MORE THAN 73 PER CENT OF TEACHERS ARE WOMEN

 Cyprus Mail 5 October 2020 - by Annette Chrysostomou

More than 73 per cent of school teachers in Cyprus are women, higher than the EU average, a study published by Eurostat on Monday, World Teachers Day, reveals.

In primary schools 4,786 teachers were employed in 2018, of which 768 were male and 4,018 female.

In lower secondary education, of the 3,096 teachers 845 were men and 2,251 women, while in upper secondary education the total was 3,721, of which 1,424 were men and 2,297 women.

In all EU member states, school teachers in 2018 were predominantly female. However, the share of female teachers was the highest in Latvia, 87 per cent, followed by Lithuania, 85 per cent, and Bulgaria, Estonia and Slovenia (all 83 per cent).

The share of male teachers was highest in Denmark, 38 per cent, and Luxembourg, 36 per cent, followed by Greece and Spain, both 34 per cent.

In total, there were 5.2 million teachers employed in primary, lower secondary and upper secondary education. Women accounted for the majority of this workforce with 72 per cent or 3.7 million teachers.

In terms of their age structure, 0.4 million, 7 per cent of the total, were under 30 years old, while 2 million, 39 per cent, were aged 50 years or above.