Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
Young participants in the Generating Genius project chat with Dr. Novellette McKnight, project coordinator, during a cocktail reception, held at the Mona Visitors' Lodge and Conference Centre, University of the West Indies, Mona, on Tuesday. - WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
KENNETH HALL pro-vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus, has praised the Generating Genius science education project as an initiative to reverse male underachievement in the field.
There was "very little", he said, that could be done to affect male underachievement later on at university level.
He was speaking at a reception for the project at the UWI Mona Visitors Lodge held on Tuesday night.
The project has taken 10 African-Caribbean British boys, flown here to join 10 Jamaican boys (all aged 12) to participate in a month-long science camp from July 24 to August 20, to be held annually for the next five years.
"Underachievement starts in the high schools and while we continue to accept students based on examination grades - GSAT, CXC and CAPE - we will find fewer boys illegible for university This programme is starting where it matters at a younger age when, there is very little we can do to reverse it here (at university level)," said Professor Hall.
Founder of the scheme Dr. Tony Sewell, a British-Jamaican expert on boys education, in admitting he was failing educationally at the same age, said the boys selected were not from the academic elite, but that they had the potential to become scientists and doctors, guidance he hoped Generating Genius would provide.
"I think we are all bright. There is no way that their parents paid for them to be here, and they were not born with a silver spoon in their mouths. We are not an elite, but we believe that irrespective of your background we believe we can do better. And that makes us brighter."
Dr. Sewell said it was a pilot project and proved successful. He hoped it could be extended into other subject areas. Greater support was needed in higher education for children from lower income backgrounds, he said.
"Now that the intake has changed and taken lots more children from poorer backgrounds, we need sustained support to keep them there and away from distraction."
Addressing the Generating Genius participants, The Gleaner's Managing Director, Oliver Clarke, admitted that he was "not an academic" himself, but had learned the most between the ages of 10 and 13.
"This is the time of your life where by reading and studying you are making the move from student to adult. You are going to become role models. You can go back to your own schools and prove that Caribbean students can be among the best in the world."
The Gleaner Company Limited, the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS) and the UWI Mona are sponsors of Generating Genius.
