The number of compulsory schools has decreased by 22 since the autumn of 1998
There are 174 compulsory schools operating in Iceland in the school year 2008–2009. The number of schools has decreased by 22 since the school year 1998–1999. The decrease is greatest in schools which have the smallest and largest number of pupils. The number of pupils attending private schools has increased since the school year 1998–1999 and during the school year 2008–2009 1.5% of pupils attended private schools. The number of pupils attending special education schools has decreased in the same period. Approximately one quarter of pupils in compulsory schools received special education or support during the school year 2007–2008. This information and more is published in the Statistical Series Compulsory schools 2007-2008.
The largest share of the instruction time is used to teach Icelandic
On average there are 179 school days during the school year but in most schools there are 180 school days. Pupils in the youngest grades (grades 1-4) receive on average 31.7 40 minute instruction hours. Pupils in grades 5-7 receive 35.7 instruction hours on average and the oldest pupils (in grades 8-10) receive 37.5 instruction hours. The largest share of the instruction time is spent on teaching Icelandic, 18.6% of the instruction time, and mathematics comes second with 15.9% of the instruction time.
There are 18.3 pupils per class during the school year 2008-2009
The number of pupils per full-time equivalent teacher has decreased and was 9.3 during the school year 2008–2009. The average class size during the same school year was 18.3 pupils. When the operation of compulsory schools in Iceland in 2005-2006 is compared with other countries it can be seen that classes in Iceland are small and the ratio of pupils to teachers is low. Teachers in Iceland teach fewer days but work more hours during the school year than in the neighbouring countries used for comparison. Icelandic pupils aged 7–15 years can expect to receive 7,320 hours of instruction during these 9 years of compulsory education. That is more than pupils in the other Nordic countries receive, with the exception of Denmark, but fewer hours than on average in the OECD countries and in 19 EU countries.
Compulsory schools 2007-2008 - Statistical Series