Iceland review - 2007, Qupperneq 33

ICELAND REVIEW 39
training even though they don’t have a formal education, and we
definitely want to keep those people. But there are a lot of people that
just come for a few months or a year and then leave, and that is diff icult.
They think, ‘Okay, I will not go to school next year, I think I will
maybe try working in a preschool for a year.’”
A high turnover of staff is better than no staff at all, but frequent
changes create instability. “Of course it can be so nice to have these
young people coming in with all their thoughts and ideas, but it’s very
diff icult for a preschool when there is so much change,” Bjarnadóttir
continues. “So we need more stability, which is connected with the
salaries, but first and foremost it is connected with the lack of preschool
teachers.”
Julian Vasseur is a young foreign leikskóli employee like me, but aside
from the great language learning opportunity, his reason for taking
the job was not so self ish: he just enjoys working with children. “When
I applied for the job I honestly had no idea there was a staff shortage. I
just found an ad in the paper and called, thinking that my Icelandic
wouldn’t be good enough anyway, but that I had nothing to lose,” he
explains.
In my experience of eight months’ work, the young people do
indeed seem to be more temporary than the older ones. Without a
change in this trend the problem could increase considerably as the
older generation begins to retire.
Part of a possible solution is encouraging longstanding assistants to
become qualified as teachers. “Greatly increased distance learning oppor­
tunities” and paid time off to study are two examples Ragnhildur Bjarna­
dóttir cites.
Knowing that the city wants to help assistants through university,
Julian Vasseur would now consider training to become a teacher, “When
my Icelandic gets better and allows me to use it f luently. I just realized
how much I love this job.”
While in Akureyri I paid a visit to Sídusel leikskóli because they are
advertising a couple of posts and have a Polish staff member – or so I
thought. It turns out the Polish lady is no longer there, as she had been
one of a number of volunteers from the church. And the job vacancies
will not exist until January, by which time the head teacher, Snjólaug
Pálsdóttir is certain they will be filled. I chose Sídusel because it looked
like the Akureyri leikskóli suffering most from the employment crisis.
But I was wrong. Coincidentally, the leikskóli is just a minute or two’s
walk from the main University of Akureyri campus.
The perception among those I spoke to in Akureyri is that leikskóli
system is a more attractive workplace in the town partly because the
aver age wages are lower. But as Statistics Iceland only compiles unem­
ployment and earnings data on a national scale, it is hard to substantiate
this claim. Gunnar Gíslason states matter­of­factly that there just aren’t as
many opportunities in Akureyri to attract people away from the schools.
Snjó laug Pálsdóttir says, by way of illustration, that she knows a leikskóli
teacher in Reykjavík who works at a jeweler’s shop because it pays so much
better. “That simply wouldn’t happen in Akureyri,” she adds.
Among the various opinions surrounding the leikskóli system
one thing stands out above all else: working there is incredi­
bly positive. Despite the occasional stress, the leikskóli is a
fun place to be. The work is rewarding, the meals are free,
and the many other perks make a diffe rence. But despite Ragnhildur
Bjarnadóttir’s assurances, staff wages are an issue for very good reason.
I used to work in a Reykjavík bar before I took the leikskóli job, and
before researching this article I just assum ed I was earning more now
than I was then – seems obvious, right? Wrong. My hourly wage is
actually lower now than it was as a barman. And the bar wasn’t paying
me nearly 20 percent extra just because I have a university degree.
Rates of pay increase with age, experience and training, so long­
term employees do not always earn less than bar and shop workers, but
how many of us actually think a decade into the future like that re­
mains to be seen. But then again, playing with children beats a desk job
any day of the week.