Over 86% of teaching personnel are licensed teachers, more than ever in the last decade
A total of 86.3% of teachers in upper secondary schools in November 2011 are licensed teachers. The proportion of licensed teachers has not been this high since the data collection on personnel in upper secondary schools was started by Statistics Iceland more than a decade ago. Their number has increased by 13.7 percentage points in the last decade, from 72.6% in 2001-2002. Licensed teachers are those who have permission from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture to call themselves teachers at the upper secondary level.

All the time that Statistics Iceland has collected data on teachers in upper secondary schools a greater share of female than male teachers have been licensed teachers. In 2011-2012, 90.8% of female teachers and 81.4% of male teachers held a teaching licence. The proportion of licensed female teachers increased by three percentage points from the previous school year, while the proportion of licensed male teaches decreased by 0.3 percentage points.

Upper secondary schools in rural areas used to employ proportionally fewer licensed teachers than schools in the capital region. A shift in November 2006 resulted in a higher percentage of licensed teachers employed by schools outside the capital region. In November 2008, a slightly higher proportion of teachers outside the capital region were licensed than inside the region but since then the proportion of licensed teachers in the capital region has increased more. In November 2011, 87.8% of teachers in the capital region were licensed to teach at this level, but 84.1% of teachers outside of the capital region.

More staff members in upper secondary schools than in the previous school year
There were 2,617 staff members in upper secondary schools in Iceland in November 2011 holding 2,516 full-time equivalent jobs. Thereof teachers were 1,911 holding 1,928 full-time equivalent jobs. The number of staff has increased by 104, but by 59 if only counting teaching personnel. The number of full-time equivalent staff has increased by 104, thereof 82 are teaching personnel. The increase can largely be explained by the addition of one school to the data collection. This school has 82 staff members in 46 full-time equivalent jobs. The number of staff in 2011-2012 was similar to staff numbers in 2007-2010 but in 2010-2011 the number of staff members decreased by 69 from the previous school year.

About the data
Data on personnel in schools at the upper secondary level come from the schools and the State Accounting Office. The reference month is November in recent years, since November 2004. The data include all personnel who were employed by schools at the upper secondary level in November 2011. Teaching staff includes everyone who undertook any teaching activities during the reference period. Teachers who did not teach during this period, e.g. because they were on leave, are not included in the data on teachers. However, they are counted among all staff members if they received salary during the reference period.