KEY POINTS:
Twice as many men are training to become secondary teachers, evening out a split between the sexes, Massey University's College of Education reported today.
Programme coordinator Peter Rawlins said male student numbers had doubled in the profession which has recently struggled to find a gender balance.
Overall, College of Education enrolments have increased by about a third this year.
Last year, a quarter of students enrolled in the university's one-year Graduate Diploma of Teaching (Secondary) were male.
This year the number of male enrolments has increased from 35 to 65 - half of all students.
Dr Rawlins said the increase was very exciting and reflected a number of factors, including the international economic downturn and rising unemployment in New Zealand.
"The majority of students we've talked to say that teaching is something that they've thought about doing in the past, and they now feel that the time is right."
He says the mix of age groups is as diverse as the subjects the students were choosing to specialise in.
In 2007, 15 of 158 education graduates were male, prompting education experts to call for urgent research into why men were not entering the teaching profession.
While the College had not specifically targeted male teachers during its recruitment campaign, it was delighted with the new gender balance.
The number of men in primary teaching programmes remained about 12-15 per cent, much the same as previous years.
- NZPA
