Course Description

Icelandic upper secondary schools follow the National Curriculum Guide published by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture.

• The Curriculum Guide includes descriptions of the study programmes offered by the schools. It also contains descriptions of the contents of individual courses in all subjects. All study subjects are divided into courses, which give study credits.
• Each programme of study is comprised of courses and students must complete a minimum number of credits in individual subjects and in total.
• Courses are identified using a code system indicating the name of the subject, the placement of the course in order of study and the number of credits given for it. The name of the subject is indicated by a three-letter abbreviation (e.g. ENS for English) followed by three digits indicating the order, content and weighting (e.g. 103, where 1 indicates the first course in a subject, 0 means general content and 3 shows that it gives 3 credits).

The following are translations of course descriptions for selected subjects in the National Curriculum Guide for Upper Secondary School in Iceland. Subjects are in alphabetical order.

• Course Description (DOC - 98KB) (PDF- 165KB)
• National Curriculum Guide for Upper Secondary School: General Section: Iceland 2004 (PDF - 203KB)
• The Icelandic School System (PDF - 818KB)

Further information on the Icelandic school system is available at postur@mrn.stjr.is.