Women’s organisation calls for greater gender balance in schools

Posted 29 Sep 2009

TEFL teachers of both sexes may be buoyed by recent calls for gender balance to be addressed among the teaching profession.

Tatjana Hine, president of the British Association of Women Entrepreneurs (BAWE), believes there are currently too few men teaching at primary level and a lack of female teachers in secondary schools.

She says: "At the moment, if we are thinking about junior schools, then unfortunately most of the staff are female which is not good for boys.

"In senior schools it tends to swing the other way, so it’s a very difficult balance to achieve, but obviously it needs to be a fair balance that we have among our schools."

Ms Hine adds she is hopeful the problem can be resolved soon so that both male and female students can benefit from gender equality in the staffroom.

According to recent figures from the Association of School and College Leaders, the percentage of women appointed to headships in the secondary sector was nearly 44 per cent in 2009 – a marked increase on last year’s 31 per cent.

Category: Teaching and Learning