The youngest school children must go to school less, if it is for Naalakkersuisut. Now the debate on the bill in Inatsisartut is postponed.
NOTE: The article has been corrected after a new press release from IMAK.
Naalakkersuisut will cut down on the number of teaching days and teaching hours for the youngest stage in primary school. This must be done, among other things, by removing some subjects.
Greenlandic teaching must be strengthened at the youngest level, while Danish and English must only enter as actual teaching subjects from the 4th grade.
The proposal, which has met with much criticism, was to be debated for the second time in Inatsisartut on Wednesday 3 June. But now it appears from Inatsisartut’s website that the second reading has been pushed to the autumn assembly.
After the first reading, the proposal was referred to the Culture, Education, Research and Church Committee.
MIO criticizes the proposal about fewer school days, since, according to the children’s rights institution, it will affect the children with the greatest need, for whom school is a place with structure, community and stable adult relationships.
A group of researchers is also critical of the proposal. Researchers have already expressed criticism of the proposal during the consultation process earlier this year. Parts of their objections have been listened to, but they still have major reservations, they wrote in a post sent to Sermitsiaq in April.
Among other things, they are worried that it will affect the children’s general cognitive development if they are to be taught primarily in Greenlandic, as research shows that children’s ways of thinking develop better when more languages are taught.
Are English and Danish excluded?
The teachers’ union IMAK also questions the bill, as they do not think the bill is formulated clearly enough.
– Does the proposal mean that Danish and English must continue to be taught as subjects? Or do the wordings mean that the languages should only be used as an introductory subject? And if that is the case, what does teaching as an “introductory subject” mean exactly? Teachers need to know that. It is not clear from the proposal that is being considered now, says the organisation’s front woman, Elna Thomsen Heilmann in a press release.
Unlike the researchers, IMAK believes that it is a good idea that the youngest are only taught in Greenlandic.
According to the proposal, the number of teaching hours must be reduced from today’s 700 to 560 hours spread over 180 days. Today, the 700 hours are spread over between 200 and 240 days. It is pointed out that the reduction of school days will not change for the middle and oldest grades, which will still have to go to school 200 to 240 days a year.
In addition to changes to Danish and English teaching, the subject area “culture and society”, which includes the subjects social studies, history, religion and philosophy, must also be deleted.
A third subject area “mathematics and nature” is also changed to include only the subject mathematics.
