8.2 Primary, lower and upper secondary school education Digital competence has become an important part of primary, lower and upper secondary education. In the development of the pupils’ digital skills, in addition to the possibilities in the technology, it is also important to focus on safe and secure use. The pupils must understand the need to update software, making regular backups and the risks of uncritical use of downloaded software and online services. The Government follows this up through Meld. St. 28 (2015–2016) Subjects – Specialisation – Understanding – A renewal of Knowledge Promotion. In the follow-up work, it will be considered whether cyber security has been adequately included in the basic digital expertise the pupils will acquire. Relevant curricula for upper secondary school education will also be considered in the follow-up of the report. 8.3 Higher education To reduce the gap between supply and demand in the field of cyber security, it is crucial to educate sufficient people with relevant expertise. In recent years, the Government has had a following-up on both Meld. St. 27 (2015–2016) and the Lysne Committee by earmarking more student capacity to ICT and cyber security. In the revised National Budget for 2015, 45 student places were earmarked for ICT and 200 student places for other technology and science subjects. In the budget for 2016, 100 student places were allocated to ICT. In the revised National Budget for 2016, 65 student places were earmarked cyber security and 135 student places were earmarked health and ICT education. For 2017, 500 student places for one year were earmarked ICT and when allocating the student places, the institutions were requested to take into account the need for cyber security. An increasing number of educational institutions include topics on cyber security as part of general ICT programmes. It is also important that cyber security and privacy related issues are part of other education programmes, such as law, economics and management. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in applications to ICT programmes. This contributes to increased competition for student places, which may result in improved quality and faster throughput. Seen over a longer perspective, the earmarked student places will result in a significant increase in the number of candidates with ICT and cyber security competence. The Government will prepare a new national strategy for cyber security competence. The strategy will assess the need for university places, among other things.