The under achievement of boys in the Common Entrance Examination

03.JUNE.11

by Ati Gipson

Today, June 3, students in grade 6 of our primary schools will be put through the rigors of an entrance test (Common Entrance Examination) for places into secondary schools.{{more}} A rigorous exercise that will not only determine entrance to a secondary school but conjures a perceived sense of superiority and inferiority; bright and slow, ultimately determining one’s life chances and basically a forerunner to class differentiation and stratification in society.

What is discernable from previous examination results and one can reasonably presume – that girls will once again outperform boys by several percentage points in the exam. In looking at recordable data from 1990 to 2010, girls have outperformed boys by several percentage points every year. A synopsis of such reveals that in 1990, 18.14 percent of girls who sat the exam in that year succeeded, while only 10.87 of the boys. In 2000, 17.9 percent of the girls passed and 12.86 percent of the boys did. In 2010, 31 percent of the girls passed the exam, while 25.9 percent of the boys succeeded. For the past five years, the number of boys writing the exam has exceeded girls.

In the 2009 Common Entrance Examination, 7 of the top 10 positions were filled by girls, despite a male topping the overall exam. In looking at the top 100 students, 61 were girls. Research has shown that males dominate in analytical subjects, but in Mathematics, 6 of the 10 top positions were filled by girls. In English Language they also took 7 of the ten top spots. In General Paper the situation was reversed with boys occupying 7 of the top ten positions.

The underachievement of males in primary, secondary and tertiary education is a testimony to the process of male marginalization that pervades this society. A reflection that manifests itself by a declining number of males – (teachers) – in the classroom, employment and the home.

The question is – why do boys underachieve at such an early age? Sheltered or protected from the realities and harshness of life – just like girls, they are underachieving at the primary level. Are these boys beginning to internalize the culture of immediate gratification and success or the urban or ghetto culture of bling, given the fact that we are the product of the wider environment?

There may be more questions than answers in understanding the underlying factors that give rise to this phenomena. Do we need to revisit the curriculum and the notion of co-education? In other words, is the curriculum geared to the developmental phases of boys? Or is the absence of male teachers in the classroom another factor contributing to the underachievement of boys?

Boys like to interact with the environment and explore things around them and take more risks and adventure than girls. Does the curriculum cater for such development?

The marginalization of male teachers is clearly noticeable in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Male teachers accounted for twenty-two (22) percent of all teachers in Government primary schools in the 2009-10 school year. Out of fifty-nine (59) government schools, three (3) do not have any male teachers at all, while in sixteen (16) schools, students do not come into contact with a male teacher until at grade 5 or 6, except for physical education. Of the 158 male teachers who actively engage in lesson teaching in the classroom, seventy-seven (77) percent teach either at grade 4, 5 or 6. No male teaches in Kindergarten, and only two in grade 1. For instance, at the C.W. Prescod Primary, with the third largest population for any primary school, students do not come into contact with a male teacher except for the (Physical Education teacher) until grade 6.

The Sydney Morning Herald (2009) noted that the absence of male teachers in the classroom has a negative impact on boys in the education system, “as this may be their only chance to experience men who are nonviolent, friendly, good at dealing with misbehavior and interested in their development. Men can show boys that the world of reading, writing, music, art and learning is as much a man’s thing as a woman’s world”. In addition, the paper further noted that boys need role models who can show them that learning could be a masculine activity, that men are interested in them, and not always critical and uncaring.

A “YouGov” survey of 603 children in Britain, aged 8-11, shows that 51% of boys believe they are better behaved with a male teacher and 42 percent said they work harder. More than a quarter of boys agreed that that male teachers “understand them better” and could be relied upon for good advice. However, research has shown that negative societal stereotypes have materialized over the years, where teaching is viewed as a female profession. In addition, negative social stereotypes tend to keep males from entering the field of teaching, especially in an early childhood setting. Many in the wider society are apprehensive of and find it strange for men to be teaching at Kindergarten or grade 1 level in primary schools. This atypical situation is unfortunately viewed upon negatively with many people, fearing the idea of males wanting to work with young children. Simply feeling that they are a ‘one ah dem’ using either the Jamaican or a Trinidadian vernacular. Limited or no research has been done in analyzing the results of the Common Entrance Examination in terms of gender, class, social mobility, geography as it pertains to students’ performance and life chances; yet in the not to distance future, the Common Entrance Examination conducted by individual islands will be a relic of the past, as a regional examining body has already conducted pilot studies in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago to introduce a regional based exam to replace the Common Entrance Examination. The question is whether the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States would opt for a variant of the exam, geared especially to this grouping, thus deliberately avoiding a true comparative analysis of performance against Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago? Is it a situation where too much would be at stake – exposing the strength or weakness of our education revolution?

Adapted from two research papers, the writer is pursuing, looking at Male Teacher Marginalization in the Classroom and Male underachievement in Primary and Secondary Education in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Ati Gipson is a nom de plume.