Statistics Iceland now publishes for the first time data on personnel in pre-primary schools by background. The number of staff members with foreign background has increased in recent years. The proportion of staff with no foreign background decreased from 78.8% in 2020 to 71.7% in 2023, while the proportion of immigrants working in pre-primary schools increased from 15.5% to 21.6% at the same time.
When only looking at teachers and other staff working in education and child-care, excluding headmasters and department heads, immigrants were 23.3% of staff in December 2023, but 19.8% if headmasters and department heads are included. The proportion of immigrants is by far the highest among other personnel, such as canteen and clearning personnel, where immigrants were 53.0% of staff in December 2023.
More than one out of four staff members in education and child-care has a teaching licence
In December 2023 there were 1,802 licenced teachers in pre-primary schools in Iceland. Of those, 1,568 were educated as pre-primary teachers. In total, there were 6,580 staff members working in education and child-care, thereof 27.4% were licenced teachers, a slight increase from the previous year when licenced teachers were 26.6%. There were 1,038 staff members in education and child-care with other pedagogical education, while unskilled staff was 56.8% of staff working in education and child-care in December 2023, a slight decrease from the previous year.
In December 2023, 32.9% of staff in education and child-care had a basic diploma at the tertiary level and 13.9% had a master’s degree or higher education. More than one-half of staff (53.2%) had education at the upper secondary level or at a lower level.
There were almost seven thousand staff members in pre-primary schools in December 2023
There were 6,963 staff members working in pre-primary schools in December 2023, 156 fewer than in the previous year, a decrease of 2.2%. The number of children in pre-primary schools decreased by 145 (-0.7%) at the same time. The pre-primary schools in Grindavík were not operating on the reference day of 1 December, but the year before around 70 persons were working in those schools. The number of staff on leave increased by 47 from the previous year and was 541. The number of full-time equivalent staff decreased by 2.0% and was 6,151.
More than one-fourth of personnel in 2022 was not working the following year
The turnover among personnel working in education and childcare has increased somewhat from the previous year, as 25.9% of personnel in education and child-care in December 2022 were not working in pre-primary schools in December 2023. Among pre-primary teachers the turnover increased from 10.7% to 12.1% between years. Turnover among staff in education and child-care was greatest among unskilled staff, as around one-third of those working in December 2022 was not working in a pre-primary school the following year.