MP says Inga pulled grading changes out of thin air

Inga Sæland, Iceland’s minister for education and children, is facing criticism over planned changes to primary school grading. mbl.is reports that the Alþingi’s Constitutional and Supervisory Committee has opened an inquiry into the decision.

Ingveldur Anna Sigurðardóttir, an Independence Party MP and the committee’s second deputy chair, says the changes were poorly prepared. She argues that the minister has not shown sufficient knowledge of how assessment works in primary schools.

“Inga Sæland seems to have pulled this out of thin air, without consulting the ministry and without it being clear how this will affect the grading scale for primary school children,” Ingveldur said.

The minister has proposed replacing letter grades with numbers for students graduating from Grade 10 next spring. Under the ministry’s proposals, final grades would range from 4 to 10. A grade of 7 would mean a student had met the competency criteria in the national curriculum, while grades from 8 to 10 would reflect greater depth, confidence and independence in learning.

The proposals have drawn criticism, including from teachers who say the preparation period is too short and the details are unclear. The deadline for submitting comments is tomorrow.

Ingveldur said the committee wanted to examine the basis for the changes and why the minister had started with the grading scale rather than rethinking the assessment system from the ground up. She said she was not opposed to replacing letters with numbers, but argued that the proposed scale was not the same as the one used when older generations attended primary school.

The dispute follows a heated exchange in Alþingi’s question period yesterday between Inga and Progressive Party MP Ingibjörg Isaksen. Ingibjörg criticised the guidance on the new grading system as unclear and said the minister’s answers had left her no better informed. Inga replied, among other things, that it was not her job to “unconfuse” the MP.

Ingveldur said the minister’s answers raised questions and suggested that she lacked knowledge of how primary school grades are assessed. The education ministry has said the change is part of a broader review of assessment in primary schools. In an interview with Vísir today, Inga said she would not abandon the plans.