Fewer staff members in upper secondary schools for the first time in a decade
There were 2,513 staff members in upper secondary schools in Iceland in November 2010 holding 2,412 full-time equivalent jobs. Thereof teachers were 1,852 holding 1,846 full-time equivalent jobs. The number of staff has decreased by 69, thereof the number of teaching personnel has decreased by 59. The number of full-time equivalent staff has decreased even more. The total number of full-time equivalent staff has decreased by 152 and the number of full-time equivalent teaching staff has decreased by 134. It is interesting to note that in the past decade the number of teaching staff had increased annually until this year. On average their number increased by almost 60 until the school year 2008-2009. From the school year 2000-2001 until the school year 2008-2009 there were 464 more staff members and 461 more full-time equivalent staff. On the other hand, the number of personnel and full-time equivalents changed very little between the school years 2008-2009 and 2009-2010.

Almost 85% of teaching personnel are licensed teachers, more than ever in the last decade
A total of 84.9% of teachers in upper secondary schools in November 2010 are licensed teachers. Their number has increased by 13.6 percentage points in the last decade, from 71.3% in 2000-2001. Licensed teachers are those who have permission from the Ministry of Education to call themselves teachers at the upper secondary level. The proportion of licensed teachers has not been this high since the data collection was started by Statistics Iceland more than a decade ago. All the time that Statistics Iceland has collected data a greater share of female than male teachers have been licensed teachers. Last school year 87.7% of female teachers and 81.7% of male teachers held a teaching licence, a difference of six percentage points. The difference between the sexes was greatest in 2009-2010 when it was 9.8 percentage points, but smallest in 2006-2007 when it was 1.4 percentage points.

More than one of every four teachers has attained a master’s or a doctoral degree
More than one of every four teachers (27.6%) in upper secondary schools has attained an advanced university degree, i.e. a master’s, a doctoral or an equivalent degree. The proportion of teachers with an advanced university degree has increased by 2.2 percentage points from the previous school year. The share of teachers with advanced university education has not been higher since the start of the Statistics’ Iceland data collection more than a decade ago. A total of 68% of teachers at the upper secondary level have completed basic education at the tertiary level at the most, e.g. a Bachelor degree or similar education. Just over 4% of teachers have an education lower than a basic degree or their education is not known. During the academic year 2000-2001 16.4% of upper secondary school teachers had an advanced university degree. Thus the proportion of teachers holding an advanced university degree has increased by 11.2 percentage points during the last decade.

More teachers are over the age of fifty
The largest age group among upper secondary teachers is 50-59 year olds or 32.5% of all teaching staff. The reduction in the number of teachers (59) is distributed over all age groups except for the 60 years old and older group, where the number of teachers increased by 7 from the previous year. Women outnumber men in all age groups under 50 but when looking at teachers over 50 men are more numerous.

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 for the last school years. In 2001-2004 the information was collected with March as a reference month and in 1999 and 2000 February was the reference month. The data include all personnel who were employed by schools at the upper secondary level in November 2010. 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. Education refers to the highest level of education attained.