THE BOYS at St Patrick's Primary School on Bay Farm Road, St Andrew were very happy the day Guidance Counsellor Kayson Jones joined the all-female staff of 30.

Jones joined the school in 2007 - the first male teacher to be recruited in several years - and has since been mentoring the young boys who were in dire need of a male role model.

"My presence here has made a difference," Jones told The Sunday Gleaner last Thursday during a visit to the school on its Boys'/Career Day.

He recalled that the first group of grade six boys that he taught were elated that he came on-board.

"They were like, 'Sir, thank God' because they felt that the teachers nagged too much and they felt that here is someone that we could relate to," Jones recounted.

According to the Ministry of Education's Statistics Unit, of the 25,013 teachers in the classroom, only 5,255 are men.

Read full story in Lead 5.