Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department is taking steps to increase the recruitment of male primary school teachers.

​​The Department wants to attract and retain diverse, talented teachers from all backgrounds, and this includes recruiting male teachers. It is important that schools and their leadership teams reflect their communities and their pupils. The Department knows that good teachers, regardless of gender or background, provide positive role models and shape the lives of young people.

​The gender of new entrants to postgraduate teacher training has remained broadly similar since 2015/16, with 28% being male in 2022/23. 16% of primary postgraduate trainees were male compared to 39% of secondary postgraduate trainees in 2022/23.

​More women apply to the primary phase than men, which is reflected in the higher proportion of female teachers working in primary schools. Whilst it remains true that men make up a smaller proportion of the teaching workforce, the number of male teachers in primary schools has gradually increased since 2010. Since 2010, there has been an increase of over 7,000 male teachers in state funded nursery and primary schools, from 28,180 in 2010/11 to 35,202 in 2021/22.

As of November 2021, in state funded nursery and primary schools, 26% of headteachers were male, compared with 14% of all nursery and primary teachers.

The Department is using the data gathered through its new in-house teacher recruitment services, such as the new Apply for Teaching Training service. These services are generating new real-time data and insight into recruitment of male primary Initial Teacher Training (ITT) candidates and the recruitment practices of schools and universities that offer ITT.

​The Department’s recruitment campaigns are targeted at audiences of students, recent graduates, and potential career changers, regardless of gender. The Department makes every effort to ensure that our advertising is fully reflective of this across the full range of marketing materials used. The Department continues to develop its work to ensure that diversity and inclusion is central to the work delivered.

The Department is working with its Teacher Vacancy Service to ensure online case studies encourage more male primary teachers into the profession, through sharing positive and encouraging stories from teachers.