Women School Teachers Outnumber Men For The First Time In India

The number of women working as schoolteachers in India has surpassed the figures of their fellow male teachers, a new report has revealed. According to the Unified District Information on School Education (U-DISE) report for 2019_20, 49.2 lakh are women out of the 96.8 lakh teachers in the country, The Times of India reported.

The school education has appointed 49.15 lakh female teachers and 47.71 lakh male teachers in 2019-20, out of the total 96.87 lakh teachers, about 2.57 lakhs higher than in 2018-19. Over the last seven years, a rise of more than 37% or 13 lakh has been reported in female teachers. In 2012-13, 35.8 lakh women teachers worked across the country against 42.4 lakh men. In the same period, the number of male teachers rose from 42.4 lakh to 47.7 lakh.

However, this is only at the primary level. The number of male teachers continues to outnumber female teachers from the upper primary level onwards.

Statistics

More than 1 lakh women teachers work at the pre-primary level, compared with around 27,000 men. In the primary grades, 19.6 lakh are women while 15.7 lakh are male. There are 11.5 lakh male and 10.6 lakh women teachers in the upper introductory classes, 6.3 lakh men and 5.2 lakh women teachers in the secondary schools, while in higher secondary, it's 3.7 lakh men to 2.8 lakh women, The Times of India reported.

The U-DISE report, which is released annually by the department of school education and literacy under the Union ministry of education, said the number of women teachers are higher in private unaided schools. The number of male teachers is more elevated in government and aided schools. The report also suggested that Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) has also improved at all levels of school education.

According to the report, Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of female teachers of 6.42 lakh, followed by Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra with 4.22 lakh and 3.75 lakh women teachers. Except for Kerala, Delhi, Meghalaya, Punjab and Tamil Nadu, male teachers outnumber women in higher grades in all big states. In these five states, the number of women teaching is more heightened than men, even in secondary and higher secondary classes.

"Undoubtedly in younger classrooms, many schools in India prefer women teachers, since they are seen to be more nurturing, However, I think it's good for male teachers to demonstrate nurture too! Otherwise, we're demonstrating a sexist bias in favour of women teachers," Maya Menon, founder-director of Teacher Foundation told TOI.

"Male teachers in India prefer to teach in secondary school because they get paid more, especially with government scales. Private schools that have more male teachers tend to be international schools where the pay is better than in other private schools," she told TOI.

Reasons

According to a recent India Today report, the data from the education department indicate that male teachers are more prevalent in colleges and universities as the mindset is that teaching in these institutions holds greater prestige and pay packages.

The reports also said that the reason behind women outnumbering men in primary schools is work-social life balance. Women who are ambitious and want to manage their household tend to be teachers, most probably, as the school timings make it feasible to order work and family. For many years teaching was seen as a comfortable, stable job with predictable tasks to perform.

The report also suggested that the difference in teaching styles might also be one reason for schools recruiting more female teachers. The difference in behaviour, easygoing and open towards their students being some of them.

Male and female teachers may behave differently in the classroom, and students may respond differently to their teachers' behaviours. But it is quite possible that what appear to be gender differences might be different teaching styles. Male teachers, on the contrary, are considered more dominant, rigid and strict. The focus is more on competition, attitude, and individuality, whereas intimacy, harmony, and interdependence are the areas of interest of female teachers.

"Any dynamic and vital profession and I consider teaching as one, must have an equitable distribution of men and women. Children need to learn from teachers who can offer a male as well as a female perspective," Menon told TOI.

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