Boys need to see the benefits of reading, MP says

Jón Pétur Zimsen, an MP for Iceland’s Independence Party and first deputy chair of Parliament’s General and Education Affairs Committee, says boys should be approached differently in reading instruction and shown more clearly why reading and comprehension matter, mbl.is reports.

He also believes students need clearer measures of their own progress and criticises the current letter grading system in that context. He spoke to mbl.is after a meeting held by Education and Children’s Affairs Minister Inga Sæland on Tuesday.

New PISA results show that only 50 percent of Icelandic boys have basic reading comprehension skills at age 15, compared with 62 percent of girls. The figure for boys was 53 percent in the previous assessment in 2022.

Zimsen said educators needed to find an approach that suited boys better and link reading to benefits they could understand from an early age. He compared reading with sports and music, saying children understand that practice makes them better at football or at playing an instrument.

He said clearer measurements could also be motivating, particularly for boys. Students should be able to see that their effort is producing real progress, for example from one month to the next, rather than receiving a letter grade that provides limited information.

Zimsen has supported replacing letter grades with numerical grades, although he said that would be only one part of a broader effort. He wants children’s reading abilities to be monitored closely from the first through third grades, with students and parents given clear information about their progress.

A change in grading in primary schools, from letters to numbers, will formally take effect next spring.