Unforgivable, But Not Unsolvable

In an interview on Sprengisandur this weekend, Minister of Children and Education Inga Sæland said what many have thought but few in her position have said out loud: “This is completely unforgivable for one of the richest countries in the world.”

She was talking about the fact that close to half of boys graduate from elementary school with such poor reading comprehension that a large share of them have few opportunities for further education.

She is right. And it matters that a minister says it plainly.

In the interview she also said: “We don’t need more conversations, we don’t need more reports, we don’t need shelf metres of research or more money for studies.”

Those words could have come straight out of an article I wrote here on Vísir in early June. There, I said we didn’t need yet another initiative, we needed action. It was good to hear the minister speak this way. We agree on where things stand, and we agree that the time for analysis is over.

That’s why I want to say it clearly. I want to be on the minister’s team in this project.

Acknowledging the Problem Is the First Step

It’s easy to criticize the government for the state of the education system. The infrastructure debt the minister describes wasn’t created in a single term. It has built up over years, while the Development Fund for Learning Materials has only about 39% of the funding it had in 2007, and about 70% of teachers say they make their own teaching material because nothing else exists.

But criticism alone fixes nothing. Neither does acknowledging the problem. Still, it’s the precondition for change, and the minister has now taken that step in front of the whole nation.

The budget includes an additional 600 million ISK for the production of learning materials. That’s a step in the right direction, and the minister says she has high hopes of using it well.

That’s where the next big question lies. How do we make the best use of it?

Icelandic Ingenuity Is Ready

Over the past two years, a small team at a startup has developed more than a thousand new stories for the youngest grades of elementary school. That shows what new methods and new technology make possible. Work that once took decades and cost hundreds of millions can now be done faster, cheaper, and at a higher quality than ever before.

The same is true elsewhere. In Iceland there are people at companies, universities, and schools who care deeply about literacy and have the knowledge and tools to contribute. The ministry doesn’t have to solve this alone, and it shouldn’t have to.

If the funding is going to deliver real results, it needs to reach more than the traditional publishers. It needs to create room for innovation, collaboration, and experimentation. That’s where businesses can lighten the load on the system instead of standing on the sidelines.

Interest Is the Foundation

There’s one thing I’d like to add for the minister, not as criticism but as an addition.

The minister rightly pointed out that there’s little use in forcing a child to read the Snorra-Edda when they don’t understand the text. This is the key point. Literacy isn’t built from textbooks alone. It’s built when a child wants to read.

That’s why part of the rebuilding needs to focus on reading material that children choose themselves. Material that sparks curiosity and holds their attention, in Icelandic. A child who enjoys reading reads more. A child who reads more becomes a better reader.

Same Team

The minister said she didn’t take the job to do anything but roll up her sleeves. Good.

Many of us want to roll up our sleeves with her. Parents, teachers, school leaders, businesses, and organizations.

This project is too big for one ministry.

But it’s not too big for all of us together.

The situation is unforgivable.

It’s not unsolvable.

The author is CEO of the software company Revera and founder of Lesa.