Drop in number of males eligible for primary teaching

A FURTHER drop in the number of males eligible to train as primary teachers because they don’t have the required standard of Irish has prompted calls for those requirements to be lowered.

Analysis of results since 2001 shows that the proportion of male Leaving Certificate students sitting Irish who choose the higher level paper has fallen every year, from 21.7% five years ago to 21.1% — or 4,338 students — this week.

In contrast, almost 37% (8,610) of female Irish students took the higher level paper, although this has also fallen from above 38% in the same period.