Bronwyn Jennings
The federal government's recent announcement that it will attempt to amend the Sex Discrimination Act to encourage more men to become teachers will have little effect on the number of men who are attracted to the teaching profession.
The announcement came after an initial proposal from the NSW Catholic Education Commission to offer a certain number of teaching scholarships that would only be available to men.
The Sex Discrimination Act was introduced in 1984, and prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, marital status or pregnancy. Undermining this law will be a step backward for women, not a solution to the teacher shortage.
The low numbers of male teachers highlights a significant crisis in the education system. Teachers across Australia have recently been campaigning around and taking stop-work action to address many of these problems — workloads, class sizes, contracts and pay. It is these factors that are most likely to impact on the retention of quality teachers, male or female.
Simultaneously, large numbers of teachers are approaching retirement age and more than 40% of those graduates currently entering teaching are unsure of whether they will still be teaching in five to 10 years.
Proposals such as those by the Victorian ALP government, for measly 2.25% per annum pay increases, along with possible 0.75% per annum linked to "productivity increases" will only exacerbate the problem of low male teacher numbers, with teachers' pay falling even further behind similar professions.
As the 2001 NSW government Inquiry into Male Teacher Numbers states, improvements in "remuneration, career structure...and working environments" will play a critical role in making teaching an attractive career choice. While teaching is underpaid, women will dominte the industry, as they do most severely underpaid professions.
The Australian Education Union has defended women teachers, arguing that any claim that teaching is lacking due to low male numbers is an insult to the efforts of women teachers, who make up an overwhelming majority of primary and secondary teachers.
While Prime Minister John Howard attacks the education system for not providing enough male role models, thousands of school leavers and mature-age applicants are desperate to get a place in a teaching course.
Demand continues to massively exceed the numbers of tertiary places funded by the federal government. This year alone there were 800 applicants for the 30 education degree places offered at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and 1000 applicants for the 60 positions offered by Latrobe University.
Appropriate pay and working conditions, a significant expansion of university places, and increased funding of public schools through the elimination of federal funding to private schools, will be the only real solutions to declining teacher numbers.
Both Howard and federal ALP leader Mark Latham's grandstanding about role models for boys seem more like election-year stunts, than genuine concern for the education of the majority of Australian school children.
From Green Left Weekly, March 24, 2004.
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