Half of Norway's kindergartens lack qualified teachers

Nearly half of the kindergartens throughout Norway are struggling to obtain enough qualified teachers, public broadcaster NRK reported Friday.

Stricter education norm that was implemented in August last year implies that there should be at least one pedagogical leader per seven children under the age of three, and at least one pedagogical leader per fourteen children over three years.

According to statistics from the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, approximately 53 percent of the kindergartens in Norway meet this requirement.

Anette Berger, leader of the Union of Education Alta in Norway's eastern county of Finmark, said that it is very difficult to recruit qualified people to kindergartens today.

Anita Arild Thomassen, managing director of Sentrum kindergarten in Alta, believes that the problem is that there are too few who take this education.

"We have to appoint assistants and skilled workers to become kindergarten teachers. It is as if you came to a doctor who is actually a nurse," she said.