Article headline should read "men should just ignore concerns about false accusations"

In a continuation from my previous post about the declining number of male teachers in schools, I came across this article which basically stated the same thing.

South Australian Education Minister Jennifer Rankine says "she wants to reassure young men that teaching remains a good choice for them" and that "this is a tiny number of people who have undertaken these dreadful acts".

Here's what she's NOT doing:

1.  Implementing stricter controls on how allegations are handled.  Short of there being rape attempts, should teachers really be stood down until further notice?  Wouldn't the system be better served by putting a second teacher in the classroom who can monitor the teacher's behaviour until the accusations can be properly assessed?

2.  Offering compensation for teachers who are found 'not guilty' of the accusation.  Currently, by the time the accusation is proven false, the teacher in question will have been out of work for months, may be under enormous stress both financially and personally and may have ongoing issues as a result of the situation with little or no support from the government, the school OR their teacher's union.

3.  Offering male teachers more money to teach.  I remember asking why it was that the managers in my company got paid what they did and being told that the pay level was relative to the risk.  There is absolutely no doubt that the risk to male teachers is far above the risk to female teachers and so it follows that the pay should also.  If my 45+ year career path could be cut short AT ANY TIME and I could find myself unemployable (because what school would want to employ a teacher accused of abuse) then I'd expect that the payment for said job would compensate me for that risk.

4.  Treating teachers accused of crimes as innocent until proven guilty.  I'm all for the safety of the child, but it's a basic human right and my suggestion in point 1 provides a way to protect the 'alleged victim' without punishing the accused teacher.

5.  Admitting that there is clearly both a major issue affecting the system and there are major concerns that young men have about putting their lives, careers and future in the hands of potentially emotionally erratic children.  Teaching does not "remain a good choice for men" as long as they'll be treated as guilty until proven innocent.  Of course I guess it's asking too much to expect a female Minister to understand a mainly male concern.

What was left out of the article is how more than 50% of the accusations are proven false.  It appears that Jennifer Rankine does not know what the real situation on the ground is.  I'll give her more credit once she's personally met with at least five male teachers who have been falsely accused of abuse, although good luck finding that many who are still teaching!

Notice the last line of the article:  "between 2008 and 2012 there was a 25 per cent rise in the number of young men under 25 enrolling in teaching courses".

So if there were only four men enrolled in 2008 and there were five enrolled in 2012, then there was a 25 percent rise in enrollments.  Or, perhaps 400 young men enrolled in 2008 and 500 young men enrolled in 2012 - within 12 months most had dropped out as they became aware of the potential risks and decided against finishing.  There is a very big difference between the number of people who start a course and number who finish, of course the government would rather use statistics positively twisted to show things are looking up, rather than admit there's a real problem.