STATISTICS coming out of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, which represents 88 per cent of the island’s approximately 25,000 public school educators, reveal that the number of males in the profession has dwindled dramatically over the past five years.

“As at this week, our statistics reflected that 85 per cent of the 22,000 teachers that we represent are female. Fifteen (per cent) are male. About five years ago, it was about 70 per cent female to 30 per cent male,” said JTA president, Hopeton Henry.

Linking the attrition to the profession’s low wages and unfavourable working conditions, Henry said that the numbers were not surprising.

“I want to link this to the fact that the teaching profession is the lowest paid. Men are really the breadwinners, and it is not easy to carry a car loan, mortgage, and take care of a family on what teaching pays here,” he said.

The island’s teachers have been waging a perennial battle with the government over wages and benefits. Their salaries, however, are still far from the ideal visualised by Henry.

“Ideally, a teacher who is just starting out in the profession should not be taking home less than J$60,000 after tax. A trained graduate, J$100,000 and a Master Teacher, J$120,000,” he said.

Meanwhile, research findings emerging from the JTA’s recently concluded annual education conference at the Holiday Inn and Sunspree Resort in St James identified a critical need for male role models in the local education system to raise the achievement levels of male students, who are characterised as “disadvantaged” when compared to their female counterparts.

The factors identified as accounting for this include:

. the absence of a father interested in education;

. a lack of supervision at home; and

. lower teacher expectations of male students than of female students.

Christopher Clarke, vice-principal for academic affairs and director of early childhood programmes at the Shortwood Teachers’ College, said the under-achievement of boys represents a threat to the peace and well-being of society.

“It affects our churches, our families, our society, and therefore warrants our collective and urgent response,” he told the more than 300 educators at the conference.

Among the measures Clarke recommended as a means of tackling the problem were:

. the encouragement of ‘real’ men to read to boys;

. the consideration of mentoring progammes for boys;

. the encouragement of reading materials that portray boys and girls in positive ways;

. the increase of boys’ career options through the introduction of non-traditional careers; and

. the elimination of gender labels from certain subjects.

Henry suggested, in the interim, that legislation be put in place to follow the lead of the University of the West Indies (UWI) in extending the retirement age of teachers from 60 to 65, as one means of keeping experienced and qualified male teachers in the classroom.

“There are things that can be done to hold some of the male teachers in the classroom. Those who are retiring can be brought back on contract to share their experience with the younger males. In any case, some serious intervention is needed because some of the information that we are getting on a daily basis is frightening,” he noted.

“What comes out in the media is only the tip of the iceberg. If we are not careful, we could have our own Virginia Tech out here,” he added, referring to last week’s murder of 27 students and five faculty members at the US university, by a gun-toting student.