Former principal calls Iceland’s education system an emergency

Jón Pétur Zimsen, an Independence Party MP and former principal, says Iceland’s education system is in an emergency and cannot offer children the current standard, mbl.is reports. He said only 2 to 3 per cent of students now reach the highest proficiency levels, while 46 per cent lack basic skills.

Zimsen made the comments during an interview on mbl.is’s Dagmál programme, where he discussed the state of education with Magnús Þór Jónsson, chairman of the Icelandic Teachers’ Association, following the publication of the latest PISA results.

He said PISA results had once provided encouragement to people working in schools. However, school administrators have not received the results since 2012.

As principal of Réttarholtsskóli, a school, Zimsen fought to obtain the data in 2015. Although the results were encrypted, he said it was possible to see that several schools had improved significantly between assessments, including his own. The data also made it possible to examine the results and identify areas that needed improvement.

In 2012, about 23 per cent of students at his school were in the highest proficiency levels in reading comprehension, he said. The proportion is now about 2 per cent. In mathematics, the share fell from 24 per cent to about 3 per cent, while in science it is now about 14 per cent, according to Zimsen.

He said education authorities should have examined the characteristics of schools where results improved, rather than those where they declined.

“I am not blaming one political party or municipalities for this,” Zimsen said. “I think we all need to join forces on this issue because the situation as it is now is an emergency for us. We cannot offer Icelandic children this, with 2 to 3 per cent showing exceptional proficiency and 46 per cent lacking basic skills.”

He acknowledged that the figures were statistics, but said they were published by the Centre for Education and School Services, formerly the Icelandic Directorate of Education.