Parents’ group says teachers’ union misleads education debate

The chairman of Heimili og skóli, a parents’ organization, has accused the Icelandic Teachers’ Union, known as KÍ, of misleading public debate about the state of Iceland’s education system, including through inaccurate claims about the length of the school year. Sigvaldi Egill Lárusson made the comments in an interview with mbl.is.

Sigvaldi said the discussion should focus on facts about Icelandic children rather than teachers’ pay negotiations. He also said he wanted to see serious debate about a proposal made this spring by Education and Children’s Affairs Minister Inga Sæland to extend the school year.

At the start of the year, Sæland put forward three proposals: phone-free schools, replacing letter grades with numerical grades, and extending the school year. KÍ opposed all three, Sigvaldi said. The first two have since been implemented. He discussed the issue in an opinion article published by Vísir this week.

Sigvaldi said KÍ chairman Magnús Þór Jónsson had claimed that Icelandic primary school pupils have 180 teaching days a year, on a par with other Nordic countries. But, according to Sigvaldi, Iceland has 180 school days for pupils and only 170 teaching days under the definition used in international comparisons.

He cited Eurydice, a European education information and comparison network, which defines what counts as a teaching day. Days used for parent meetings and school events should not be counted, he said, because no teaching takes place on those days.

Sigvaldi said he had met Magnús Þór and urged him to correct the figure, but that he had not done so. Heimili og skóli has therefore written to KÍ’s board, asking it to consider whether the chairman’s statements about the number of teaching days comply with the union’s code of ethics.

According to Sigvaldi, Iceland’s school year is 30 days shorter than Denmark’s, 20 days shorter than Norway’s, 17 days shorter than Finland’s and eight days shorter than Sweden’s. He also said Danish children receive about 40 per cent more teaching hours than Icelandic primary school pupils. Summer holidays in Denmark last about six weeks, compared with 11 to 12 weeks in Iceland.

Sigvaldi questioned whether an 11- to 12-week break from school is best for six- and seven-year-olds starting their education. He said he doubted it was, and that no one was arguing otherwise.

PISA results published in early September showed that the academic performance of Icelandic primary school pupils continues to decline.