Cho Min-geun, left, a teacher at Mochung Elementary School in Cheongju, North Chungcheong, teaches an art class. By Kim Sung-tae

Teaching elementary school has been a predominately female job, but more men are stepping into the classrooms.

Of the 46 teachers at Gyori Elementary School in Gijang County, Busan, only 19 - or 41 percent - are men. That is still twice the average rate in downtown Busan elementary schools, which lingers around 20 percent.

Because Gyori is a farming village, it offers greater incentives to persuade people to work there, which draws more male applicants.

The school says that having more male teachers allows it to offer a greater variety of after-school activities. It says having male role models for both the boys and the girls promotes “character growth” of its kids, which is currently a big subject in school reform discussions.

Parents apparently like the trend, and some request the school assign their kids to a male homeroom teacher.

“The atmosphere in the staff lounge and in the classrooms has changed to become brighter and more positive,” said Park Hyeong-mok, vice principal of the school.

At Mochung Elementary School in Cheongju in North Chungcheong, 29-year-old Cho Min-geun is the only male teacher on a staff of 20. When he was hired in 2011, the principal of the school cheered, so glad was he to have recruited a male teacher. He was put in charge of some after-school athletics and also does some counseling.

For two years, Cho has been teaching fifth graders. The principal thought that having a male teacher would be better for kids on the cusp of puberty.

“The role of male teachers is great in student counseling, athletic activities and improving the environment,” Kim Tae-soo, Mochung’s principal said. “Whenever job recruiting season comes around, quite a number of principals seek out the office of education and say, ‘Send us men teachers, even if they’re old.’ ”

Even until the 1990s, less than 20 percent of teachers in elementary schools were male.

In 1998, during the Asian Financial crisis, the enrollment of men in Cheongju National University of Education, which trains many public elementary school teachers, was only 7 percent. But in 2002, incoming male students at the school grew to 25 percent of the class. Last year, 97 out of 315 students, or 31 percent, were guys.

The reason more men are going into teaching is because they are more fearful about getting jobs than before, are worried about early retirement from companies, or are drawn to the stability and job security of working as a civil servant.

In 2009, 28.1 percent of teachers that passed the nationwide public elementary school recruitment exams were male. Last year, that rose to 30.5 percent.

In North Chungcheong, of 280 teachers that passed the public elementary school recruitment exam this year, 47.1 percent were male, a 10 percent increase from last year. The number of male applicants this year surpassed females: 226 male applicants compared to 216 female.

South Jeolla, meanwhile, has seen the number of males passing elementary school recruitment tests surpass females. In 2009, 58 percent of 2,100 teachers that passed the South Jeolla elementary teacher test were male. It dipped to 47 percent in the next two years but last year rose to 63 percent and again this year was 61 percent.

Even cities like Daejeon, which has only 16.5 percent male elementary school teachers, saw a jump this year to 29.5 percent. Busan went from 19 percent in 2009 to 28 percent this year.

“An equilibrium between males and females is being reached in society,” said Lee Jong-yeon, education professor at Chungbuk National University. “Likewise, there needs to be a balance with teachers. Students need to reap the advantages of having both male and female teachers.”


By Shin Jin-ho, Sarah Kim [sarahkim@joongang.co.kr]