Drive to coax men into teaching has failed, says Labour

TOO few men are taking up primary school teaching as a career despite a €120,000 Government advertising blitz, Labour claimed last night.

Earlier this year, Education Minister Mary Hanafin launched a campaign to persuade male Leaving Certificate students to become primary school teachers.

But figures revealed by the Labour Party show only a modest rise in the number of males enrolling on primary school courses at Ireland’s teaching training colleges.

Of the 1,100 students enrolling this year, 139 (12.6%) are men, compared with 961 (87.4%) women.

Last year the figures were 1,033 students, of whom 124 (12%) were male and 909 (88%) female.

Labour Party education spokeswoman Jan O’Sullivan said: “The primary school system is already facing a crisis because of the low numbers of male teachers.

“Currently just 18% of primary teachers in the classroom are male.”

Of the country’s five teacher education colleges, only two, St Patrick’s in Drumcondra and Limerick’s Mary Immaculate College reported a jump in the numbers of men enrolling this year.

Labour said that the figures were disappointing after the Department of Education had spent €120,000 on a Men as Teachers and Educators (MATE) campaign.

The Department of Education said the MATE recruitment campaign would continue.