Teachers without a licence were 5.4% of teaching staff in the autumn of 2015
The proportion of teachers without a teaching licence in compulsory schools was 13–20% in 1998–2008. The proportion dropped after the financial crisis in all parts of the country, and was lowest in the autumn of 2012 at 4.1%. Since 2012 the proportion of teachers without a licence has increased year by year and was 5.4% in the autumn of 2015. At that time there were 261 teachers teaching without a teaching licence, an increase from 216 in the autumn of 2014.
The proportion of teachers without a licence was lowest in Reykjavík, where 2.4% of teachers were without a teaching licence, and in the capital city area outside of Reykjavík, 3.9%. In two regions the proportion of teachers without a licence was greater than 10%, in the Westfjords (16.9%) and in the Southwest (14.5%). In the West and in the Northwest regions the proportion of unlicensed teachers decreased from the previous year, and the proportion was unchanged in the East.
Fewer males among teaching personnel in compulsory schools
In the autumn of 2015 884 males taught in compulsory schools in Iceland, 18.1% of teaching personnel. The number of males among teaching staff has been slowly declining since 1998, when they were 26.0% of teaching staff. At the same time the number of female teachers has increased and in the autumn of 2015 there were 3,992 female teachers.
In the autumn of 2015 there were 112 female headmasters in compulsory schools in Iceland, up from 68 in the autumn of 1998. A the same time the number of males among headmasters declined from 125 to 61 in the autumn of 2015.
The average age of teaching personnel continues to increase
The average age of teaching personnel has been increasing since the year 2000. In the autumn of 2000 the average age of teaching personnel was 42.2 years, rising to 46.6 years in the autumn of 2015. During these years the average age of female teachers increased more rapidly, from 41.8 years in 2000 to 46.6 years in 2015. The average age of male teachers increased from 43.6 years to 46.5 years during the same period. The average age of teachers without a teaching licence has been lower than the age of licenced teachers during this period. In the autumn of 2015 the average age of licenced teachers was 47.0 while the average age of teachers without a teaching licence was 39.0 years.
Next figure depicts the age composition of teaching staff. The decline in the proportion of teaching staff under the age of 30 can be clearly seen, while the proportion of teachers 50 years and older has increased from 23.7% in the autumn of 1998 to 40.8% in the autumn of 2015.
The number of pupils in compulsory schools continues to increase
In the autumn of 2015 there were 43,760 pupils in compulsory education in Iceland. The number of pupils increased by 624 (1.4%) from the previous year and has not been greater since the autumn of 2007. In addition there were 94 pupils attending the 5 year old grade in compulsory schools, 20 fewer than in the previous year.
There were 168 compulsory schools operating in Iceland in the autumn of 2015, one more than in the previous year. The number of schools has decreased as schools have merged; there were 28 fewer schools in operation in 2015 than in 1998. There were 11 private schools operating in the autumn of 2015 with 1,072 pupils (5 year old grade excluded). The number of pupils in private compulsory schools decreased by 62 from the previous year, or by 5.5%. There were three special education schools operating with 161 pupils in attendance, a slight increase from the previous year.
The number of pupils with a foreign mother tongue continues to increase
The number of pupils with a foreign mother tongue has increased year by year since Statistics Iceland started collecting these data. In the autumn of 2015, 3,543 pupils in Icelandic compulsory schools had a foreign mother tongue, or 8.1%, an increase of 0.6 percentage points from the previous year. The most numerous were Polish speaking pupils (1,282), pupils speaking Philippine languages (336) and English (240).
