Minister says Iceland has hit bottom in PISA results

Inga Sæland, Iceland’s minister for children and education, said it was clear that Iceland had “hit bottom” after the latest PISA results were released, mbl.is reported.

The results showed that Icelandic students’ overall performance had declined more since 2015 than that of students in any of the more than 70 countries and territories included in the OECD comparison.

Speaking at a news conference, Sæland said some of the findings were positive, but others were not. She said Iceland had received a “red card” for its children’s educational performance according to the measures used by PISA.

“The task is not to rebuild the education system from the ground up. We will use the strengths that are already there,” Sæland said. She added that there was strong support in society for reversing the trend.

Among the positive findings, she highlighted the children’s determination and perseverance, as well as their more positive responses to some questions compared with children in OECD countries generally. She also said more Icelandic children felt well, were optimistic about the future and felt comfortable at school.

Young people in Iceland also scored highly in social factors and related areas, generally performing better than their peers in other OECD countries.

However, Sæland said the decline in reading comprehension, mathematics and STEM subjects had been “a complete collapse” since 2015. She said the government intended to reverse the trend.

Ten years ago, 78% of students had basic reading comprehension skills. Today, the figure is 56%, including 50% of boys and 62% of girls.

“This is more painful than words can express,” Sæland said. She added that the authorities had failed to remain sufficiently vigilant and warned against pretending that everything was fine.

Sæland said teachers, parents, grandparents and those responsible in the Ministry of Children and Education all needed to take responsibility and work together to improve the situation.