Govt & civil society must collaborate to address lagging males in schools, society – Teixeira

– cites societal importance of helping male students improve in school

Males falling behind in schools and society has for some time been recognised as a problem, and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, is urging civil society to work with the Government in finding solutions to address this issue.

During a recent expo, Minister Teixeira addressed the issue of males and their roles in society. With more and more males lagging behind and even dropping out of school, this is a matter that, according to Teixeira, requires urgent attention.
“There are social issues in our country, it requires more than Government. The number of boys that drop out of school, the number of girls doing well in schools and the inequality in schools in terms of academic performance.”
“That’s going to lead to all types of social issues. And how do we work on that? To work with young boys, help them to stay in school, and be good citizens. To be good fathers. By teaching them certain issues,” Teixeira said.
Teixeira acknowledged that Governments and civil societies do not always see eye to eye, but there is still hope for collaboration. According to her, Government and civil society can work together to address scourges such as gender-based violence.
“Civil societies and Governments don’t always see eye to eye. That’s understood. We have interest groups and representatives that play their own roles. But there must be some space in the dialogue between civil society and Government, where we agree to disagree and we agree what are the things we can have common interests on,” the Minister explained.
“How can we work together on child protection? Reducing abuse. Reducing gender-based violence. How do we bring up our boys to not think that it’s okay to hit girls? Let’s start with that premise in the religious communities if we can teach, real equality between men and women. And how can we say to boy, we’re not raising our hands at no woman, no girl, etc.”
According to Teixeira, there is also a need to teach these things to females, pointing to instances of female violence in schools.
Last year, the Ministry of Education launched the Male Achievement in Education Programme to aid male learners who failed to pass the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA). At the launch, Loyola University Professor, Dr Tavis Jules explained that the programme aims to help male students who exhibit behavioural problems.
Using the Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) curriculum, the students will benefit from a programme that not only targets literacy but also aids in their development of interpersonal skills. Dr Jules had also described male underachievement as a crisis that was not recognised early enough because significant investment was made in the education of girls.
“What we have seen now is that because we’ve spent the last decade focused on getting girls in school, we have neglected the boys. Because we’ve neglected the boys, everything from absenteeism to traumatic incidents, whether they are at home or school, are now causing a distinctive set of behavioural problems. Those behavioural problems are ultimately impacting their academic achievement,” Dr Jules had said.