According to Fréttablaðið, the upper secondary schools in Iceland have stopped registering the pupil’s gender into their database. Students are now able to choose a suitable pronoun for themselves out of eight options which is then registered into the student system, Inna.
At the moment pupils can choose only one pronoun, but in the future, it will be possible for them to choose more than one. The suggestion for the opportunity to choose more than one pronoun came from the students themselves.
There are eight pronouns which students can choose from: the binary hann and hún (he and she), as well as the relatively new hán, hín, héð, and hé, in addition to það (it) and þau (they, gender neutral).
According to the principal of Menntaskóli við Hamrahlið, Steinn Jóhannesson, the new custom is a positive change. It will help teachers to see how the pupils define themselves, which will ease conversations between the teachers and students.
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