World News

The room was packed so full that they were standing at the back, but we were an orderly and attentive lot. "Hands up those of you who've been into a school recently," our facilitator requested. A good number of hands shot up. "Those of you who didn't put your hands up need to get into a school," she said with a stern look.

An Ipswich school is defying trends and putting men back in front of the class with more male teachers than women.

St Edmund's College has 33 male full-time teachers (57 per cent) and 25 female teachers (43 per cent) this year.

I'm in New Zealand right now getting ready for a presentation to the 4th Annual Men in Early Childhood Summit. I'm spending time with one of the guys, Robin Christie and his wife and kids I met in Belfast, Ireland - the World Forum.

Parents want more men to work in nurseries and primary schools so youngsters can have access to male role models from an early age, according to two new reports.

Research by the Children's Workforce Development Council found that lone parents were particularly keen to see men involved in early years childcare.

A survey of more than 1,000 parents of young children found that 55% wanted a male childcare worker for their nursery-aged child, rising to two thirds among single parents.

There is currently such a shortage of male primary school teachers that when one starts working at your child's school he is often welcomed with the kind of fanfare usually associated with the discovery of a new species.

Parents are calling for a fresh recruitment drive of male teachers as a survey shows most children from single mother households have little contact time with a male role model.

Single mothers expressed concern about their children having little contact with men in a caring capacity. A majority said they would like a man to be involved in the care and development of their young children.

Men are being urged to take jobs in nurseries after a survey suggested many parents want their toddlers to have more contact with male role models.

For every 100 people working in childcare, only two are men.

The Children's Workforce Development Council questioned 1,000 parents about the issue of men working in nurseries.

If you visit Duc Tho town's nursery school you might see a man carefully spoon-feeding children and covering them with blankets.

He is Luong Xuan Phong, believed to be the only male nursery school teacher in Vietnam.

As new research suggests parents want more men to work in nurseries, one man who runs a pre-school explains what it is like working in a profession dominated by women.

When Duncan Wise first went into childcare nearly 12 years ago, he came across some negative attitudes from parents.

Schoolchildren are more likely to disrupt lessons if they have a male teacher, a survey suggests.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) polled 1,500 of its members in 13 English local authorities.

Although the survey found a general improvement in pupil behaviour since 2001, 77% of males said they had a lesson disrupted at least once a week.

Lately, the field of Early Childhood Education (ECE) has been widely debated in Austria. Raising requirements for Early Childhood Educators to the tertiary level, making a Bache-lor’s degree mandatory, is one of the major issues. Another issue gaining a lot of attention is last year’s decision by several Austrian provinces to keep pre-school year free of charge.

What do the children think? Read comments from children from Europe about their beliefs about having a male teacher.

Boys can do better at school when their teachers are also male, according to a survey.

Boys will perform better in education if they have a male teacher in their primary school, according to research published today.

A study of more than 1,000 men reveals almost half of them (48 per cent) cited male primary school teachers as having had the most impact on them during their school life.

In addition, 35 per cent said having a male teacher challenged them to work harder at school while 22 per cent said males had boosted their confidence in their own ability.

A growing number of British men would like to work as nannies and childminders but fear they would be branded as paedophiles, according to a new study.

An overwhelming majority of parents and non-parents want more men to join the child care profession, research to be published this week shows. Only one in 10 parents said they would be unwilling to place their children with a male carer.

The number of male teachers in our schools is dwindling. Why? Do men think teaching isn't masculine enough, or that it's a job for the fairer sex?

WITH June being the month to celebrate Father's Day, I found my gaze swivelling towards the "fatherly" figures we have in our schools. I am referring, of course, to the male teachers who dot our teaching landscape. I say "dot" because the men among us teachers are certainly dwindling in numbers!

Yes, my ladies - it's us who rule the schools these days. Where have all the men gone?