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Where are the male school children?
Dear Editor;
The recent CXC statistics released by the Ministry of Education indicate beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is a national crisis in our public education system.
There are numerous indicators of a crisis but this letter seeks to address one.
According to the Ministry’s data, broken down by gender, female candidates out-number male candidates by 4677 males to 8132 females.
A cursory glance at our national census shows that there is an almost equal proportion of the sexes in Guyana. If that is so, why are the males missing and in such large numbers at the end of high school exams?
Guyana is not doing well at math evident by its CXC math results, less than 40 percent pass. But even if you don’t know to count and you have two things and one is missing it should be obvious that one is missing. So can the Ministry let us know why the proportion of males to females taking the exams is so low?
I was unable to gain the national sixth grade results by gender but I am almost certain that the number of boys taking that exam is much higher.
It would appear therefore that there is seepage of males from the formal education system between the primary and secondary levels.
This phenomenon has been observed in other Caribbean states where they have not only identified the seepage but have also noted where the “missing boys” are. It seems we have done neither in Guyana.
The large absence of males taking CXC exams has larger societal consequences. I would therefore be grateful if the Ministry can let us know: 1. If they are aware of the numbers.
2. Have they identified exactly where we are losing the males?
3. Perhaps more importantly, where are these boys if they are not in school and not taking CXC exams?
Concerned school teacher
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