Primary school pupils to get numbers instead of the letters that replaced numbers

The Ministry of Education has announced plans for grades at the end of compulsory school to be given in numbers instead of letters. The letters were introduced about a decade ago, replacing numbers.

“We have reviewed the matter carefully and concluded that the old system was better,” says a ministry spokesperson. “That is, the system before the system before this one. Not the one before that.”

Teachers have received the news with stoic calm. “I've been teaching for 28 years,” says a form teacher in Hafnarfjörður. “I've given grades in numbers, letters, competence criteria, colours and once, in 2019, in smiley faces. I've still got the numbers in a drawer somewhere. I knew they'd be back.”

Not all parents are convinced. “I'd finally worked out the difference between B+ and B,” says a mother in Grafarholt. “It took me six years. Now I'm supposed to understand what 7.5 means again. I don't know if I have the energy.”

Pupils, on the other hand, are mostly content. In a survey of tenth-graders, 84 percent said they didn't know which system was in force, and 16 percent asked whether it would affect TikTok.

Education experts have pointed out that changes to the grading system have limited effect on reading comprehension. The ministry has responded by announcing a new scale for measuring reading comprehension. It will be in letters.

According to the ministry's timeline, the system will be reviewed again in 2036. Mysan's sources say one option under consideration is to introduce letters.