Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir Minister of Education Thorgerdur Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, born in 1965, has been the Minister of Education, Science and Culture of Iceland since January 2004. She holds a degree in law. Thorgerdur Katrín belongs to the Independence Party and has been member of the Parliament since 1999 where she has served on different committees. Before that she was director of the Social and Current Affairs Department of the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service.

Democracy and education

Society today is getting more and more complex. Family conditions and increasing participation in the labour market give parents less and less time to foster the younger generations. Unfortunately the time is gradually passing, when young people learned social behaviour and participation in a democratic society from older generations. Accordingly the responsibility of the education system is steadely increasing. This developement is the reason why the Ministry of Education in Iceland does emphasise live skills in the last revision few years ago of the curriculum for the compulsory and upper secondary schools in Iceland. By doing this we want to ensure and enhance our young citizens ability to function well in a democratic society, as democracy is and will go on being the cornerstone of our society.

All children from the age of 6 enjoy the right of 10 years comprehensive compulsory education and in addition 4 years of voluntary upper secondary education free of charge. At the compulsory level we emphasize inclusive education to reach all children according to their abilities. It is, indeed, a human right to be educated.

In the national DAKAR- plan, Iceland emphasizes inclusive education and education of pupils of foreign origin as well as lifelong learning as these are the areas which we feel we must strengthen even further.

Unfortunately there are still millions of children in the world who do not enjoy the fundamental human right to attend school. We feel it is the responsibility of national authorities to provide education for all children. However, in those cases where the national resources are insufficient the international community must strengthen its commitment and lend a helping hand. I would like to underline the necessity to enhance and strengthen the coordination of this assistance and I believe that UNESCO is the most competent organisation to be a leader in this field.