More conflicts = worse reading outcome?

The year is 2025. A quarter of a century has passed since the first major reading initiative began in Iceland, and the nation has been repeatedly reminded of the importance of literacy and comprehension. Literacy, broadly speaking, is closely tied to our interactions with others. It relates to social customs, relationships, knowledge, language, and our culture. Literacy is a part of our lives along with other means of communication. For many, reading is second nature – but those who can't read are today isolated from many forms of communication. Reading is the key to all learning and most areas of daily life.

Research like PISA (Education and Training Agency – PISA 2018) shows that Icelandic children have generally performed well in reading, but in recent years it has become more concerning how many struggle with poor comprehension. The latest international survey results show that Icelandic children and teenagers are increasingly having difficulty READING and understanding texts (OECD PISA 2022). 

At LESA, we have been diving deep to look at reading from all angles, as it's our heartfelt mission to make home reading effective and fun. Among other things, we have examined reading initiatives over the past quarter, leading to 3-5 major reading initiatives being launched, as well as many smaller ones. 

This will cover key initiatives and strategies from the year 2000 to today. It's not just a listing, but also an evaluation of what worked, what fell by the wayside, and where we stand now that reading is in stiff competition with screens and our children's increasingly fractured attention spans.

We Icelanders are a bit of a determined bunch, often letting things wait, then taking the plunge and tackling tasks. Surprisingly, this method often yields good results. But does this approach work when we are teaching our children to READ?

The First Initiative - Reading Initiative 

In 2000, a formal national initiative simply called Reading Initiative was launched, with the goal to strengthen the reading habits of children and youth. The philosophy was clear: reading is a societal issue, not just a teacher's project. The project was initiated by educational authorities in cooperation with schools, libraries, and the media. The motivation was growing concern about reading skills in the country.

Research at the time indicated that Icelandic children read less than their peers in neighboring countries (Education and Training Agency – PISA results) and many teachers felt that interest in books was dwindling. The initiative was framed as a shared responsibility of society – not just a task for teachers or the educational system. Daily home reading was encouraged, which could have long-term impacts on children's comprehension and vocabulary. The initiative aimed to reverse this trend, enhance reading habits, and ensure upcoming generations had a strong foundation in their mother tongue.

The first years saw many participating enthusiastically. The media kept track, libraries hosted new events, and publishers contributed. The discussion turned towards books again, sparking numerous events, but long-term effects were limited.  These manifested mostly in reading festivals and incentive awards for students and teachers. When it came to PISA surveys in the years after 2000, Icelandic students were in a strong position, but the trend began to decline gradually (Education and Training Agency – PISA results).  

Literacy Pact - National Literacy Pact
In 2015, the Ministry of Education, local municipalities, and the National Parent Association, Home and School, made an agreement to improve literacy in the country. The pact had the goal that all children should be able to read proficiently by the end of primary school, thereby increasing their opportunities for active participation in society.

The role of the Educational Materials Center was to prepare screening tests for schools, assist teachers in assessments, support local communities in achieving their goals, operate an active literacy information portal, and organize events about literacy.  

Home and School wanted a framework similar to the Parent Pact of the association and thus support parents to take more part and responsibility in the literacy process. Therefore, a pact was created consisting of 6 points to support parents and homes in children's reading education.  The MMS website (see: Literacy Web) describes collaboration with numerous entities such as the City Library, City of Reykjavik, Icelandic Association of Local Authorities, National Broadcasting Service and numerous professional associations.

Reading Initiative by Scientist Ævar

From 2014 to 2019, Ævar Þór Benediktsson, better known as Scientist Ævar, initiated a reading campaign among all primary school students in the country (see: Literature Web). The intent was to make reading a fun adventure for children. The children were encouraged to READ more - those who read the most became characters in his books about Scientist Ævar's childhood antics. Ultimately, several lucky kids were chosen to become part of the books – and hence secret characters in Scientist Ævar's adventures. Following this were various reading incentives like becoming a character in books about thrillers and robots.   

The reading incentives involved students reading and logging their reading achievements on a particular form which school libraries received. During the phases of the initiative, the children read a total of over 330,000 books (see Ævar's Facebook page) which can be considered quite an achievement.

Other Smaller Reading Initiatives
These include: Book Shenanigans in Breiðholt from 2018, Time to READ (2022), and the Superhero Reading Project by public libraries in 2024. There are undoubtedly more reading initiatives that communities and people passionate about reading and the Icelandic language have launched over the past 25 years. 

The Results - What Does the Statistics Show?
The Educational Materials Center has now been administering reading proficiency tests for several years since autumn 2016 - they are conducted three times a year. According to the MMS reading proficiency test given to students in all grade levels at the end of 2018, school children's reading fluency increased significantly year over year. Indications were that efforts to improve children's reading skills and interest were yielding results (see: MMS). Unfortunately, these indications were contradicted by the results from the one international survey we participate in.

Results from PISA 2022 (Programme for International Student Assessment) organized by the OECD show that Icelandic students are still below expectations in comprehension, and the situation is worsening. The OECD average indicated the same or worse reading performance between 2018 and 2022 with Iceland falling by 40 points, which is considered a significant drop according to the table below, and the nation must take these results seriously. 

PISA Reading - Iceland 2000-2022:

If we look at where Iceland ranks compared to other countries, it's difficult to discern the reading factor alone. But broadly speaking, Iceland was in the upper half, i.e., above average in 2000, but by 2015/2018 had significantly declined and was alarmingly low in 2022 – around 37th place, though there is some uncertainty in the figures about reading alone (see: Wikipedia). 

What's the Issue?
According to analysis on Wikipedia about the 2022 PISA survey, the following has been observed:

• Reading has declined over 20 years. The OECD estimates that 15-year-old Icelanders in 2022 are at a level where 14-year-old students were a few years earlier.

• An overly large group does not reach minimum literacy, with 40% of Icelandic students not achieving basic proficiency compared to 26% in the Nordic countries. 

• There's a significant difference between the performance of girls and boys, with girls averaging 35 points higher in reading.

• It's sad to see that 47% of boys did not reach minimum reading proficiency (level 2), while 32% of girls are at that level.
  
  

This is not the result we hoped for. It is, in fact, very challenging to evaluate the results of these three major initiatives: Reading Initiative (2000), National Pact (2014), and Scientist Ævar's Reading Initiative (2015), as described above, mainly because their goals weren't clear and poorly measurable, no baseline assessment was made to compare changes, and existing measurements were not designed to measure the results of such initiatives.

Adapting the Environment to Kids, not Kids to the Environment

The Reading Initiative in 2000 reminded the nation that reading is the foundation of education and culture. Now, as new generations grow up in a faster world with much more stimulation than before, we need to rethink the approach. If we want the Icelandic language to thrive and future kids to stand strong in an international world, there's no simpler, cheaper, and more effective way than to READ – every single day.

This is the goal of those behind LESA (see LESA.is)  - to enhance reading skills and joy in reading for children and lead them into pleasure reading. For this, we will utilize all the technology and knowledge that has been added to the repository since 2000. Programming has advanced, gamification has made great strides, artificial intelligence is at an incredible level, and we will use all of this to meet children with healthy play and learning on the screens. Because the kids are there whether we like it or not.

We're going to measure: Natural reading speed, comprehension, joy in reading, and continuity statistics. Most importantly, it's about creating a positive experience using gamification methods so that children associate reading with joy, curiosity, and togetherness, not just duty.