PRIME Minister Portia Simpson Miller yesterday said there were too few male teachers in the nation’s classrooms.

Simpson Miller, who feted some 300 educators from her South West St Andrew constituency at Vale Royal in Kingston at a Teacher’s Day luncheon, said she was not satisfied with the small number of male teachers in the school system.

“We want to take this opportunity to say this is a partnership and we are inviting men to join the women in the classroom because the young men, some of them, are at home without a father figure,” the prime minister said. “The teachers have to be operating as mothers and fathers at the same time,” the prime minister said.

Figures for 2006/07 from the statistical unit of the Ministry of Education show that of the 24,276 teachers in the system, only 5,225 are males. The data further reveals that there are only two male teachers on record at the early childhood or infant school level compared to 345 females.

In noting that teachers often have to go above and beyond the call of duty while operating under sometimes difficult conditions, Simpson Miller also commended female educators who she said at times “perform the role of teacher and mother in one”.

Turning to her constituents who staff some of the toughest schools in Kingston’s inner-city communities, the prime minister thanked them for their commitment, saying that despite the fact that they were from the poorest constituency in the country, their contribution was above par.

“Thank you so much for paying so much attention to our children, for giving them the kind of education that will make them better men and better women,” she said. “Thank you because you are all disciplinarians and I am proud of the discipline you try to instill in the students in the various schools of South West St Ann.”