Statistics Iceland has published data on personnel in pre-primary schools in December 2009 and published in the Statistical Series.
Never before have more staff members worked in pre-primary schools in Iceland
In December 2009 there were 5,596 staff members in pre-schools in Iceland working 4,813 full-time equivalent jobs in 282 pre-schools. There has been an increase in staff numbers ever since the year 1997 when Statistics Iceland started collecting data on children and staff in pre-primary education. The number of staff members has increased by 51% and the number of full-time equivalents by 73%. At the same time the number of children has increased by 24% while the computed child equivalents have increased by 60%, but those statistics have taken the children‘s age and length of stay into consideration. During this time the number of pre-schools has increased by 33 with the greatest increase in the number of private pre-schools. The number of pre-schools operated by the municipalities has also increased and in recent years some pre-schools and compulsory schools have been merged into one institution.
Personnel in pre-primary schools better educated
Never before have there been more staff members with a university education in pre-primary schools. Last December 2,421 members of staff had a university degree and 65 persons had a diploma. In 1998 1,016 persons had a university degree while the diploma did not yet exist.
Fewer younger staff members
In December 2009 there were 106 members of staff who were younger than 20 years old; for the first time they were less than 2% of all staff members. In 2007 there were 265 persons younger than 20 years old working in pre-primary schools. Statistics Iceland has published the turnover rate in pre-primary schools annually since 1999. The average turnover rate in 1999-2008 was 25.9%. The turnover rate among personnel between the years 2008 and 2009 was 20.3%, lower than ever before between any two consecutive years.
Personnel in pre-primary schools 2009 - Statistical Series