THE TEACHING PROFESSION

Southland Times, Issue 17464, 2 October 1913, Page 2

THE TEACHING PROFESSION

\men and WOMEN. i

According to the annual report of the Education Department there was in 1912 a grand total of adult and pupil teachers In the public, schools of 4743, as against 4551 in 1911.

The ratio of male to female teachers, in all the schools in 1911 was 100 to 172, and in 1912 100 to 177. The increase last year was due to the appointment of additional assistant teachers in lieu of pupil teachers. With the exception of pupil teachers and sole teachers of small schools, the proportion of males to females is not small, says the report. As a matter of fact, the ratio of adult males to adult females in the schools in the Auckland district was as high as 100 to 125. The figures relating to pupil teachers indicate that a very much larger percentage of females enter the service than males, but it is to be borne in mind that a number of these female pupil teachers leave before completing their period of training. The large proportion of female teachers to males in schools having 1 to 15 scholars in attendance is readily explained, the maximum salary in these schools (£l2O per annum) being too small to attract male teachers. It may be fairly argued perhaps that in districts not too remote women are more suitable than men for small schools of this type. There are, at all events, a sufficient number of other positions to absorb all the men in the profession, at present. Out of a total of 5028 persons engaged in all branches of the teaching profession there were, in 1912, 1926 men and 3102 women.

There is a tendency nearly all over the world, continues the report, for women to replace men in scholastic positions formerly occupied by the latter alone, but the scarcity of male teachers is not nearly so marked in New Zealand as in most other countries. It does not necessarily follow that the tendency (in moderation, at all events) is bad. Half the children in our public schools are under the age of 10, and women teachers are presumably the most suitable for them. Nearly half the remainder—or nearly a quarter of the whole number—are girls over 10, and it is generally conceded that they should be taught by women. So far as class teaching is concerned there would be nothing to fear, therefore, if the proportion of women teachers to men teachers were 3 to 1,