Crisis within the classroom as variety of males turning into secondary lecturers plummets to document 35 per cent low whereas boys flip to poisonous male position fashions of their absence
The number of men becoming secondary school teachers in the UK has fallen to a record low – sparking fears boys are turning to toxic male role models in their absence.
Shocking figures show the proportion of male secondary school teachers has dropped from 46 per cent in 1994 to just 35 per cent today.
Experts are concerned this could leave impressionable young minds susceptible to the twisted ideologies of figures such as self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate.
They are now calling for a targeted recruitment campaign to bring more positive role models for boys into the classroom, reports The Sunday Times.
While staff rooms were once closer to an even split of men and women, the number of male teachers has been gradually declining since the early 1990s, according to figures from the Department for Education (DfE).
The statistics are even worse in primary schools with one in seven primary and nursery teachers being men, though this figure has been low for many decades and hardly fluctuates.
Experts believe the declining numbers are leaving boys with fewer positive male role models in the classroom and claim this is particularly concerning for boys being raised in a single-parent household most often by their mother.
Between 2018 and 2024, the number of female teachers at secondary schools increased by 9,600 to 150,000 while the number of male teachers rose by only 3,400 to 82,000, according to the DfE.
Richard Reeves (pictured), who wrote: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, says male teachers should be encouraged to go into classrooms and talk about teaching as a career
Until 1944 women could be banned from teaching if they married but, today it is men who are more likely to leave the profession.
Richard Reeves, who wrote: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, says male teachers should be encouraged to go into classrooms and talk about teaching as a career.
He also highlighted how benefits have been seen from having successful women come into schools and talk to young girls.
Mr Reeves said the rise in popularity of misogynistic influencers, such as Andrew Tate, had prompted a national conversation about a lack of positive male role models in boys’ lives.
But, he believes the most obvious and straight forward way to set a good example for youngsters is to have those who are a positive influence in the classroom.
Experts are concerned this could leave impressionable young minds susceptible to the twisted ideologies of figures such as self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate (pictured)
Reeves added that he thinks the UK should consider scholarships for men embarking on a career in teaching and also a public awareness campaign to promote the profession to men (stock image)
He said: ‘I think the best antidote to an unserious, negative online male figure is a positive, real-life male figure. The best answer to Andrew Tate is not to be found in the far reaches of the internet. It is found at the front of our classrooms.’
Reeves added that he thinks the UK should consider scholarships for men embarking on a career in teaching and also a public awareness campaign to promote the profession to men.
In a report due to be published on Thursday, the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) will ask the government to consider creating a minister for boys and men whose role would include overseeing a strategy for training more male teachers, as well as the reasons behind boys’ underachievement in school exams.
The report is called Boys Will Be Boys: The Educational Underachievement of Boys and is written by Mary Curnock Cook, the chair of the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology and former chief executive of Ucas.
It will say the research is mixed on whether having more male teachers would make much difference to boys’ achievement but that ‘many people believe the presence of more male teachers normalises learning as a suitable activity for men’.
