Fewer Men Are Choosing To Teach

LONDON, Sept. 26: Teaching is becoming an increasingly female dominated profession with men making up fewer than one in four new recruits, official figures revealed yesterday. Despite a multi-million pound campaign to attract more men into teaching, the latest statistics reveal a widening gap between the sexes among those gaining teaching qualifications from universities and teacher training colleges. In 2006-07, fewer than a quarter (23.8 per cent) of teaching qualifications were obtained by men, according to figures published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency in the lowest figure in five years. This was a fall of 1.5 per cent from the previous year. Meanwhile, between 2005-6 and 2006-7, the number of women qualifying as teachers from higher education rose by two per cent, from 23,865 to 24,335, while the number of men fell 5.7 per cent, from 8,065 to 7,610. The figures will be a blow to the government, which has repeatedly tried to persuade men to train as teachers. The former education secretary Mr Alan Johnson announced a drive to get more men into the profession in March 2007 after concern that just 16 per cent of teachers in primary schools, and 46 per cent in secondary schools, were male. Mr Johnson said there was a need for more men in primary school teaching so they could provide role models, arguing: “Our schools should contain more male role models, such as ‘old boys’ or local boys made good.” ...... The Independent