GENDER EQUALITY
MALE UNDER-ACHIEVEMENT

Whenever matters pertaining to equal opportunities are raised in Guyana, differences between the various racial/ethnic groups will inevitably surface. However, common to all racial/ethnic groups is the disturbing trend which educators both locally and regionally are becoming increasingly concerned about, and that is, the educational underachievement of our male youth. Planning for the changes needed to improve the educational opportunities for boys for the 21st Century, has to be clearly articulated.

Changes Which Improved The Educational Opportunities For Girls

For at least a quarter of a century equal opportunity issues in education have caused educators across the globe to focus their thoughts and practices on ensuring that girls are provided with opportunities to succeed in their education, in particular the sciences and mathematics and more recently, technology which open doors to opportunities in the world of work in a fast changing scientific and technological world.

Sponsorship in sport has also encouraged women, from all parts of the globe, to demonstrate, through the media networks, their physical talents to a worldwide audience, of sport enthusiasts (both male and female).

A girl-friendly curriculum with methodologies which promoted the interests of girls became the norm in general classroom practice and where single-sex education is available, parents of girls who felt that boys would be a distraction or that male teachers in co-educational schools could not be as effective, ensured that their daughters completed their secondary education in an all-girls school.

In countries where single-sex schools are well established the performance of girls in single-sex schools is noticeably better than their counterparts in co-educational institutions. However, while girls generally outperform their male counterparts at the end of the period of compulsory schooling, girls initially showed signs of underachievement in the areas of mathematics and the physical sciences, the pre-requisites for careers in medicine, the sciences and engineering.

The underachievement of girls in the physical sciences, mathematics and more recently the technological subjects coupled with stereotypical image of women as mothers and house-wives, forced the average female school-leaver into clerical, secretarial and child-care occupations while their male counterparts were able to obtain apprenticeships in a wide variety of technical and engineering occupations. The above-average female school leaver, under much peer pressure to leave school and get married, opted to pursue further education programmes of study, e.g. A-Levels, which predominantly led to a university degree in the arts or social sciences, qualifications which invariably offered professional status in the services of education, health, law, social work and the civil service. The introduction of science and technology in the core curriculum has subsequently ensured that girls are provided with the opportunity to pursue careers in non-traditional female occupations.

The rapid developments in science and technology that came out from the "race into space" have also made the technical vocations more accessible to girls. The "male" component of physical labour, which was previously often associated with some technical and engineering occupations, has been replaced by complex and often fully automated machinery and computers which require technically skilled and trainable personnel rather than mere muscular strength. Developments in science and technology have also resulted in intense competition among manufacturing industries and businesses to gain a share of the world market. In more developed countries changes in the school curriculum to reflect these developments are now included in the on-going process of development and reform in education.

In the area of science education the emphasis has moved to a broad and balanced science curriculum for all. Girls now have to study the physical sciences rather than opt for early specialisation in the biological science subjects. Science education is also taught as a more investigative, practical and process-based subject. This development has helped to take the mystery out of science and the range of science-based programmes is now quite extensive.

The development of the education of girls has clearly reached a high point and women are now actively competing with their male counterparts for most areas of employment. The battle for women to receive equal pay for equal work is in process and will eventually be won as more women enter the work force at the level of policy formulation, decision-making and implementation. More women too are joining the leadership of a growing number of religious groups and/or organisations. It is only in the area of government, the last bastion of male domination, that there is still considerable resistance to giving women equal opportunities to take on these leadership roles. In the Caribbean, Guyana can boast of having elected, in 1997, a female Head of State, President Janet Jagan, and having appointed recently Ms Desiree Bernard as Chancellor of the Judiciary.

Educational Disadvantages for Boys

While the education of girls and women has improved in leaps and bounds across the globe, the educated male is fast becoming an "endangered species".

At annual graduation exercises of both primary and secondary school girls far outnumber boys in the list of prize-winners. Women also far outnumber men among the graduates from both UWI and UG.

So what has caused this turn around in the performance of boys and men?

Girls and women have been given equal access to education and they now have the edge in the employment competition stakes. It is therefore not surprising that boys and men have lost their ego as the dominant gender. What is quite clear today is that societal perceptions of the role of women and the assumptions about the capacities of females have changed for the benefit of girls and women. It is true that where equality of access and opportunity are available, individuals will progress to their optimum level of performance. Could it be that the process of education is discriminating against boys in much the same ways as it did for girls in the 20th Century?

