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?

Gjøvik fengsel — Gjøvik prison Foto: Ivar Ødegaard.

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 of 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.

Digital infrastructure

To fulfil this right to education, schools must give their students access to digital tools. The educational rights of inmates are challenged by the lack of a digital infrastructure adapted to this particular educational context. Addressing this is critical both for safeguarding the welfare rights of a vulnerable group and for achieving national goals of increased social participation and reduced recidivism.

The existing digital solution for education in Norwegian prisons, Desktop for Schools (DFS), does not meet the content and functional requirements of either the education sector or the correctional services. The technological lag in prison schools results in a real loss of rights for inmates.

Utvei is a dedicated digital learning platform for education within the correctional services, developed jointly by the correctional services and the education sector. It is currently in use at four Norwegian prisons, and the shared aim is for it to be implemented in all Norwegian prisons.