More adults in kindergartens made one particular thing possible
A new study shows what happened when kindergartens got more staff.
More adults in the kindergarten led to closer follow-up of each individual child, stronger relationships between staff and children, and better contact with parents, according to a new study.(Photo: Gorm Kallestad / NTB)
Is it the outdoor area, the number of toys, good language development, the educational programme, or the interaction between adults and children?
Or perhaps a combination of all these things?
"The number of adults is a decisive factor for quality," says Karin Hognestad, a professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway.
She has studied how the staffing requirement is met in Norwegian kindergartens. In 2025, she published a study showing that there were rarely enough adults present for both the youngest and the oldest children.
In a new research project, researchers at the Fafo Institute for Labour and Social Research examined what happened when Oslo municipality provided several kindergartens with funding to increase staffing. Did they improve?
11 kindergartens received more money
Mona Bråten is a researcher at the Fafo Institute for Labour and Social Research and one of those who has looked at what increased staffing does to the quality in kindergartens.(Photo: Fafo)
All the kindergartens that participated in the project were located in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas of Oslo, including Alna, Bjerke, Gamle Oslo, Grorud, and Stovner.
Many of the children came from low-income families, spoke minority languages, and had been granted special educational assistance.
In other words, the project involved some of the most vulnerable children. According to the researchers, this makes the educational work both very important and, at times, demanding.
"Our findings were interesting enough that we wanted to write a separate scientific article about the project," says Mona Bråten, one of the researchers behind the Fafo report.
The researchers interviewed kindergarten staff and employees in the district administrations. They also sent out surveys to the directors of the kindergartens.
Kindergartens could decide themselves
The kindergartens were allowed to decide how to use the funding, as long as it was spend on increasing staffing.
Many chose to hire professionals with specialised expertise in areas such as language training, child welfare, social care, or special education.
They explained that they wanted to strengthen their work with the most vulnerable children and their families.
"Allowing kindergartens to help decide what kind of expertise they needed was crucial for how they experienced the results," says Bråten.
For them, it was not just about adding more people, but about hat these people had the qualities that the kindergartens felt they needed.
Better follow-up and more contact
There were several things that improved during the project, according to the kindergartens themselves.
This was especially true for children with particular challenges, who received much closer and better follow-up.
Staff also reported that relationships between children and adults became stronger. And the kindergartens achieved better contact with the parents.
There was particularly one thing the kindergarten staff pointed to as very positive: the ability to divide children into smaller groups.
Easier to read aloud and focus
The smaller groups made it easier to talk with every child during the day and allowed for deeper and better conversations.
Many staff members reported that daily routines became calmer in smaller groups. It also became easier to shield certain activities, such as reading aloud or playing in smaller groups that required more concentration.
Staff also observed that children in smaller groups learned language more easily from one another through play. They saw this as especially valuable in kindergartens with many children who speak minority languages.
Enthusiasm among staff
According to Karin Hognestad at the University of South-Eastern Norway, all of this is especially important in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas.
She believes the new Fafo report may help politicians better understand the seriousness of the situation and the need for increased staffing.
Hognestad has researched what defines high-quality kindergartens.
"We must protect and fight for the staffing norm," says Karin Hognestad at the University of South-Eastern Norway.(Photo: USN)
"We know that kindergartens with high quality are characterised by professional enthusiasm among staff, and by employees who are present and engaged," she tells Science Norway.
Having enough adults ensures that the staff have enough time to interact with the children and makes it possible to organise them into smaller groups, according to the report.
"It's still important to remember that the number of staff is not the only factor. The staff's knowledge and expertise are also crucial for quality," she says.
Should apply to all kindergartens
"We must protect and fight for the staffing norm," says Hognestad.
In her view, the need for more staff does not only apply to kindergartens in disadvantaged areas.
She believes the situation across the kindergarten sector is serious enough that all kindergartens need strengthening.
"There's a lack of resources in many other sectors as well, but politicians must recognise that expectations placed on kindergartens have not been matched with adequate staff in today's conditions," says Hognestad.
"We also know that recruitment to kindergartens is under significant pressure. This clearly shows that politicians must improve the structural conditions so that kindergartens become an attractive workplace and provide good conditions for the youngest children," she adds.
More funding for kindergartens
Mona Bråten also agrees that increased staffing would benefit all kindergartens – not only those in disadvantaged areas.
"It's always positive when more funding is allocated to kindergartens," she says.
On March 5, it was announced that the government will distribute NOK 800 million (83 million USD) to strengthen staffing in Norwegian kindergartens. The money comes from the budget agreement reached in the Norwegian Parliament in December, writes the Norwegian broadcasting corporation NRK.
Oslo will receive NOK 104.6 million (11 million USD). Spread across the city's 600 municipal and private kindergartens, that amounts to well under NOK 200,000 (21,000 USD) per kindergarten, according to NRK – far from enough to fund a full-time position.
But the city government can choose to allocate the money to only some kindergartens.
Among other large municipalities, Bergen will receive NOK 43.8 million (4.5 million USD), Trondheim NOK 30.6 million (3.2 million USD), Stavanger NOK 22.4 million (2.3 million USD), and Tromsø NOK 11.2 million (1.2 million USD).
