Males missing in preschools | Manawatu-Wanganui News | Local News in Manawatu-Wanganui

Early childhood teaching is slowly building momentum as a worthwhile profession for men.

Wanganui relieving kindergarten teacher Geoff Fugle recently graduated from the three-year early childhood degree course at Auckland University.

He described becoming a kindergarten teacher as the best thing he had ever done.

"What a great job... spending time with small children every day. I can't think of anything better... and you get paid for it."

But men make up only 1.7 per cent of the country's early childhood teachers.

Mr Fugle, who is 42 and has a partner and a baby daughter, said since the Peter Ellis/Christchurch Creche case in 1993, there had been a serious taint on men wanting to work with children in preschools.

"The case caused terrible repercussions for males wanting to work in early childhood education. It's really only just getting a little easier now."

In March 1992, a 34-year-old child care worker with the Civic Childcare Centre, Peter Ellis, was charged with indecently assaulting a child in his care. Many people believe Ellis was set up and that he was not guilty. Mr Fugle is one of the latter group, describing the Ellis case as one of the most horrific cases of injustice in New Zealand history.

For years afterwards male teachers found it difficult to gain employment because employers feared they could be "another Ellis" because of their gender, he said.

There were now five male early childhood teachers in Wanganui, he said.

The old idea of having a male teacher because they were more rough and tumble and even a father figure to boys from single mum families, was stupid, he said.

"It's ridiculous. We're not there to be father figures, we're there as their teachers, we're there as another adult. And I don't want the women teachers saying, 'Oh good, here's a male - he can kick a ball around with the boys', because that's not what it's about."

Mr Fugle said that more young males were seeing early childhood teaching as a great profession.

"Which is really great, we need males with our small children as well as the women. It's healthy and right to have a gender balance."