Dáil debates

Tuesday, 26 April 2005

3:00 pm

Photo of Jan O'SullivanJan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

I welcome that this report is due shortly. Will the Minister publish it when it becomes available? On the OECD figures, the average is 20% whereas in the figures available here, only 10% of students in teacher training colleges are now male. At second level, only 15% of new ASTI members are male, so I suggest the trend is also progressive at second level. Does the Minister agree that this needs to be addressed, especially if it is a progressive trend? If the imbalance were the other way around, we would feel the need to address it. We should address the issue of males in teaching. Does the Minister intend to examine the effect of the leaving certificate curriculum on how boys perform and does she propose changing it? Does the Minister intend to look at the teaching of Irish and the fact that the need for honours level Irish to get into primary teaching is a possible obstacle for men in teaching? Moreover, does the Minister have figures for postgraduate courses and if men feature more predominantly in them?

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