After-School Centres for 6–9 Year Olds in Reykjavik, Iceland

Abstract

This article discusses a) the institutional development of out-of-school services for schoolaged children in Reykjavik, Iceland and b) provides some insight into how the children themselves experience the difference between after-school and school. The status of out of-school programs in the school system is weak and receives scarce attention from researchers and policy makers. In Iceland, there is no clear framework for the service and lack of policy concerning quality and control of the service. Together school and after-school centre frame children’s institutional lives in their first years in elementary school. For many children, participation
in after-school centre is a positive experience which provides opportunity to play and to be with friends. Children seldom get the chance to decide what they do in school. I argue that after-school programs should be considered an integral part of the educational system and thus, further development of the professional underpinnings of such services are necessary.