More children attend pre-primary schools than ever before
In December 2010, 18,961 children attended pre-primary schools, more than ever before in Iceland. The number of children increased by 245 from the previous year, or by 1.3%. In spite of this increase, the proportion of 1-5 year old children attending pre-primary schools has decreased slightly from the previous year, from 83% to 82%. The children’s daily attendance has also changed. The number of children staying in school for 9 hours or longer per day decreased by almost 1,100 while the number of children staying 8 hours each day increased by almost 1,400.

Fewer children receive special support than in 2009
In December 2010, 1,232 children received special support because of a handicap or social or emotional difficulties, a total of 6.5% of all pre-school children. This is a decline of 130 children (9.5%) from the previous year. As in past years more boys than girls receive special support. In 2010 there were 834 boys receiving support (68%) and 398 girls (32%). The share of children receiving support varies by regions. In the Northeast 3.9% of children received support while 11.2% of children in the East received special support.

The number of children speaking Polish increases by almost 100
In December 2010 a total of 1,815 children had a foreign mother tongue (9.6% of pre-school children), more than ever before. Their number increased by 201 (12.5%) from the previous year. Of these children 520 speak Polish, the most common foreign language of pre-primary school children as in recent years. The number of children with Polish as a mother tongue increased by 97 from the previous year, the number of children speaking Lithuanian increased by 25 and the number of children speaking Thai increased by 19.

The number of children with a foreign citizenship increases
In December 2010 there were 711 children with a foreign citizenship attending pre-primary schools, an increase of 82 children from the previous year (13.0%). This increase coincides with the increasing number of children with a foreign mother tongue. This increase is caused by the increasing number of children from Eastern Europe (57) and the Baltic countries (26).

The number of students in Iceland decreased for the first time since 1997
With the publishing of data on children in pre-primary education, data are now available on the total number of students in Iceland at all school levels in the autumn of 2010. Since 1997 the total number of students increased year by year until the autumn of 2010. In autumn 2009 there were 106,716 students in Iceland from the pre-primary to the tertiary level. In 2010 their number had declined by 267 (0.3%), mainly because of a decrease in the number of students at the upper secondary level (1,274).