Prison education in Norway
Under international law, no one may be denied the right to education. In Norway, the right to free education is guaranteed by law for everyone, up to and including upper secondary level, and prisoners have the same right to education and training as any other citizen. But how is this organised in practice?
Prison education in Norway is based on the import model. The principle behind this model is that prisoners are served by the same public welfare providers — schools, health care, libraries and so on — as the rest of society. Responsibility for administering and delivering education in prisons is shared between the county authorities, the County Governor of Vestland and the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training (Udir).
National responsibility for coordination, funding and development
The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training (Udir) has delegated national responsibility for the professional coordination of education within the correctional services to the County Governor of Vestland (SFVL). Udir administers the earmarked state grant scheme, and SFVL contributes to its quality assurance.
The County Governor of Vestland is the main partner of the Norwegian Directorate for Correctional Service (KDI) in the field of education. We are also responsible for developing the provision further and for encouraging cooperation across the education sector. Better coordination around prisoners and released offenders is a political goal, and we are therefore actively involved in developing inter-agency cooperation with partners such as NAV, the health services, libraries and the voluntary sector, among others. We contribute to this development by facilitating network activities, research and dialogue between stakeholders and cooperation partners.
Academic and school-administrative responsibility
The county authorities hold the academic and school-administrative responsibility for the provision. They must ensure that all prisoners have access to the education they are legally entitled to. Every county has one or more prisons.
Practical and professional delivery
Local upper secondary schools deliver and administer the education of prisoners. Several of these schools are also responsible for follow-up classes for offenders after release. There are school departments at every Norwegian prison.
A government white paper on prison education was published in 2005. A short version in English can be found here.