Teaching profession set to be predominately female

THE overwhelming majority of second-level teachers will soon be women, a teachers’ union leader warned yesterday.

As many men no longer regarded teaching as an attractive profession, ASTI president Patricia Wroe said only 15% of secondary teachers would be male in five to seven years.

Pay was a key issue, she told the union’s conference in Killarney, adding that teachers were not being properly paid for their contribution to society.

Ms Wroe said that eight years after gaining a primary degree a second-level teacher may, at best, have a permanent contract for a part-time job, or may have recently gained full-time work.

At best, after seven years as a qualified teacher, they were earning about €46,000.

“Anyone who went into chartered accountancy is, currently, eight years on from their degree, earning €65,000-€70,000 and has been paid, and worked, full time from day one for those eight years, including the years of their apprenticeship,” she said.

“And we ask why men are not attracted to teaching.”

In her presidential address, delivered in the presence of Education Minister Mary Hanafin, Ms Wroe highlighted the need for more funding for education.

She told the minister: “You cannot, cannot, continue to fail to properly invest in second-level Irish education, given the demands made on classrooms today and the diverse range of educational and other outcomes they are expected to achieve.”

The ASTI president referred to overcrowded classes and the need for extra resources for students with special needs, international students and students with educational/learning difficulties.

Ms Wroe, from Dublin, claimed if the investment was not made in education, many young people would not be able to get work, or function properly, in 10 years’ time.

“All economic forecasts and reports want to put us in the top five in different ways within Europe.

“We will be able to do that only by improving the economic spend at all levels of education,” she said.