Education is indeed a very complex process and it is therefore necessary to examine those factors, which may have a negative impact on the education of boys and young men, as well as find solutions to arrest and eventually reverse this trend of developing a society without positive inputs from the male population.

The Changing Roles of Men and Women

Access to education and increased opportunities for employment in a fast, changing, scientific and technological world has brought about a number of changes in the hitherto traditional roles of men and women. Women no longer have to rely on their men folk to provide the financial support for the home and many women have become the "bread-winners" and the head of their home. Women have and are becoming more independent of the support men are/were expected to provide. The introduction of the birth control pill has given women control to decide when and for whom they will have children. The growth of support groups, both within and outside of the extended family, for women is also facilitating the independence of women to the extent that many women are finding it difficult to obtain a suitable male partner. The establishment of sperm banks to help women to fulfill their material instincts by becoming impregnated through artificial insemination has developed into a thriving business enterprise in some developed countries. Living together as common law partners, with legal rights to property for each contributing partner, is seen as a better option than to get "legally" married. The stigma previously associated with single parent mothers and their children is now the exception in most countries as are "life-long" marriages. Governments too, around the world are increasingly establishing a portfolio with responsibility for women's issues. The sacrifices made by the pioneers in equality for women are bearing fruit.

These changes have resulted in the poorer educated, and now less employable male losing his image and ego as the dominant gender in society. The marginalisation of the development of the male is actually starting from the cradle where many infant males are nurtured by a single parent mother. This is followed at the nursery and primary schools where the teachers are predominantly women. At secondary school too most of the teenage male student's teachers are likely to be female. Thus, unlike his female peers, and during his formative developmental period, the young male has little opportunity to experience positive male role models.

When asked about the performance of their students, nursery and primary teachers will tell you that boys are the more disruptive, poorer readers and have the higher non-attendance rates. These teachers, however, will also NOT tell you what they are doing to help the boys to improve their academic performances, self-discipline as well as their poor rates of attendance and punctuality. At the secondary level too, boys predominate at Community High Schools and Primary Tops and the teachers at these secondary-age schools, while highlighting the disproportionately high drop-out rates for boys will also NOT tell you what they are doing to reduce and/or eliminate this high level of educational under-achievement among secondary-age male students. It is only at the "top" secondary schools that one can see evidence of boys performing at levels similar to their female peers. These "top" schools generally have better-qualified and experienced teachers as well as some male teachers who are able and/or willing to challenge and motivate the underachieving male students to improve their performances.

The absence of men in the home as well as of male teachers at the secondary level is having a negative impact on the education of the teenage male. Men are needed in all aspects of society to provide the male perspective. Women, however talented, cannot be substitutes for men because they do not know or have experienced the emotions of men.

Educating the Emotions of Boys and Men

The education of the emotions is an area, which is often ignored in the education system. Women and girls have been perceived as being, inherently, very emotional and they have been encouraged to express these emotions without fear of loss of self-dignity. Men and boys, on the other hand, have been encouraged to withhold their emotions as this would be perceived by society as a sign of weakness. Men are however, encouraged to demonstrate their physical strength and an aggression as they strive to be successful in all walks of life.

The absence of men in the home and at school encourages boys to seek out male role models outside of the home and school. The obvious target will be those males, who they perceive, as macho with a strong male ego. This type of male will generally emerge from an education system which paid little attention to his learning and/or emotional development. It is most likely that he would have dropped out of school, and got friendly with older men/boys who would help him to develop the desired macho image. Such young men seem to perceive education as a barrier to maleness. This scenario produces poorly educated, egocentric males with very little positive self-esteem, a negative view of women and who are unable to form positive relationships with the women.

In the highly competitive global economic environment in which we now live, the days when men got jobs simply because they are men are fast disappearing. Men now have to compete with women for employment. The high level of underachievement of male students leaving the school system means that the average young male school leaver is unable to successfully compete against his female peers. Faced with unemployment and a reluctance "to go back to school to learn the basic" these young men seek ways of income generating to gain some respectability from their peers, both male and female. The forms of income generating are, however, more often generally used to achieve short-term material goals rather than for building a strong foundation for future family life. Planning for family life would be extremely difficult for minds which have not yet developed an understanding of the roles, responsibilities and obligations of the individual in society, or being accountable for one's actions.

Some of these poorly educated young men will, no doubt, become fathers but their limited intellectual development will virtually guarantee that they will be unable or unwilling to fulfill their parental roles, responsibilities and obligations as fathers.

Some women too, have opted to "keep" their unemployable men-folk thereby creating a culture of dependency rather than one of independence. This emerging pattern of male underdevelopment must be eliminated in order for men to effectively participate and contribute, as equal members, towards the development of the society of which they are an integral part.

