Utdanningsdirektoratet (Udir)
Utdanningsdirektoratet (Udir) is the national agency for primary and secondary education and kindergartens, under the Ministry of Education and Research. It manages the public registers of kindergartens, primary schools and upper secondary schools in Norway. The agency runs Nasjonalt skoleregister (the national school register) and collects information about each individual school: ownership (public or private), pupil numbers, year groups, special units and contact details. This information forms part of Placepoint's map layer for education.
For a home buyer, proximity to a school and a kindergarten is often the single factor that weighs most heavily in the location decision, especially for families with children. For a developer, the same data is a mandatory part of the prospecting work: school admission areas, school catchment areas and capacity determine the target group for the home and its price outlook. Note that some municipalities (Bergen kommune is a well known example) do not share their school catchment areas through Udir. For these, Placepoint collects the data directly from the municipality.
Utdanningsdirektoratet reports to the Ministry of Education and Research and is responsible for developing, communicating and managing the regulations for kindergartens, primary and secondary education, and vocational training. Among other things, we manage the national school register and publish official data on kindergartens and schools in Norway.
Summarised from udir.no/om-udir
More information: Utdanningsdirektoratet, main page, Skoleporten, statistics on primary schools and upper secondary schools, Barnehagefakta, public information about kindergartens, Opplæringsloven, the Education Act (Lovdata)