THE FINDINGS of a research project investigating patterns of male/female enrolment and performance at the primary and secondary levels, have challenged the view that teenaged boys are underachieving in school as compared to their female counterparts, and that they are dropping out because they have no interest in formal education.
Researchers Dr. Barbara Bailey, Acting Regional Co-ordinator of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Centre for Gender and Development Studies (CGDS), and Dr. Monica Brown of the UWI Institute of Education, yesterday said claims that boys were being outperformed by girls in the local school system were somewhat exaggerated.
They were addressing a seminar in 'Gender Perspectives on the School Experience', at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston.
"The boys who are in the (formal education) system are not performing as badly as it has been made out to be," Dr. Bailey said.
The study, approved and funded by the Canada-Caribbean Gender Equity Fund (CCGEF) Jamaica, used data collected in Kingston and St. Andrew, St. Thomas, Clarendon, St. Catherine, Manchester and St. James in 1997. Ministry of Education statistics, and interviews of students and school drop-outs were also used.
Dr. Bailey told participants, among them Chief Education Officer, Wesley Barrett, other senior officials from the Ministry of Education, and principals from a number of teacher-training colleges, that the study noted an increasing trend of higher male drop-out from the formal education system beyond Grade 9. She noted, however, that "the boys who remain in the system are performing quite creditably, so there is a need to make a distinction between participation and performance".
Data indicated that although more girls took CXC examinations, in the majority of subjects the percentage of boys who received passes at Grades 1 & 2 was higher than that for girls.
"Although fewer males than females were entered for the 1996/97 Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), they obtained a better pass rate in 20 of the 35 subjects, reflecting improved performance over 1994/95," the report stated.
Boys had better pass rates than females in the five Technical/Vocational subjects offered, where their total enrolment was significantly higher than that of girls and in six out of seven Science subjects. Girls had better pass rates for Domestic/Business Crafts and the Humanities. Dr. Bailey said it was unlikely these trends had changed significantly since 1997.
On the issue of male drop-out, she said the findings called into question the perception that boys drop out of school because they have no goals and are not interested in getting a formal education.
"I would be hard-pressed to say, certainly from those I interviewed, that they were not concerned about getting some form of education. The majority of them had clear goals in life and they saw school as one of the most important means of achieving these goals," she told The Gleaner.
The study found financial problems, the need to earn money, and violence in schools were the main reasons for male dropout.
"School good to learn to read and write, but war in school and teacher can't stop it," one student said during one of the research interviews.
