More than 85% of teaching staff are licenced teachers
The proportion of teachers who have a teaching licence has increased and has never been greater since the beginning of the data collection by Statistics Iceland. In autumn 2004 over 85% of teachers had a teaching licence, an increase of 172 teachers from the previous year. The proportion of licensed teachers is greatest in the capital region outside of Reykjavík where 94.3% of teachers hold a teaching licence. When considering Iceland outside of the capital region the proportion of licenced teachers has increased by 5.4 percentage points from the previous school year. In autumn 2004 over 76% of teachers outside of the capital region had a teaching licence, more than ever since 1997.

Women teachers are becoming more numerous
More than 80% of all compulsory school employees are women. The proportion varies by occupation. Of 181 headmasters there were 102 males, or 56.4%. In 1999 this proportion was 65.3%. Almost 80% of teachers and department heads are women, a considerable increase since 1998 when the proportion of women was 76.6%. Thus, the teaching profession is becoming even more of a woman's profession than before. Certain jobs within compulsory schools are almost only done by women, such as the work of social pedagogues and work in the school library. The largest proportion of males is found among school caretakers, almost 88%.

Teacher dropout increased slightly between school years
In October 2004 16.1% of teaching staff members who were employed in October 2003 had left their jobs, a total of 765 teachers. The dropout rate is a little higher than the previous year, when it was 15.1%. Teacher dropout is greatest among those who do not have a teaching licence and among part-time teachers. Of all staff members in autumn 1999 there were 36.7% who had left their job in autumn 2004, a total of 2,366 staff members. More than one-half of assistants for handicapped pupils, school aids, canteen workers, and cleaning personnel had quit their job when these two years are compared.

The majority of new teacher graduates start teaching directly
During the school year 2003-2004 229 compulsory school teachers and 34 physical education teachers graduated from the University in Akureyri and the Iceland University of Education. In October 2004 206 of these teachers were employed in compulsory schools, or 78.3%. A larger proportion of new graduates started teaching directly after graduation in 2004 than in 1999, when 71.4% of newly graduated teachers started teaching directly after graduation.

Staff in compulsory schools in autumn 2004 - publication