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Personnel in schools at the upper secondary level in November 2009

Almost 2,600 staff members in upper secondary schools, similar to last year
There were 2,582 staff members in upper secondary schools in Iceland in November 2009 holding 2,564 full-time equivalent jobs. Thereof teachers were 1,911 holding 1,980 full-time equivalent jobs.

Changes since last year are minimal. At the upper secondary level the number of staff has increased by one and the number of full-time equivalents has also increased by one. There is no change in the number of teaching staff but the number of full-time equivalent teachers has decreased by seven.

Over 82% of teaching personnel are licensed teachers, more than ever in the last decade
A total of 82.2% of teachers in upper secondary schools in November 2009 are licensed teachers, an increase from 78.0% in the previous year. 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 during the last decade or since the data collection was started by Statistics Iceland ten years ago. The proportion of licensed teachers was highest during the academic year 2005-2006 or 78.7%.

A higher proportion of female teachers are licensed teachers compared to men. During the academic year 2009-2010 86.9% of female teachers were licensed compared to 77.1% of male teachers. The proportion of licensed teachers has been higher among females than males every year since the data collection started a decade ago.

One of every four teachers has attained a master’s or a doctoral degree
One of every four teachers (25.4%) 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 2.3 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. Around 70% of teachers at the upper secondary level have completed basic education at the tertiary level, e.g. a Bachelor degree or similar education. Fewer than 5% of teachers have an education lower than a Bachelor’s degree or their education is not known. During the academic year 1999-2000 16.3% of upper secondary school teachers had an advanced university degree. Therefore the proportion of teachers holding an advanced university degree has increased by 9 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 32.4% of all teaching staff. The number of teachers in the age group over 50 has increased by 12 while the number of teachers in the age groups under 50 has decreased by 12 from the previous year. Women outnumber men in the age group 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 2009. 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.

Statistics