Since the introduction of home rule in 1979, there has been an increase in the number of trained teachers from the Teachers' Seminary, Ilinniarfissuaq, in what was then Godthåb (now Nuuk), and out of the current 1,100 teaching positions in Greenland 182 teachers work in primary schools without a teaching qualification and are employed here as part-time teachers.
In addition to catching and fishing, the sea ice is used for transport and for sports and playgrounds. The school in the village of Kullorsuaq, Upernavik district, has organized a sports day. Photo: Kåre Hendriksen, 2011. License: Trap-groenland.lex.dk (Limited Use)
In 2021, there were a total of 75 municipal primary schools, one private school (in Nuuk) and one school for the deaf (in Sisimiut) in the five municipalities in Greenland. Children who grow up on sheep farms in South Greenland are in many cases taught at home.
The 75 municipal elementary schools are divided into 23 town schools and 52 village schools. Village schools are characterized by having fewer pupils, and classes are often taught together across year groups. For the smaller settlements, teaching in the village school ends after the 6th to 8th school year, depending on the size of the school.
The pupils are then forced to move to the nearest town to finish primary school. Only in three settlements do students have the opportunity to finish the 10th school year at home. Some village schools send the children to town schools already after the 6th or 7th grade. At rural schools, few teachers are employed, some of whom do not have teacher training. Both trained teachers and part-time teachers must teach all primary school subjects. At the 23 town schools, classes are taught from 1st to 10th grade.
The school Atuarfik Hans Lynge is located in Nuuk and has 1–10 grades, and multiple-shift schooling system. In 2022, there were 489 pupils and 45 teachers. By Lars O. Demand-Poort, 2020. License: Trap-groenland.lex.dk (Limited use)
Between 2010 and 2019 there has been a 15% drop in the number of pupils in primary schools, mainly due to the smaller youth cohorts, and in 2019 the total number of pupils in primary schools was 7,499.
Skateboard ramp in the town of Qeqertarsuaq, the only town on the island of the same name. Qeqertarsuaq, which is the size of Zealand, is located in Qeqertarsuup Tunua (Disko Bay) about 100 km from the mainland. In clear weather, the island can be seen from all the towns in the bay. The town of Qeqertarsuaq is beautifully situated right down to the water, and behind the town are the basalt mountains Lyngmarksfjelldet and Skarvefjelldet. Photo: Kåre Hendriksen, 2015. License: Trap-groenland.lex.dk (Limited Use)
In 2017, the five municipalities entered into a collaboration regarding the development of the teachers' didactic competences through the project Kivitsisa, which means "Let us lift". The goal of the project is twofold: All teachers and pupils must have iPads, and teachers in all schools must go through a didactic upskilling process. The aim of Kivitsisa is for more pupils to complete primary school with a better result. The Kivitsisa project, which is partly fund-financed and partly municipally-financed, is expected to be fully implemented in 2024.
In the future, more of the teaching of the country's children and young people will take place through the screen. Photo: Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa
It costs money to provide proper education in a large country with few teachers. But now there is money for a project that will meet that challenge. In the future, more of the teaching of the country's children and young people will take place through the screen.
For the past six years, the country's five municipalities have jointly tried to take on the task of ensuring proper education in a large country, which is challenged by the fact that there are few people scattered to all winds. Kivitsisa has now been supported with just under 15 million from a number of Danish foundations.
The money must be used to continue the project, at the same time as it must continue to develop, says Kivitsisa's chairwoman, Malene Broberg, in a press release:
Over the past six years, Kivitsisa has been the framework for a really good collaboration and an exciting new direction for the primary school. With a firm foundation in a joint secretariat and the new fund grants, we can both continue the development of the solutions we have found and work on making them part of the structure and the way we do school.
The focal point in Kivitsisa is education through digital solutions. Because when you have a country where the primary school is a peculiar size, ranging from four pupils in the school in Igaliku to 1,200 of the kind at Atuarfik Inussuk in Nuuk, you have to think unconventionally to make ends meet.
Through the so-called distance education, pupils in schools without teachers can be assured of education, and in small schools with few pupils, the children can virtually work together with children of their own age or with the same interests elsewhere in the country.
But the project has not only benefited the pupils. In fact, it has also helped to ensure professional sparring for the teachers, so that they are not left to their own devices to the same extent when they have to organize the teaching.
Kivitsisa began as a joint project between all the country's municipalities. They have now decided that the collaboration must continue. And to nail it down with a seven-inch nail, a so-called joint municipal secretariat has now been set up, and the municipalities are embarking together on a three-year anchoring programme.
It is precisely there that the 15 million kroner in support from the Danish foundations will help to pave the way for innovation and new thinking in the already successful project, says Malene Broberg:
Development takes time, and we are very happy that the four foundations, which have supported the project from the start, will also help to secure the anchoring.
We are very much looking forward to getting started with the new initiatives. We have no doubt at all that this will lead to both a more exciting and more educational daily life for both students and teachers, concludes Malene Broberg in the press release.
Source: Trap-groenland.lex.dk, Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa
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