Boys need more male teachers

AS Jamaica searches for answers to the persistent under-performance of boys in school, chairman of the Education Transformation Oversight Committee (ETOC) Dr Adrian Stokes is calling for a closer look at the gender balance among the country’s teachers, arguing that more men must be encouraged to enter the profession.

His call comes as the education ministry continues to find ways to develop preliminary measures to improve how boys learn. Speaking during an ETOC quarterly press conference on Thursday, Stokes said the country needed to examine how it could attract more men to teaching. “We may have to look at how much room we have to provide incentives for males to enter the teaching profession. There’s a plethora of female teachers. Sometimes when I go into a room for a meeting with anything to do with education it’s a preponderance of females. We need to have a better balance in terms of the gender mix that we have in education,” Stokes argued. He noted that the response to boys’ under performance could not be left to the education ministry alone, as the difficulties affecting some students were linked to circumstances both inside and outside the classroom. “For the psychosocial issues, it will have to be a joined-up approach. It’s not just the Ministry of Education. We’re talking about social work, social services, Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Ministry of National Security. It will take a holistic approach of joined-up government to really deal with the problem in the manner that it deserves,” he added. The ministry’s preliminary approach identifies three areas for action: making classroom learning more engaging for boys, replacing punitive discipline with restorative measures, and providing support for the social and psychological challenges that may affect their education. Stokes said the ministry had done considerable work to develop a systematic response, but stressed that the proposals were still at an early stage and had not received final approval. He said the country needed practical measures that could be tested and improved, rather than assuming that one committee or a single intervention would solve the problem. Acting Chief Education Officer Terry-Ann Thomas Gayle said the ministry was continuing to strengthen psychosocial support in schools, including through cluster-based guidance counsellors who serve several institutions where a counsellor is not assigned to an individual school. She said the ministry had also incorporated a psychosocial component into its boys’ education programme and was working with teams to develop activities and support measures for male students. Thomas Gayle said the ministry wanted to encourage more men to participate in education, including through mentoring. “We welcome more men to really take part in education... but wherever there are males in education we’re maximising how we utilise their support in ensuring that we pull more boys into the focus. Our males in education, part of the thrust for our revisit to how we look at boys, is really to get more of our males to be mentors, and we want those boys in our schools, in our high schools specifically, and in our tertiary institutions, to volunteer to be peer mentors,” she said. She added that the ministry intended to expand programmes already operating in some schools. Thomas Gayle also argued that the national standards curriculum included activities designed to engage boys, particularly in subjects such as science, where practical and experimental learning can be used. Meanwhile, minister of state in the Ministry of Education Rhoda Moy Crawford, who said boys’ education had long been one of her interests, expressed optimism that the situation could improve. “One of the reasons why I’m very positive that all is not yet lost in terms of the education of our boys is when we look back at the top 10 PEP students, six of those students are boys… So I really know that all is not lost,” she said. At ETOC’s previous quarterly press conference in July, Stokes warned that Jamaica had yet to find effective solutions to the long-standing gender gap in education. He cited findings from the review led by Professor Orlando Patterson, which pointed to social circumstances, abusive upbringings and cultural ideas about masculinity as factors that can discourage boys from engaging with school. The committee has since placed the issue among its key priorities, as the ministry works to translate its preliminary ideas into practical measures.