Fewer men go teaching

Press, 14 March 1977, Page 13

Fewer men go teaching

Education reporter Primary teacher training is increasingly becoming a female preserve. The country’s eight primary teachers’ colleges have all recorded a drop this year in the number of men who have been taken in as firstyear trainees. The drop has reversed a trend, evident since 1972, of increasing numbers of male entrants to primary teacher training. At the primary division of the Christchurch Teachers’ College, 151 per cent of the first-year intake was men. The percentages for the previous years were: 1976, 27; 1975, 22; 1974, 22; 1973, 20; 1972. 14. There has been no marked decline in the number of

male trainees entering secondary teacher training. The decline in men entering primary teacher training is worrying parent groups, who say that the possibility of primary schools being staffed entirely by women would have a bad effect on many children. It would rob many children of important contact with male “models” other than their fathers. In the case of children of solo parents, they say, it is even more vital that schools present a balance of male and female teachers. Teachers’ groups are also concerned at the decline of men in primary teacher training. They are opposed to what they consider is the development of a matriarchal primary teaching service.