JAMAICA-EDUCATION: Breaking With Tradition is no Easy Task

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Sam Pragg

KINGSTON, Jan 16 1997 (IPS) - Despite efforts by various sectors in this northern Caribbean island to bring change to the educational system, the traditional gender roles persist in many high schools.

“In grades seven and nine, most girls tend to gravitate towards home economics, food and nutrition and textiles. Boys tend to lean towards metalwork and technical drawing and other subjects that have a physical hands-on component,” says Lloyd Winstanley, principal of the Montego Bay-based Herbert Morrison High School.

But, says Winstanley, contrary to popular beliefs these students make their choices with no persuasion from teachers or counsellors, although some parental influence may come into play.

That does not mean that boys do not take part in what is considered traditionally female subjects, as at times some boys may choose economics or food and nutrition and do well. The opposite he says is also true.

“One year a girl entered metalwork and she did so well that she got the best end-of-term grade that year. This example is more the exception than the norm though,” says Winstanley.

But while speculation about the reasons for the perpetuation of these gender roles continue, the students themselves have their own reasons for the choices they make.

“I enjoy working at woodwork and metalwork. I’m not good at the sciences or the arts, but this is something I do well. I work well with my hands,” says Michael Maragh, a student at Frome Technical High School in Westmoreland.

Maragh says he feels intimidated when girls do better at subjects like Mathematics, English Language and English Literature, than he does. But his male ego is not so easily bruised when he does what are regarded as the traditional male subjects such as woodwork and metalwork.

At the same time the University of Technology continues to attract a high percentage of male students doing technical courses.

In the 1995/96 academic year for instance, of 1,297 students pursuing engineering at the University of Technology, 97 were women and 1,200 were men.

But this differentiation is nothing new, and observers say what is surprising is that with what many are calling the “enlightened age” and with more Jamaicans becoming more aware and pushing for equality of the sexes in different areas, there is still this distinction between the paths girls should pursue as against those of their male counterparts in many educational institutions.

“Women traditionally enter the field of teaching and nursing. Engineering is still overwhelmingly male, while the majority of those studying medicine are also men,” says John Musaazi, a professor at the Education Research Centre at the regional University of the West Indies.

Ninety percent of the students in the Faculty of Arts and General Studies at the University of the West Indies are women although last year for instance, less than 30 percent of the total graduates of the university were men. This is quite a change from past years when the majority of graduates were men.

Patricia Lemonius, acting principal of the Montego Bay High School sees this changing trend as an interesting phenomenon.

“A university education is an expensive proposition. A lot of parents will dig deep to find money to send their daughters to university. However, it might be a different situation with the boys. In a lot of cases the boys are expected to find their own funds for their tertiary education,” she says.

This trend also may be as a result of more boys wanting to start earning earlier in life, other observers say.

“I started working as soon as I left school. I said I would go back to university in two years. But that two stretched into four and that four became eight,” says John Wilson an accounting clerk.

Wilson says he only realised the mistake he had made when his younger sister who had gone to university joined the same firm a year ago in a more senior position, earning more money than he is.