2. Seamless Transition from Primary to Upper Secondary Education

Brief description

This case examines the transition from lower secondary school to upper secondary education – one of the most significant transitions in the lives of children and young people. The transition involves both a change in school life and a formal shift in responsibility from the municipality to the county authority, and affects many actors, services, and systems.

For young people, this is a phase characterised by expectations, choices, and increased personal responsibility. For parents and guardians, it is about the reassurance that their child will receive appropriate follow-up. For staff in schools and support services, it is about providing a high-quality offer, often under time pressure and with limited overview.

During this transition, there is a need for relevant information to follow the pupil in a secure, accurate, and comprehensible way – without the pupil or their parents and guardians having to act as information carriers between actors. This case highlights how current practice and systems provide limited support for this need.

Who submitted this case?

The SAMT-BU project group, drawing on shared insight from municipalities, county authorities, and national agencies in the education and childhood sector.

The problem today

Today, many people find that the transition between lower secondary school and upper secondary education is not adequately supported by coherent information flow. Important knowledge about a pupil’s school history, needs for adaptation, earlier measures, or follow-up often does not reach the right actor at the right time.

This means that information must be re-collected or re-assessed, and that follow-up may be delayed or insufficient.

Where do breakdowns in information flow or responsibility occur?

Breakdowns occur in particular:

• when responsibility shifts from the municipality to the county authority
• when different services and levels of government have different understandings of concepts, roles, and responsibilities
• when specialist systems and work processes are not adapted for cross-agency collaboration
• when there is uncertainty about what information may, should, or must be shared

Actors

End users

• Young people transitioning from lower secondary school to upper secondary education
• Parents and guardians

Service staff

• Teachers, counsellors, and school management in lower and upper secondary schools
• Support services such as the Educational and Psychological Counselling Service (PPT) and the Follow-up Service (OT)

Specialist system suppliers

• Suppliers of school administration systems and related support systems in primary and lower secondary education and upper secondary education

Governing actors

Directorates (professional and operational governing actors)

• The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training (Udir) – Professional directorate for compulsory schooling. Sets guidelines for curricula, assessment, concepts, reporting, and use of educational data.
• The Norwegian Digitalisation Agency (Digdir) – Cross-sectoral governing actor for digital interoperability, data sharing, architecture, and coherent services.
• Bufdir – Governing actor for the holistic follow-up of children and young people, particularly at interfaces with child welfare services and the family.
• The Norwegian Directorate of Health (where relevant) – Governing actor for regulations and practice relating to health and interoperability around children and young people.

Ministries (political and governance-level governing actors)

• The Ministry of Education and Research – Overall responsibility for the education sector and governance signals to subordinate agencies.
• The Ministry of Digitalisation and Public Administration – Overall responsibility for digitalisation, data sharing, and cross-sectoral initiatives.
• The Ministry of Children and Families (where relevant) – Governing actor for policy relating to children, young people, and families.

Service providers

• Municipalities – Responsible for primary and lower secondary schools, the Educational and Psychological Counselling Service (PPT), and several support functions. Closest to users in practice.
• County authorities – Responsible for upper secondary education, the Follow-up Service, and transitions onwards in the educational pathway.

Coordinating and supporting actors

• KS – The interest organisation for the local government sector and an important bridge between the state and municipalities.
• KS Digital – Operational actor for shared municipal digital solutions and interoperability.
• Sikt – Delivers and manages shared services in the education sector, particularly at interfaces with further education.
• SSB – Uses educational data for statistics, analysis, and insight.

Consequences of the current situation

For end users (young people and parents/guardians)

• Anxiety during an already demanding transition
• Need to explain their situation and needs multiple times
• Risk of delayed or insufficient follow-up

For service staff

• Additional workload related to manual coordination
• Lack of overall overview and uncertainty in decision-making
• Risk of measures not being carried forward or arriving too late

For organisations

• Inefficient use of time and resources
• Increased risk of errors, delays, and dropout

At system level

The consequences are felt at both individual and system level. Pupils may experience disruptions in follow-up; staff spend time compensating for the lack of coherence; and organisations see reduced impact from measures that have already been put in place. The challenges are to a limited extent about a lack of effort or will, but rather about structural barriers such as fragmented systems, unclear interfaces, and the absence of shared frameworks for information sharing.

Desired situation

In a desired situation, young people and their parents and guardians experience a coherent transition in which relevant information is available to the right actors at the right time. Staff have better overview and a stronger basis for decision-making, and can more quickly provide the right follow-up. Collaboration between the municipality, county authority, and the state is clearer, and information flows in a way that supports coherent services – without placing unnecessary burden on users.

Insight work

This case is based on earlier insight from work on coherent services for children and young people, including experiences from municipalities, county authorities, and national agencies relating to transitions in the educational pathway.

Project objectives addressed

The case addresses in particular the following objectives:

• Simpler and more coherent user journeys for pupils, parents and guardians, and staff throughout the educational pathway
• Better interoperability and information flow across levels of government and sectors
• A better foundation for developing shared information models and reusable solutions
• Learning and experience that can be transferred to other transitions in the lives of children and young people, and to other sectors