Borgarbyggð appeals refusal to release its PISA results

Borgarbyggð has appealed the refusal to release its results from the 2025 PISA assessment, arguing that the municipality needs the data to evaluate its schools. The complaint was filed with Iceland’s Information Committee, mbl.is reported.

Unnur Brá Konráðsdóttir, the municipality’s chief executive, said Borgarbyggð was seeking overall results comparable to those published for the country’s seven most populous municipalities, not personal information about any student. The municipality says the refusal by the Ministry of Education and Children and the Centre for Education and School Services breaches the administrative law principle of equal treatment.

About 50 students from Borgarbyggð took part in the assessment. Konráðsdóttir said she believed that was enough to produce useful results and questioned the ministry’s benchmark of about 160 participants. The ministry has said that fewer participants increase statistical uncertainty. It used a threshold of around 160 to ensure it could identify differences from the national average with sufficient confidence.

Borgarbyggð requested the data on September 18. The ministry rejected the request on October 8, and the municipality filed its appeal the following day. In its refusal, the ministry said PISA results are available in open OECD databases but not in the format requested. It also said some processing and preliminary data are restricted under an agreement with the OECD and could be traceable to individuals.

Konráðsdóttir said the information would help the municipality assess its schools and track whether changes were working. She said results could, for example, be reviewed in 10 years to determine whether measures introduced in 2026 had achieved their intended effect.