Areas of responsibility

The main areas of responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Children are education (preschool, primary and secondary school), children and sports.

Education

The Ministry is responsible for the implementation of legislation pertaining to school levels from pre-primary and compulsory education through the upper secondary levels, as well as continuing and adult education. This includes the tasks of creating curriculum guides for pre-primary, compulsory and upper secondary schools, issuing regulations and planning educational reforms. 

Local Municipal Authorities are responsible for preschools and primary schools.

The Ministry is responsible for youth affairs outside formal education at governmental level, supports youth organisations in many ways and has conducted youth research since the year 1992. 

Sports

The Ministry is also responsible for sports affairs. The main objective is the promotion of opportunities for all citizens to practice sports under the most favourable conditions. The Ministry works with the sports movement to enhance sports participation in schools and the value of sports in pedagogical and preventive action. To that end the Ministry collects information on the practice of sports in Iceland and the facilities available for sports activities, and supports research in the field. Anti-doping programmes are also under the authority of the Ministry.