Ingibjörg honoured

Ingibjörg Einarsdóttir, office manager at the Hafnarfjörður School Office and chair of Radda, an association for quality reading aloud and presentation, was honoured by the Minister of Education on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Great Reading Competition in Iceland. To mark the anniversary, a seminar was held by the Icelandic Language Council on Thursday, 12 May, at the Nordic House, where the Minister of Education and Culture pledged his ministry's support for the project.

The Great Reading Competition began as a development project in the primary schools of Hafnarfjörður in 1996, the same year that Ingibjörg also started working at the School Office. The competition was developed in collaboration with the primary schools of Hafnarfjörður during the first academic year, but since then the number of municipalities taking part has increased. Now, in 2016, all primary schools in the country with Year 7 pupils take part in the competition. Few, if any, projects have had such a wide reach in Icelandic primary schools.

The Great Reading Competition, which was initially run by the Hafnarfjörður School Office, is today run by the organisation Raddir. However, Hafnarfjörður supports the competition, and the competition's website is, for example, hosted by the City of Hafnarfjörður., Reading.Hafnarfjordur.is, where detailed information about the competition can be found.

Ingibjörg has also been instrumental in a new reading competition, the Little Reading Competition, which is held in Year 4, based on ideas from the Big Reading Competition but with a simpler format. It has been held in Hafnarfjörður for several years. Who knows what will happen with the competition, which is already starting to spread to other municipalities.

Congratulations, Ingibjörg! In the picture, see Ingibjörg receiving an award from the Minister of Education and Culture, Illugi Gunnarsson, for her contribution to the Grand Reading Competition.