The traditional embarrassment felt by men asked to talk to children about the "birds and the bees" is being repeated in classrooms and is holding back sex education, according to an internal Department of Education report.
Male teachers are proving extremely reluctant to talk to children about sex and related health issues. The Department has commissioned the University of Limerick to find out what is behind their apparent discomfort.
The Department's document expresses concern that if male teachers do not get involved in the sex education programme, boys might ignore the positive messages it contains. The document says boys will be inadequately served if male teachers do not "promote and embody the life skills and attitudes enshrined" in the programme.
According to the report, male teachers hold the perception that RSE is like "pastoral care or home economics and that it pertains more to the realm of the female than to the concrete and logical world of the male".
However, the Department's report makes clear the importance of getting males involved. "Most sexually transmitted diseases have a higher incidence rate among men than women. Only recently are realities like male rape, sexual assault and sexual abuse of boys being recognised," it points out. Another area which needs to be dealt with is male suicide, it says.
A Department official involved with the RSE programme said it was important to bring these issues before young boys and also to enlighten them generally about their health and personal development. The absence of male teachers to do this was a significant worry, she said.
This concern was worsened by male teachers being not just coy about sex education, but seeming to regard other health and lifestyle issues as a preoccupation of their female colleagues.
While the Department was unable to provide exact figures on how many male teachers were involved in RSE, the generally low numbers of males entering primary teaching over the last decade has made matters worse. The report pointed out that between 1991 and 1996 some 2,572 women entered primary teacher-training colleges compared with 339 men. This has not improved significantly since then, it added.