More children attended pre-primary schools than ever before
In December 2006 17,216 children attended pre-primary schools, more than ever before in Iceland. The number of children increased by 352 (2.1%) since the previous year. This is a greater increase than between the years 2004 and 2005 when the increase was 0.65%. A total of 81% of 1-5 year olds attend pre-primary school and the proportion is 96% among three and four year olds. In December 2006 91% of two year olds attended pre-primary school and one-third of one year olds.

The duration of stay increases and boys stay longer in school than girls
The daily duration of stay in pre-primary schools increases year by year when looking back to 1998. The proportion of children who stay in school for at least 8 hours per day continues to increase. In 1998 more than 40% (40.3%) of children stayed in school for 8 hours or longer. Four years later this proportion had increased to more than 60% (61.7%) and in 2006 75% of all children are registered with at least 8 hours daily attendance. A larger proportion of boys than girls stay in school for 8 hours or more. In December 2006 75.8% of all boys in pre-primary schools attended school for at least 8 hours while the corresponding proportion of girls was 74.3%. Two years ago 70.1% of all boys stayed in school for at least 8 hours while the proportion of girls was 68.4%. It should be noted that this is the duration of stay that the children are guaranteed but it is not uncommon for parents to pick their children up before their guaranteed duration of stay has expired.

The proportion of children in private pre-primary schools increased by almost 19%
There were 267 pre-primary schools operating in December 2006, five more than in December 2005. In 2006 8 new pre-primary schools opened while 3 schools ceased operation. Five of these new pre-primary schools are private schools with a total of 367 children in attendance. A total of 1,831 children attended 31 private pre-primary schools in December 2006, an increase from 1,542 children the previous year, or 18.7%. In 2006 10.6% of pre-school children attended private schools, while in 1998 the proportion was 5.3% (figure 2).

A continuing increase in the number of children with a foreign mother tongue
The number of children with another mother tongue than Icelandic has increased year by year and is now 1,333 children; 7.7% of all children attending pre-primary school. Children speaking Polish are most numerous (229 children) and English is the second most spoken language (171 children). Since 1998 the proportion of children speaking English has increased by 38% but at the same time the proportion of children speaking Polish has increased by 487%. In 2006 318 children were foreign citizens. Most of these children are from Eastern Europe (52.5%).

Almost one thousand children receive special support
In December 2006 984 children received special support because of a handicap or social or emotional difficulties, a total of 5.7% of all pre-school children. This is an increase from the year 2005 when 907 children received special support, but the same number of children as in 2004. However, the proportion of children receiving support is lower than in 2004 because the total number of children has increased by 461 since 2004.