Significantly higher number of female teachers in Westmeath

Figures released in the Dáil shortly before Christmas show that there is a significantly higher number of female teachers in County Westmeath than male.

In Westmeath the female teaching population of primary school teachers (754) far outstrips the male figure (134) from the total of 888 teachers.

On the post-primary school teachers front, male representation among the total of 571 teachers is higher at 172, but still less than half of the female figure of 399 in the county.

The issue was raised in the Dáil by Sinn Féin Meath East TD, Darren O’Rourke, who asked the minister for education to outline the number of male teachers and female teachers in the education system at both primary and secondary level each year for the period 2015 to 2025.

In her reply, Minister Hildegarde Naughton said the ratio of female to male teachers in primary and post-primary schools (excluding ETBs) across the country in the 2024/25 school year was 6:1 and 2:1 respectively.

In addition, the Department of Education recently published three reports on teacher supply including data on an analysis of the Teaching Council register, a survey of substitutes and a survey of teacher unmet demand in post-primary schools.

An analysis of teacher payroll data, as of March 2025, shows there were 79,225 teachers employed in schools across the country, 43,221 at primary level including special schools, and 36,004 in post-primary schools.

Nationally the total number of female primary school teachers is 37,757 (55.38 per cent) compared to 6,356 males (9.32 per cent), while for post-primary the female teaching cohort is 16,485 (24.18 per cent) compared to the male number of 7,577 (11.11 per cent).