Tian Yun, a 32-year-old English teacher from Hunan Province, was rejected after the latest of several recent blind dates.

It's hard to impress a girl when the man's job only pays 2,000 yuan ($316) each month.

He's been teaching at the high school for more than seven years, but is one of the few male English teachers. Tian said that each year, young male teachers come and go but only a few stay.

The low pay, low social status and lack of opportunities to build social networks have put male teachers under stress and lowered their expectations of the job, he added.

Tian's salary is lower than the median salary of the city where he works, and lower than that of many of his classmates, who now work in the government or in the business sector.

"The passion I carried when I first became a teacher has faded away due to the rigid school management style and the examination-oriented education system. I don't see any future prospects working as a high school teacher, and will probably leave someday," he said.

A national problem

Tian is not the only male teacher who has been planning to leave the profession.

According to a recent report, teaching has been losing its attraction for men over the past decade, as the percentage of male teachers in the country's primary and high schools has been decreasing, especially in more developed cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

The percentage of male teachers in China's primary and high schools dropped from 53 to 47 percent from 2000 to 2009, said the report released by the Education Faculty with Beijing Normal University in July.

Male teachers accounted for 20.6 percent of the total number in city primary schools in 2009, while the number is 53.9 percent in villages, according to the report.

 "As the class' head teacher, my job means a lot more than just teaching courses. I have to take the students for a morning jog and reading before school begins, and I don't even get a rest on weekends because we have holiday courses. The trivial but routine tasks have been keeping me extremely busy every day," said Liu Shusong, a Chinese language teacher at a high school in Shandong Province.

There are some 100 teachers in Liu's school, one third of whom are men. He said many male teachers left because they were unsatisfied with the salary, but more left because of uncertainties surrounding their employment status. Many were contract teachers or substitutes without permanent teacher registration.

With a 2,000 yuan monthly salary, Tian and Liu said it's been difficult to support their families, particularly as they have reached the age when they're expected to get married, buy a house and raise a child - in most places in China, a man is still expected to be the major breadwinner of a family. Earning the same or less than his wife, and being unable to afford a house, is often considered to be a loss of face.

Schools prioritize males

According to a Shandong-based Qilu Evening News report on March 19, among the 140 teachers employed in Changyi last year, only 15 were male.

 "Teaching is less appealing for men, especially in cities like Beijing with higher living costs and more job choices," said Wang Yan, a female psychology teacher in Beijing who has taught in different high schools. Male teachers account for an average of 20 percent of the overall number in the schools she has worked for, Wang said, and most of them teach PE classes, science subjects or work in administrative or logistics roles.

According to a report published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, on a scale of "reputation" and "social economics" of 81 professions in China,  university teachers rank eighth , while high school teachers rank 12th and elementary schools teachers rank 35th.

Wang said that male teachers are not necessarily facing more restrictions than females. On the contrary, she thinks men are favored by school management and are more likely to get promoted if they are willing to wait.

"Bosses sometimes prefer male teachers when considering candidates for school management roles because they think men are more capable than women and can take on bigger responsibilities," said Wang.

In a bid to make up for the gender imbalance among teachers, some cities such as Shanghai have taken measures to attract more male students to education-related majors.

In a joint effort with the Shanghai education commission, Shanghai Normal University launched a new policy in 2003, requiring a minimum of 40 percent male students be admitted each year among the total number of education-related students.

East China Normal University in Shanghai admits male students at lower scores for its pre-school education major, and Chengdu University began this year to receive male students studying pre-school education for free.

According to the Beijing Normal University report, the imbalanced gender ratio among teachers in a school can have negative effects on children in terms or developing their ability to adapt to society.

"Male teachers are very helpful in shaping a student's characteristics, and students are more likely to learn courage, responsibility and perseverance from male teachers," Chu Zhaohui, a researcher with the China National Institute for Educational Research, told the Global Times.

Men are less likely to obediently follow orders, so might not like the structured environment of the education system, resulting in fewer male students majoring in education, Chu said.

Different approaches 

Tian said he was criticized by his boss for playing English songs and films in class to improve students' spoken English. Young teachers in his school have also been criticized for taking other fun and interesting approaches to stimulate students' desire to learn, he said.

"Some teachers teach their whole life, with little pay, while not being widely recognized. Only a few earn fame for their academic achievements," he added.

"The current school management and system is not open enough to allow teachers to freely express ideas and suggestions, and the assessment policies for teachers, which prioritize academic achievements and students' examination results, have made teachers less passionate and innovative," Chu explained.

Many male teachers quit because of the low salary or after finding it difficult to realize their ambitions to make changes for the better, he noted, adding that the fact that talented male teachers are leaving and fewer men are willing to take on the job means the quality of teaching will be affected, ultimately resulting in poorer academic results for students in elementary and high schools.