Staffing
The Kindergarten Act states that head teachers and pedagogical leaders must be trained pre-school teachers or have other college education that gives qualifications for working with children and pedagogical expertise. Pre-school teacher education is a three years university college study with bachelor degree. Pedagogical leaders without pre-school teacher education must have further education in teaching in kindergartens. According to regulations there must be one pedagogical leader per 7 – 9 children under the age of three and per 14 – 18 children over the age of three. Approximately 30 per cent of these were trained pre-school teachers. Approximately 13 per cent of the head teachers and pedagogical leaders were not educated pre-school teachers and had dispensations from the educational requirement. There is a lack of staff in Norwegian kindergartens today in accordance with the educational requirement.
The Content of Kindergartens
The Framework Plan for the Content and Tasks of Kindergartens is a regulation to the Kindergarten Act. The Framework Plan states that all kindergartens must work goal-oriented with children’s development and learning, and stimulate children’s linguistic and social competence. Childhood is a phase of life with intrinsic value, kindergartens must be inclusive fellowships with space for each child. The Framework Plan has seven learning areas that children should be acquainted with in kindergartens:
• Communication, language and text
• Body, movement and health
• Art, culture and creativity
• Nature, environment and technology
• Ethics, religion and philosophy
• Local community and society
• Numbers, spaces and shapes