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Primary school teachers are by and large female. This has been the case for a long time. The times they are a changing and according to a story in the Daily Express:
THE number of men applying to be primary school teachers has rocketed during the economic downturn.
Education has turned into a boom industry with a 52 per cent increase in male applicants wanting to teach four to 11 year olds over the past year.
Figures from the Training and Development Agency for Schools reveal how a combination of recession and redundancies has forced people to re-evaluate their career goals.
Usually men in teaching prefer to teach their particular subject rather than take on the general education focus of the earlier Key Stage curriculum.
Personally I think that this change is a good thing. An increase in positive male role models in primary schools will bring about a change in behaviour for the better.
I have seen in a couple of papers that men are changing their focus or reviewing their career options but I am having none of it. I think that these men are well qualified and fear for their future where they are and see teaching as a potentially well paid public sector alternative to the dole queue.
Every cloud brings a silver lining and I will of course be as delighted as everyone else to see the economy develop but while times are tough I welcome this change in the provision of education.
