Principal backs longer schooling for students missing standards

The principal of Rimaskóli says Iceland should consider extending the education of students who fail to meet basic standards, mbl.is reports. She also blames years of unclear government policy and frequent ministerial changes for the country’s poor performance in the latest PISA tests.

Icelandic children have never performed worse in PISA. They scored well below the OECD average in reading, science and mathematics, while 44 percent failed to achieve basic proficiency in all three subjects by the end of compulsory schooling.

“The Ministry of Education has simply been in disarray in recent years,” Þóranna Rósa Ólafsdóttir, principal of Rimaskóli, told mbl.is. She said three ministers had held the post since the end of 2024, adding that lasting improvement would require a clear, long term vision.

“That can only happen if politicians decide not to use schools as a political battleground but work together. This is a shared task, regardless of political parties. It does not work for a new person to come in and change everything. We need a policy that lasts for several years, and people must agree on it,” she said.

Students given too much leeway

Þóranna said there was broad agreement that the situation in Iceland’s education system was serious and required action. She believes the national curriculum for compulsory schools should be reviewed and simplified, as Education and Children’s Minister Inga Sæland has proposed.

The curriculum was ambitious when introduced, she said, but its competence criteria had never been sufficiently clear or consistent between schools. Þóranna said schools had been given the curriculum in 2013 and left to work out how to implement it, without adequate guidance. She said the Centre for Education and School Services only began providing some guidance last autumn.

She also said higher demands needed to be placed on students and that the possibility of extending education for those who did not meet the standards should be examined.

“We may have given children too much leeway. Because of inclusive schooling, we have simplified things too much. The support that was supposed to accompany inclusive schooling did not materialise,” she said.

Each class contains a highly diverse group of children, she said, while the number of children with foreign backgrounds has increased significantly. Teachers had not been able to meet the needs of all students, forcing schools to lower their expectations.

“We always end up responsible for the children. Because schooling is compulsory, we have no choice but to take the child in,” Þóranna said.