Hiring a male is the new Holy Grail in primary schools. But as night follows day, all government-sponsored drives backfire, and so it is with the policy to get more men into primary teaching.
So Y is this little chromosome causing niggles in otherwise calm staffrooms, where women are from Earth and men as rare as Martians? The first reason can be summed up in a joke. “What do you call a man in a primary school? The head.” Newer is the implication, noted by researchers, that men are needed because women cannot inspire or handle boys.
Interestingly, pupils barely notice a difference between teachers of either sex, and there is no official guidance on what role the men should model.
Time for some swift and sensible debate. Otherwise, the advertising campaign might as well read: Got testosterone? Teach.