Chaotic first action plan in education
Hermína Gunnþórsdóttir and Ingólfur Ásgeir Jóhannesson
September 2021 saw the publication of a document named Education Policy 2030. First Action Plan 2021-2024 (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2021). The plan is intended to serve as a follow-up to Parliamentary resolution on education policy for the years 2021–2030, no. 16. This is probably the most significant document on educational policy since the publication of the national curriculum guide for preschools, compulsory schools and secondary schools in 2011 and 2013 (compulsory school subject areas in the latter year). Consequently, this is an official paper which deserves careful scrutiny. Here, we, on the one hand, recount the events leading up to the publication of this action plan and, on the other, carefully examine the content and format of this first action plan relating to a new education policy.
In a nutshell, the plan is a compilation of actions and work components with little or no prioritization, nor is it placed in the context of other current policy documents. When plans for two new laws were published 17 October 2022 by the governmental consultative board a priority arrangement appeared, however, to the effect that the first two actions were of highest importance; on the one hand Planned legislation – school services and, on the other, Planned legislation – a new organization (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2022a, 2022b). Lesa meira…