The Educational System in Iceland Ministry of Education, Science and Culture 1998 contents BACKGROUND . 4 PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION . 10 COMPULSORY EDUCATION . 16 UPPER SECONDARY EDUCATION . 24 HIGHER EDUCATION . 32 TABLES . 40 3 B ACKGROUND Iceland is a republic Iceland is an island in the North for a four-year term. Executive with a parliamentary Atlantic Ocean, on the borders power lies with the cabinet democracy. of the temperate and the Arctic formed by the political parties. zones, with its extreme northern The government must have the point touching the Arctic Circle. direct or indirect support of the Its nearest neighbour to the west majority of the Icelandic parlia- is Greenland, at a distance of ment, which has 63 members. 278 km. Some 420 km to the Parliamentary elections are held southeast lie the Faroe Islands. at intervals of four years or less. Iceland´s total area is approxi- The Evangelical Lutheran 2 mately 103,000 km of which Church is the official state only 23% is arable land. church. As of the 1st of December 1997, Local government is exercised the population of Iceland was by 162 municipalities. 272,064 with a population densi- 2 ty of ca. 2.5 inhabitants per km . In 1996, the principal employ- Icelandic is the national lan- ment sectors were: agriculture, guage. 4.5% of work force; fishing and fishing industry, 10.9%; industry Iceland is a republic with a par- other than fishing, 11.1%; con- liamentary democracy. The Pres- struction, 6.5%; commerce and ident is elected by popular vote repair services, 13.7%; hotel and 4 A fundamental princi- restaurant, 3.1%; transport and tionally been organised within ple of Icelandic educa- communications, 7.1%; banking the public sector, and there are tion is that everyone and insurance, 3.2%; public ad- very few private institutions in should have equal op- ministration, 4.2%; real estate the school system. Almost all portunities to acquire and business services, 6.2%; ed- private schools receive public an education. ucation, 6.7%; health services funding. and social work, 14.7%; others, 8.1%. At the pre-school level, teaching and education are carried out As of the 1st of November 1997, with clear goals in mind, under 3.8% of the work force was un- the guidance of specially trained employed. personnel. Basic principles The main purpose of compulso- A fundamental principle of Ice- ry schooling (ages six to sixteen landic education is that every- years) is to prepare pupils for one should have equal opportu- life and work in a continuously nities to acquire an education, ir- developing, democratic society. respective of sex, economic sta- The organisation of the school tus, residential location, religion, as well as its work shall, there- possible handicap, and cultural fore, be guided by tolerance, or social background. According Christian values and democratic to the law of 1974 on the educa- co-operation. tional system, everyone is enti- tled to free compulsory upper At the upper secondary level, secondary and higher education. which normally includes the six- Education in Iceland has tradi- teen- to twenty-year age group, 5 of opportunity among adults without regard to location, age, gender, occupation or previous education. Distribution of responsibility Icelandic parliament is legally and politically responsible for the educational system. It deter- mines its basic objectives and administrative framework. All education comes under the juris- diction of the Ministry of Educa- tion, Science and Culture, with The Icelandic parlia- anyone who has completed the exception of a few spe- ment is legally and compulsory education or has cialised schools. politically responsible turned eighteen has the right to for the educational enter a course of studies. An ef- The educational system has, to a system. fort must be made to give pupils large extent, been decentralised a choice of subjects and forms of both with regard to responsibili- instruction in accordance with ties and decision-making. This their needs and wishes. The pri- reflects a general trend in Ice- mary aims of upper secondary landic society. Local municipali- education are to prepare pupils ties are responsible for the oper- for life and work in a democrat- ation of pre-schools and primary ic society by offering them suit- and lower secondary schools. able opportunities to learn and On the other hand, the state develop individually, and pre- runs the upper secondary pare them for employment schools and schools at the high- through specialised studies lead- er education level. ing to professional qualifications or further study. Central administration The Ministry of Education, Sci- Universities are charged with the ence and Culture is directed by a task of carrying out research and Secretary General, who acts on offering higher education pro- the instructions of the Minister. grammes in different subjects as stipulated by the legislation gov- The Ministry is divided into three erning each institution. offices: • Office of the Minister and Sec- The main purpose of adult edu- retary General, which includes cation is to encourage