the students. In Hordaland around 66 of 126 schools offer Spanish.

Da spansk for alvor kom inn i skolen i 2006 etter kunnskapsløftet, var mangelen på lærere stor. Derfor fikk kommunene penger til etterutdanning av lærerne.

When Spanish came in to the schools in 2006 after the knowledge promotion law, there was a large lack of good teachers, which is why municipalities spent money on training teachers.

- De fikk ikke den kompetansen. Derfor har mange spansklærere valgt å feriere i Spania, for å få praktisert kunnskapen der, sier Mette Walker i Utdanningsforbundet.

- They didn't have the expertise they needed, so many Spanish teachers chose to vacation in Spain in order to practice there, said Mette Walker from the Education Association.

On funding:

Kunnskapsdepartementet peker på at det er den enkelte kommunes ansvar å etterutdanne lærere.

The Knowledge Ministry points out that it is the community's responsibility to retrain teachers.

- Vi tar signalene alvorlig, men det er kommunens ansvar å etterutdanne lærere i grunnskolen som de mener mangler kunnskap, sier Egil Knudsen, kommunikasjonssjef i Kunnskapsdepartementet.

- We take the signals seriously, but it is the community's responsibility to retrain teachers in elementary schools that they believe lack (the required) knowledge, says Egil Knudsen, head of communications in the Knowledge Ministry.

I 2009 er det satt av 117 millioner kroner for å heve kompetansen til norske lærere gjennom prosjektet «Kompetanse for kvalitet».

In 2009 117 million krone ($18.7 million US) has been given to increase the competency of Norwegian teachers through the project "Competence for Quality".

- Spansken får ikke penger i denne omgang, fordi man er enige om at det er andre fag som trenger dem mer, sier Knudsen.

- Spanish isn't given money in this round, because it is agreed that there are other subjects that need it more, said Knudsen.


I like the comments below too. Here's one:

min spansklærer kan så lite spansk at hun ikke klarer å undervise i spansktimene. Alt som skjer er at vi (elevene) må lære ALT ved å gjøre oppgaver.

My Spanish teacher knows so little Spanish that she can't teach in Spanish during the lessons. All we (the students) do is learn by ourself through exercises.

Dette gjør at vi (elevene) ikke lærer så mye som vi burde ha gjort...og allt på grunn av læreren!

That means that we (the students) don't learn as much as we should...all because of the teacher!

Bedre utdanning for spansklærere!

Better education for Spanish teachers!