Among immigrants, there were large differences depending on which country they came from and whether they came to Norway early or late in life. Several of the analyses in the report are about pupils who are not immigrants. The proportion of pupils without lower secondary school points was highest and had the largest increase among groups that are often considered more vulnerable, such as pupils with low incomes, those with parents with primary and lower secondary education, high absenteeism and exemptions from national tests in the 8th grade.
Pupils without lower secondary school points are not a homogeneous group in terms of why they have not been given credits, even when we exclude immigrants. Some have been exempted from education or assessment in subjects, and some do not receive an overall achievement mark (standpunktkarakter) due to a lack of basis for setting a grade. Over time, the proportion of pupils without lower secondary school points who completely lack numerical grades and the proportion who have exemptions were stable. However, over time, it has become clearly more common for pupils to lack an assessment basis (IV) in one or more subjects. In 2025, the proportion without an assessment basis in one or more subjects was over 50 percent for the first time. This must be seen related to increasing absenteeism in primary and secondary school education. Pupils with IV in in at least one subject have on average a significantly higher rate of absence than other pupils without lower secondary school points. Girls have higher absenteeism than boys and girls also had subjects with “no assessment basis” (IV) to a greater extent than boys.
Subject notes (fagmerknader) show that exemptions in overall achievement marks more often result from pupils being exempted from graded assessment than from being exempted from instruction in a given subject. Boys are exempted to a somewhat greater extent than girls, in line with the fact that boys are overrepresented among pupils who are receiving individually tailored education.
The lack of lower secondary school points is also important for further schooling. A common feature is that pupils without lower secondary school points are less likely to go straight to upper secondary education, and this was particularly evident among immigrants with a short residence period. By looking more closely at the educational program at the start of upper secondary education among pupils without lower secondary school, we find that the increase in the number of pupils with missing lower secondary school points from 2015 to 2024 has been absorbed to a much greater extent by vocational education programs than by those preparatory to university studies.
Within all immigration categories, pupils without lower secondary school points had a significantly lower completion rate of upper secondary education than pupils with lower secondary school points. Differences in school performance and later transition to the labour market related to missing lower secondary school points are least marked among immigrants. This is related to the fact that lacking lower secondary school points is less a result of weak skills and more due to little time in Norway for many of the immigrants.