Teacher training is losing out, but more will become nurses.

– I’m not doing this to get a higher salary. It is obvious, she says.

Another sharp decline for teacher education, while nursing education is the winner.

That is a conclusion after this year’s applicant numbers came from Samordna admissions before the weekend.

Disruptive chatter

39-year-old Silje Villanger Setsaas has already made the choice, and is a good example of the trend.

She was a high school teacher for 13 years, before giving up. She has now been a nursing student for almost two years.

– I had many great students and colleagues. But the tone and attitude of society at large was rarely characterized by gratitude for a job well done. The denigration of the teaching profession seemed degrading, she says.

– Now everything is turned upside down. As a nursing student, people see me as an angel in white, and thank me for the work I do, she says.

Five years down

The figures from Samordna admissions are discouraging for the teaching profession. Number first choice applicants first choice applicantsApplicants who set up teacher training as their first choice. to teacher training nationally fell for the fifth year in a row.

Last year, the decline was as much as 22 per cent. This year, the total number of applicants to teacher training courses has fallen by 4.2 per cent. Becoming a primary school teacher is particularly unpopular, here the drop is 11 per cent.

Meanwhile, nursing education has become popular again, and can note an increase in applicants of over ten percent.

Setsaas is not surprised.

– Nursing education opens many doors, so you can become almost anything you want with this as a basic education. Teacher training makes you a teacher, she believes.

– Everyone thinks they are experts

Setsaas is unsure how much support the teachers actually have among the public.

– I think that people perceive teachers as a bit whiny. They think that the job can’t be that difficult. You just have to be a bit strict and have a good plan and make it exciting.

– Everyone has gone to school, and everyone therefore thinks they are experts in school. They just should have known.

In the footsteps of the aunts

Setsaas is married, is a mother of two, is originally from Radøy and lives in Bergen. She has lecturer training with a master’s degree in Nordic from the University of Bergen.

Both her mother and aunts are teachers, and originally it was a natural choice to follow in their footsteps, she says.

– Becoming a teacher was choosing the safe path, a job you could have for the rest of your life. And then I had a Norwegian teacher who was very good, who inspired me.

Setsaas envisioned a meaningful and predictable job, which was mostly about teaching, curricula, competence targets and a good atmosphere.

– And then I thought about the fact that you have all evenings, all weekends, all holidays, school holidays with children and family off, she says.

It didn’t quite turn out that way.

The ex-teacher worked for a few years at upper secondary schools in the Bergen area. She eventually ended up at Årstad upper secondary school.

There, she gradually began to realize that the teaching profession did not match her expectations.

– Several times I was responsible for over 100 students, who all had to have three different grades in Norwegian, she says.

Restlessness in the body

Even Setsaas thinks she was somewhat naive in the first place. Everything she had to control, document and manage as a teacher, became overwhelming.

– Then I discovered that the job is not really flexible. The long summer vacation is fantastic. But what few people talk about is that you are mentally at work for large parts of the day, she says.

– The working week always begins with uneasiness in the body on Friday evening, because you know you have to use Sunday afternoon to prepare.

Then came the corona pandemic in 2020. Setsaas sat in her home office and felt that her teaching job was draining her little by little.

– If I were to do that job properly and conscientiously, it would cost me much more than it gave me. So then I decided.

In autumn 2021, she applied to study nursing in Bergen. She got in, and on 30 April the following year she resigned, leaving the teaching profession for good.

Many unskilled

Setsaas is not alone. According to Statistics Norway, over 20 percent of Norwegians with teacher training work outside the school sector.

At the same time, employees without teaching training account for almost 20 per cent of teaching years in primary and secondary schools.

Right now, salary negotiations for the teachers are underway. The failing recruitment to the teaching profession is part of the discussions.

Together with 11 organisations, the government has drawn up a strategy to stop the exodus of teachers. It has not yet had an effect on the number of applicants, believes leader Bente Myrtveit of the Norwegian Education Association in Bergen.

– The figures are depressing and very challenging. The situation will become dramatic, if we do not reverse the trend, she writes in an email.

Myrtveit says that she certainly understands Setsaas’ choice to leave the teaching profession.

– It is very demanding to be in a job where you constantly feel that you are falling a little short. Many teachers describe the experience of not being able to give the pupils what they are entitled to as a burden, she writes.

Setsaas says that she has always wanted to become a nurse.

– My choice is pure internal motivation. I get so much from being able to help people who want to accept help from me. The kind that students often don’t want.

– Quite hopeless

The 39-year-old still believes that teaching is an extremely important profession, and that the salary must rise, and the resources must be increased.

– Higher wages are obvious. It is a very hard job, both physically and mentally. In addition, the classes are far too large, approximately 30 students per class. teacher, she says.

– It is quite hopeless. It is almost impossible to adapt the training to 30 different needs.