Minister urges drop of criticized parental tests

Social and housing minister Sophie Hæstorp Andersen recommends that municipalities consider discontinuing the use of criticized parental tests in placement cases involving Greenlandic children. These tests have been under scrutiny for not being adapted to the Greenlandic language and culture, which could lead to placements based on incorrect grounds. The Danish Institute for Human Rights had advised the country’s five largest municipalities to discard the test, with Copenhagen and Esbjerg subsequently dropping it. The minister recently discussed the issue with Greenland’s minister for children and young people, Aqqualuaq B. Egede. Andersen highlights that while it’s the municipalities’ responsibility to handle child welfare cases, they should ensure that any evaluation of parental competencies accounts for a family’s linguistic and cultural background. Last year, the government allocated funds for the development of new, culturally adapted tests, and currently, a preliminary study is underway to explore the translation and cultural adaptation of psychological or similar tests to Greenlandic.