Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir said after a cabinet meeting on Friday that a solution regarding the issues of the Icelandic Film School is being sought and that the government’s offer on increased funding to the school stands despite its current situation.
Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir. Photo by Geir Ólafsson.
The Ministry of Education and the National Audit Office have announced that the school isn’t operational as it doesn’t fulfill the conditions for a private school at the secondary school level. The ministry therefore doesn’t recommend further state funding, ruv.is reports.
The school’s rector, Hilmar Oddsson, said the announcement had come as a surprise. Without the ministry’s recognition the school can hardly continue operations. Forty new students have enrolled this semester in addition to the approximately 100 current students.
“Without recognition our students won’t get student loans,” he said. “Without loans they cannot pay the school fees. The game is over, it’s a vicious cycle, like Catch-22. Our hands are tied.” Classes did not begin today as scheduled.
Sigurdardóttir said students don’t have to worry about loans and that the school’s issues will soon be sorted out, hopefully early this week. “The government has discussed, in the tight financial situation that it finds itself, that it is prepared to increase funding to this line of study. That’s more than other schools can expect in this budget.”
The school’s future has been uncertain for some time and it has created tension between the coalition parties as Left-Green MP Thráinn Bertelsson declared he wouldn’t support the budget bill unless the school’s operations are secured.
Click here to read more about the affairs of the Film School.
ESA
