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What is Decentralized Competence Development in Schools?

Decentralized competence development (Norwegian acronym: DeKomp) was initiated in the 2017/2018 school year. The ideal of DeKomp is to establish decentralized capacity-building projects that meet local needs through closer collaboration between school owners, schools, and higher education.

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The Norwegian Governments’ commitment to continuing professional development is described in White Paper 21 - Desire to learn: Early interventions and quality in schools (2016-2017). Here, decentralized competence development is described as a collaborative effort between higher education, school owners, school leaders, and teachers. Ultimately, the ideal of DeKomp is to provide municipalities and schools greater freedom of action and empower them to carry out systematic school improvements at a local level.

From 2018, the OECD partnered with Norway to support the implementation process of DeKomp and undertake an initial assessment of the implementation strategy of the model. In 2020, OECD presented the report Improving School Quality in Norway (pdf). The report assessed progress made from policy to practice, and made recommendations to move forward with the model development; the report particularly emphasize the need to further foster transparency and ensuring that DeKomp does not increase inequalities.

Furthermore, the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training tasked the Work Research Institute (AFI) at Oslo Metropolitan University to evaluate DeKomp. Lasting from 2019 to 2025, the evaluation project to this date has four publications (in Norwegian):

In addition to the increased focus on decentralized competence development, the Norwegian Government have rapidly launched a vast number of projects, programs, and new commitments with the overall intention of raising the quality of Norwegian schools. Some examples of these are (in Norwegian):

Published May 6, 2022 9:49 AM - Last modified Feb. 21, 2024 10:08 AM