Crisis over male teachers

4,000 primary schools without a man taking lessons and number is growing

NEARLY 4,000 primary schools in England do not have a full-time male teacher.

This represents a five per cent increase in the last year and comes despite official efforts to get more full-time male teachers.

With the majority of teaching assistants and lunchtime staff also women, many primaries are almost entirely staffed by women.

Critics say this is to the detriment of young boys who are denied seeing a professional male role model.

Latest Department for Education (DFE) figures show that in England’s 16,762 primary schools there are 3,259 with no male teachers on the payroll at all, with another 614 only having a part-timer.

This meant that the total number of schools without a full-time “sir” now stands at 3,873, an increase on the 2018 figure of 3,678 and the 2017 tally of 3,764.

With around 280 children in the average primary, it means more than one million children are without a single full-time male teacher. Derbyshire (140 schools), Hampshire (129), Essex (126), North Yorkshire (122) and Hertfordshire (120) rank as the worst offenders.

Separate DFE figures show there are around 210,000 full-time female primary school teachers working in England compared with just 35,000 men.

Christopher Mcgovern, chairman of the

Campaign for Real Education, called the shortage “calamitous”. “Girls, as well as boys, suffer badly from the absence of male role models.the feminisation of the teaching profession, especially at primary school, is one of the great untold stories of education.

“Concern, even hysteria, surrounding paedophilia is frightening off a lot of men from working with children.”

A spokesman said the DFE had “improved pathways into the profession, increasing the proportion of male primary school teachers since 2010.

“We know there is more to do and will continue our work to further increase diversity in the profession.”