The classroom has become a no man's land in Irish education. Teaching is dominated, as never before, by women - only 20 per cent of primary teachers are men and the number of male second-level teachers is falling fast. But why are men bowing out of the profession and what can be done to encourage them back?, asks Louise Holden

High academic standards, low pay and poor perception are causing boys to turn their noses up at teaching as a career, creating an acute imbalance in the profession.

The latest figures from the Department of Education show that the number of males opting to teach in Ireland is dwarfed by the number of females. The ratio is getting more lopsided every year and is particularly acute in the primary sector, where the male teaching quota has dropped to just 20 per cent.

At a ratio of about 60:40, the contrast at second level is not so stark, but Peter Mullen, INTO press officer, expects to see second-level recruitment trends follow primary trends over the coming years. Mullen attributes the anomaly to the rigorous academic standards required for teaching, which are alienating lower achievers - i.e. boys.

"Prior to the 1970s, the ratio of females to males was roughly 2:1," Mullen says. "In the main, this was brought about by the fact that teacher training was gender segregated. There were two large colleges for women (Mary Immaculate in Limerick and Carysfort in Dublin) and one for males (St Patrick's in Drumcondra, Dublin). In the 1970s, when these colleges became co-educational, male and female applicants competed with each other for places and females quickly established a numerical dominance. This basically came down to the fact (and still does) that girls did better in the Leaving Certificate than boys."

Mullen believes that the requirement of teachers to have honours Irish is another factor putting boys off the job - girls consistently perform better at languages, especially Irish, at Leaving Cert.

That said, repeat colleges are not teeming with disappointed males hell bent on teaching. The number of boys applying for courses in education is dropping fast and the profession of teaching is viewed very differently by male and female schoolgoers. Whereas girls view teaching as a rewarding, academic, professional occupation, boys tend to view it as a "nurturing" job, and one best left to the girls.

UCD's Head of Education, Sheelagh Drudy, is an authority on attitudes to teaching in Ireland. In a study of 1,049 secondary students, Drudy found that the female perception of teaching as a profession is far more favourable than the male perception. According to Drudy's study, student attitudes to primary and second-level teaching, in comparison to engineering, television production, computer programming, social work, medicine, law and accountancy, were statistically different according to the gender of the interviewee. Girls were most likely to see social work and primary teaching as offering job satisfaction, while boys suggested engineering, computer programming and television production.

"Students had very stereotyped views on the careers suited to men and women - engineers for men, primary teaching, followed by social work, for women," according to Drudy. "Teaching was regarded by the students as a caring profession and boys were less likely to rate caring professions as enjoyable."

IN comparison to other sixth years intending to apply for college courses, Drudy found that those choosing primary teaching, in particular, had scored higher grade point averages in the Junior Certificate and were doing more honours subjects at Leaving Certificate. She also found that the predominantly female group hoping to pursue a career in teaching were more interested in things like job satisfaction, fulfilment and creativity when choosing a career than people choosing other courses. They were less interested in things like pay and prestige.

John White, deputy general secretary of the ASTI, suggests that boys have had their heads turned by the wide range of professional careers on offer since the Irish economy got moving in the 1990s, and the emphasis they place on earning high salaries is steering them away from teaching.

"People from rural areas, who used to have a limited choice of professional career options, can now choose from a wide range of dynamic, well-paid jobs across a range of sectors," he says.

Teaching is not as desirable in economic terms as it once was, and the potential to earn higher salaries and to retain greater control over career progression has drawn male ambition away from the safe option of education.

Gender dominance in any profession is self-perpetuating. As more female students are guided into teaching by the female role models that they encounter each day at school, ever more role models are created, continuing the cycle. The lack of role models for boys in the education system has been blamed not only for the drop in male applicants to teaching but also for the wider academic malaise that has stricken many boys at school in recent years. Neither Mullen nor Drudy have found any evidence to back this up.

"The evidence suggests that we should be wary of attributing patterns of male underachievement to women teachers. The problem is more complex, multi-faceted and embedded in the social structure," Drudy says.

As boys veer away from what they increasingly view as a "soft" career option, growing ranks of female teachers work in schools where issues of poor discipline and even violence loom large.

Does the shrinking adult male presence in our classrooms have implications for the security of our schools?

White feels that balance is the ideal in any setting. "I wouldn't like to say that female teachers have less control in the classroom, but it's true to say that the ideal environment - from a pastoral and developmental, as well as a disciplinary, point of view - is for students to enjoy the significant presence of both males and females."