From left: Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, June Chandler; Chief Education Officer, Karen Best; Minister of Education, the Hon. Ronald Jones; and Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Senator Harcourt Husbands, listen to the presentation on Project Schools during the launch of the Implementation of School Teacher Effectiveness Plans (STEP) in the primary schools on Monday.
Minister of Education, Ronald Jones, made an appeal to the leaders in the schools to ensure the exit point for male students is just as high as for females.
The minister made this comment during the launch of the Implementation of School Teacher Effectiveness Plans (STEP) in Project Schools on Monday. While speaking on the results of the CSEC examinations for 2017, he noted a decline this year with 24 612 subject entries while there were 25 691 in 2016. Additionally, in his report, he highlighted the dis-parities of academic performance between male and female students.
“For males in public schools, we had 8 515, and for females 10 563. If you know the statistics in our schools, they are almost equal between male and female now (boys go over by a few)... but the females in relation to the entries are doing more than the males,” said Jones.
In his comparison of the results, the Minister found that at a glance, the overall pass rate was similar between male and female students. In the female group, 13 per cent received Grade 1, 23 per cent – Grade 2, 29 per cent – Grade 3; overall 66 per cent pass rate. In the male group, 12 per cent received a Grade 1, 23 per cent – Grade 2, 30 per cent – Grade 3; overall pass rate – 65 per cent. However, despite the small margin, he found that the pass rate for males was on a lower threshold in relation to numbers.
“In other words, the school system is saying to the best of the boys, you will take exams. But it is nothing else for the boys who are not performing at the upmost, top level to do, so they exit school. They might not continue after fifth form,” said Jones.
To address the problem, he stated this has to be transferred into another form of learning for the male students who are not performing. The Minister also pointed out the critical nature of the situation as those who visit his Ministry seeking opportunities for continuing education are usually female.
“We can talk about school effectiveness and all of that. (However) to be effective, we have to embrace all and we have to give all of them an ability to feel satisfied and a chance to come back in,” said Jones.