Primary schools 'prefer women'

Education recruiters' experiences in placing teachers support the findings of a report by the Training and D
Education recruiters' experiences in placing teachers support the findings of a report by the Training and Development Agency, which revealed last week that men made up only 16% of primary school teachers.

Darryl Mydat, managing director at The London Teaching Pool, told Recruiter that though around 60% of the primary school teachers registered on the company's books were female and 40% male, women accounted for 80% of the placings.

"If we submitted five men and five women, we can be almost certain that the school would come back for a female all the time," he said.

It was the same for both permanent and temporary jobs, he said. Mydat said he thought it was "a hang-up from years ago" that children at primary school age need to be mothered. "It's nothing to do with teaching ability, as they all have the same UK teaching qualification," he added.

Paula Taylor, director of partnerships at Reed Learning, agreed that men were "under-represented" as supply teachers within primary schools. She suggested that men tend to overlook teaching as a potential career.

However, schools minister Jim Knight said that the number of men getting involved is increasing. "We want to further improve the diversity of the workforce. That is why we asked the Teaching Development Agency to carry out marketing campaigns to address this issue," he said.

Top