UK: Male teachers desert primaries

Article here. Excerpt:

'Almost 40% of primary schools now have no male teachers on their staff. New figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show 1,238 of the state’s 3,248 national schools have an all-female line-up in the classroom.

The revelation means that the Department of Education’s expensive efforts to attract men into primary school teaching have been a failure so far. Many children are now educated exclusively by women as the teaching profession becomes increasingly feminised.
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Matt Hume, principal of St Joseph’s boys’ school in Terenure, Dublin, which bucks the trend by having a staff of 40% men and 60% women, said it is important for boys to have male teachers as role models, particularly in areas where they may not have otherpositive male role models in their lives. “Another problem is that if boys don’t see male teachers in schools, they’re unlikely to pursue a career in teaching themselves,” he said.

The department has defended its efforts to encourage more men into primary school teaching, arguing that the percentage of male students in teacher training colleges is rising.'