Female teachers are outnumbering their male counterparts across the country amid growing concerns over the classroom side effects of the gender imbalance.
The Education Ministry said that women accounted for nearly 77 percent of some 176,000 teachers working at elementary schools across the nation, citing the latest data for this year.
Among some 29,000 elementary school teachers in Seoul, 85.9 percent were female ― a five-year high. The figure was 73.5 percent in 2010.
The shortage of male teachers is said to make it hard for students to find a male role model in school, while it is also regarded as one of the main reasons for the weakening of discipline in the classroom.
To narrow the widening gap in the proportion of male and female teachers, the Education Ministry took a measure in 2000 to cut the number of female students at education colleges. The cap for female students was set at 60 to 75 percent of the total number of freshmen.
But the imbalance remained little changed largely because of the strong preference for a teaching career among women here. Another reason is that the state-run teacher recruitment exam does not consider the gender ratio.
Some critics argue that the ministry should set a quota for male teachers as their proportion continues to shrink.
A group of parents voiced concern over the falling number of male teachers at schools, citing the lack of male role models and poor discipline in the classroom at a time when bullying is a serious issue. But some civic groups countered this argument, saying that the quality of teaching is more important than the teacher’s gender.
In 2013, the government said that the number of female teachers rose by 36 percent over a period of 10 years while the number of male teachers fell by nearly 7 percent during the same period.
By Kim Da-sol, Intern reporter (dasolkim@heraldcorp.com)