equality four departments: Administra- 6 The Ministry of Educa- tion, Financial Affairs, Interna- The National Centre for Educa- tion, Science and Cul- tional Relations and Legal Affairs. tional Materials (under the aus- ture issues the Nation- • Office of Education and Re- pices of the Ministry of Educa- al Curriculum Guide- search tion, Science and Culture) devel- lines for compulsory • Office of Cultural Affairs. ops and publishes educational and upper secondary materials for compulsory schools education Each of these departments and and distributes them to pupils offices is under the control of a free of charge. Director General. The Institute for Educational Re- The Ministry determines the ed- search is an independent institu- ucational programme for pre- tion funded by the state through school education at the national the Ministry of Education, Sci- level by issuing an educational ence and Culture. Its main func- programme which the pre- tion is to carry out research in schools are to follow. the field of education, both at the compulsory and upper sec- The Ministry issues the National ondary levels. The Institute is re- Curriculum Guidelines for com- sponsible for organising, setting pulsory and upper secondary and grading the nationally co-or- education. These National Cur- dinated examinations. riculum Guidelines are intended both to provide the detailed ob- By law, each higher education jectives necessary to implement institution is directly responsible the law and offer direction as to to the Ministry of Education, Sci- how they should be carried out ence and Culture. in practice. 7 co-operation between the indi- vidual pre-schools. A school board is responsible for compulsory educational af- fairs for each municipality. It is to ensure that all children of school age in the area receive the instruction prescribed by law. Local municipalities are re- sponsible for the full operation of schools at the compulsory level (primary and lower sec- ondary education), including the construction, operation and Local municipalities Local administration maintenance of facilities in ac- are responsible for Local municipalities are respon- cordance with the law of 1995 the full operation of sible for the full operation of concerning compulsory educa- pre-schools, primary pre-schools, and primary and tion. and lower secondary lower secondary schools. Apart schools. from being represented in the There is no local administration school boards of upper sec- at the upper secondary and ondary schools, local municipal- higher education level. ities have no administrative re- sponsibilities at the upper sec- Evaluation and ondary level, or at the higher ed- supervision ucation level. According to legislation and reg- ulations on pre-school educa- Pre-school education is con- tion, the Ministry of Education, trolled by the pre-school board Science and Culture is responsi- which supervises pre-school ed- ble for carrying out a compre- ucational affairs in the munici- hensive evaluation of pre- pality concerned. The larger mu- schools, i.e. their general educa- nicipalities have pre-school rep- tional performance with regard resentatives who are employees to the national objectives and of the municipalities in question. the schools´ educational plans. The pre-school representative works in co-operation with the Legislation adopted in 1995 on pre-school and its director, giv- compulsory education and in ing advice, monitoring the oper- 1996 on upper secondary educa- ation of the pre-schools within tion stipulates that all compulso- that municipality and promoting ry and upper secondary schools The Ministry of Educa- are to adopt methods of evaluat- Financing tion, Science and Cul- ing school activities, including Local municipalities pay for the ture shall investigate instruction and administrative construction and the operation the self-evaluation practices, internal communica- of pre-schools and primary and methods used by tion and external relations. The lower secondary schools. Par- compulsory and upper Ministry of Education, Science ents pay fees for their children secondary schools at and Culture is to investigate the to attend pre-schools. Compul- a five-year interval. self-evaluation methods used by sory education (primary and the schools at five-year intervals. lower secondary), including textbooks and materials, is com- The Ministry is responsible for pletely free of charge but in up- carrying out evaluation of com- per secondary and higher edu- pulsory schools and their activi- cation only tuition is free. The ties to ensure that schooling state pays for all educational ma- complies with provisions of the terials at the compulsory level. law on compulsory education and the National Curriculum The operating costs of upper Guidelines. secondary education are funded by the state. Construction costs According to recent legislation and initial capital investment for and regulations concerning indi- equipment are divided between vidual higher education institu- the state and the municipalities, tions, evaluation of university which pay 60% and 40% respec- programmes must be conducted tively.