Saqqummersitaq

A solid primary school is an important part of the foundation for creating a strong and sustainable society. Almost every country has undertaken school system reforms during the past two decades, but very few have succeeded in improving their systems from poor to fair to good to great to excellent (Mourshed et al., 2010). History, culture, and context matter for understanding applicability, if any, of one educational innovation over another. This can be said to have been the case in Greenland. One of the fundamental objectives after the introduction of Home Rule in 1979 was to adapt the Danish structures and systems to the Greenlandic conditions and culture. This article aims to analyze the Greenlandic education governance system and how the central level design, organizes and steers education systems across complex multilevel governance arrangements. In governing educational systems, how the central and the decentralized levels interact and communicate and how this affects trust, cooperation and negotiation of conflicts, and ultimately the outcomes of reform, will be discussed.

The chapter looks at the transition from traditional to formal education and the expansion of the Greenlandic school system as well as the prioritization of education and political goals from the Danish State and Home Rule government of Greenland. By looking at the tradition of education and comparing educational data in Greenland over the span of over 30 years, the rapid development of the education level measured by the proportion of the population having a formal education (i.e. a formal education beyond the primary school) of the Greenlandic population has increased from 28 percent to 47 percent, indicating that the Greenland Home Rule and Self Government – despite challenges, setbacks and a lack of tradition for formal education beyond the public school – is on the right track.