Factsheet for measure
NO-2022-14/2429
–
Updated
– measures in Norway
Childcare and education for people displaced from Ukraine
Økt kapasiet i barnehager og utdanning for å ta imot flyktninger fra Ukraina
Background information
In a press release on 18 March 2022, the government announced Norway will take its share of the refugees from Ukraine in co-operation with other European countries. The same day, the Minister of Labor and Social Inclusion, Marte Mjøs Persen, asked the municipalities to be prepared to settle about 35,000 refugees.
On 1 April, the government proposed amendments to the state budget for 2022 under the responsibility of several ministries. The government proposed increased allocation to several budget posts financing childcare and education to ease the reception of people displaced from Ukraine.
Content of measure
As a result of the war in Ukraine, the government proposed a number of appropriations for measures implemented to receive people displaced from Ukraine (Prop. 78 S (2021–2022)). In order to provide children, young people and adults displaced from Ukraine a good education in Norway, the government finds it is important to have teachers who can provide bilingual education related to social studies. Currently there are very few teaching aids qualified under the Norwegian curricula and framework programs in Ukrainian. The government proposed to allocate funds to teaching aids and distance learning. Other measures addressed the capacity to offer childcare and education to Ukrainian refugees. These include:
-
NOK 40 million (€4 million) for a subsidy scheme for teaching aids and pedagogical kindergarten materials in Ukrainian for children, young people and adults.
-
NOK 10 million (€1 million) to strengthening online resources and distance learning.
-
NOK 150 million (€15 million) to increase the number of places in the care centres for unaccompanied minor asylum seekers under 15 years of age.
-
NOK 86.5 million (€8.65 million) in appropriation for the education of children and young people applying for residence in Norway.
-
NOK 64 million (€6.4 million) for 1,000 temporary study places at universities.
Updates
The following updates to this measure have been made after it came into effect.
|
04 July 2023
|
The Ministry of Education has laid down a temporary regulation that allows for the establishment of temporary nurseries and the temporary expansion of already approved nurseries due to the influx of displaced people from Ukraine.
The new regulation will help the municipalities accommodate more displaced people from Ukraine. It will also make it easier to ensure that children who are entitled to a nursery place get a nursery offer. With the new rules, the municipalities can approve applications for temporary approval of new regular kindergartens and expansion of approved regular kindergartens and provide temporary funding. Temporary approval and funding can be given for up to 3 years.
The regulation is based on the temporary rules in the Kindergartens Act, which the Storting decided earlier this year to continue until 1 July 2024. The regulation will expire at the same time as the temporary rules in the Kindergartens Act.
|
|
11 May 2023
|
Due to the tens of thousands of Ukrainians that flee to Norway to escape the war, the government proposed on 11 May to increase the allocations on several budget posts in the revised national budget of 2023. Among the allocations was NOK 123 million (€1,2 million) for increased subsidy for education of children and young people in 2023, thus extending the end date of this measure for another year.
|
|
30 June 2022
|
As a result of the war in Ukraine and the influx of refugees to Norway, the government in June 2022 made temporary changes to the admission requirements to higher education. For the academic year 2022/2023, higher education institutions can temporarily make exceptions from the general requirements for individuals with collective protection or asylum in Norway. This could be the case if the academic level of the individual refugee is assessed to be good enough for admission into higher education in Norway. The universities/colleges will make this decision based on an individual assessment of the applications.
|
Use of measure
No information of use of measures.
Target groups
|
Workers
|
Businesses
|
Citizens
|
|
Does not apply to workers
|
Does not apply to businesses
|
Migrants or refugees
|
Actors and funding
|
Actors
|
Funding
|
National government
Public support service providers
|
National funds
|
Social partners
Social partners' role in
designing the measure
and form of involvement:
|
Trade unions
|
Employers' organisations
|
|
Role
|
No involvement as case not in social partner domain
|
No involvement as case not in social partner domain
|
|
Form
|
Not applicable
|
Not applicable
|
Social partners' role in the
implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:
-
No involvement
-
Main level of involvement: N/A
Involvement
The Ministry of Labor and Social Inclusion has set up a working group with relevant actors from the The Directorate of Integration and Diversity (IMDI) and The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) and the social partners to ensure good coordination of integration work in the future.
Views and reactions
The social partners have not comment explicitly on all the government’s measures but are in general positive to receive refugees from Ukraine and ask for measures that can facilitate inclusion into the labour market.
Sources