Changes Needed To Improve The Education of Boys and Men

Efforts to eliminate the situation of the educational underachievement of male students from our education system will require strategies which ensure that equal opportunities in education are available to boys and men. The lessons learnt from the development of women in the 20th Century must be used to motivate boys and men to do better. In fact some of the same strategies, which have been used to place girls on top of the education performance ratings, can be used to both motivate and improve the level of educational achievement of our male students.

The re-introduction of single-sex secondary schools could put the education of boys on a fast tract since it would also give parents/guardians a choice of the type of secondary school they would prefer for their children, as they are prepared for the world of work. More importantly a single-sex school would be more able to bring sharply into focus the learning and emotional needs of teenage boys. The same would be true for girls. Initially each of the more highly populated coastal regions could have at least one of each of the two types of single-sex schools with the demand from parents/guardians, from individual regions, determining the ratio of single-sex to co-educational secondary schools. The multilateral schools should, however, be maintained as co-educational institutions in order to ensure that girls continue to have access to the full range of pre-vocational programmes of study that these schools provide.

Common to both single-sex and co-educational schools is the need for male teachers to provide the male perspective. However, while the current working conditions for teachers do not make teaching an attractive career for either sex, women have found teaching compatible with their roles and responsibilities of motherhood. For the growing number of single-parent mothers, women have realized that an educated mother is better able to provide the kind of support and training to meet the needs of their children. The male ego can be challenged through promoting the teaching profession as an occupation that is valued in society and one which has a great need for male educators. The education of boys should emphasize the fact that improved working conditions are synonymous with better educational qualifications and individual attitudes.

Secondary schools need specialist subject teachers and the male graduates who would be suitable role models for the male youth will generally be employed in the private or self-employed sector, where the financial rewards and status are considerably greater than in the public sector. Schools need to tap into this resource and make arrangements for male role models/mentors to provide guidance and counseling for boys. Girls too would benefit from this experience since they will have the opportunity of meeting and working with men who have a positive self-concept. Schools can also make arrangements for employers to participate in the schools' careers education programme by arranging for all male groups to visit the work environment and have discussions with employers, about the types of work available, educational background necessary and the kind of further training expected for a more secure employment future. Indeed, the male youth needs to recognise that there are opportunities for them to have a positive role in the society in which they live.

The selection of library books, fiction and non-fiction, in which boys have an interest would go a far way in addressing the problem of poor literacy among school leavers and/or dropouts. The introduction of computers in the classroom would also attract those boys who enjoy problem-solving activities including computer games.

Schools generally offer separate prizes for boys and girls in areas of physical education and sports. This arrangement could be extended to cover all areas of the curriculum. This in turn would serve to acknowledge positive performance by boys thereby enhancing the motivation of boys to improve their performances.

Since the start, by women's groups, to obtain equality for women, women have learnt that in order to compete with men and to be given credit for their efforts, in a man's world, they must be as good as or better than their male counterparts. To obtain sponsorship, potential applicants for beauty competitions are now expected to be able to demonstrate that they have "brains and all round qualities" as well as beauty. The educated woman too understands that sacrifices have to be made and that they must leave the domestic scene if they are going to be able to contribute to the financial upkeep of the home and also get their concerns addressed by local and central government. Many young single-parent mothers, who lost out at school due to teenage pregnancies, are striving to upgrade their education so that they can better provide the support needed for their children. It is of interest to note that the increase in the number of women at work or studying to improve their qualifications for employment has resulted in a corresponding increase in the demand for child-care service and thus employment for women. The education of boys should thus emphasize commitment to goal setting, self-respect, problem solving and giving maximum effort.

One cannot expect women to relinquish the ground gained for equal opportunity over the last fifty years to satisfy the male ego, nor can one simply do nothing and allow the market to force boys and men to become competitive. Leaving the development of boys and men to the market has one main disadvantage, namely, the diminishing choice of an educated male partner for an educated woman. The argument assumes that when and/ or if women become the dominant gender the educated woman will still want or need to have a male partner or common law husband. Current trends worldwide suggest an on-going erosion of the dominant role of men. An evaluation of the role of men in contemporary society will have to be undertaken. The later will probably result in a broader definition of parenthood to include conception by external fertilization and artificial insemination and family life.

Whatever the future relationships between men and women are likely to be, one has to acknowledge that just as the education of girls and women has enhanced developments in all aspects of human society, the exclusion of a male perspective would be a retrograde step in the development of the human species.