It has taken centre stage for decades, but there appears to be no solution in sight. Many persons have hung their heads and raised their hands in despair. It is the matter of the continued poor performance of boys in our education system.

Several theories and postulations have been put forward including slavery legacy, preferential treatment of girls in our homes, lack of fathers in the homes, and the general absence of good male role models.

While these may be contributing factors, one gets the feeling that not much is being done by the Government and the Ministry of Education to address this anomaly. This is a serious problem which could further serve to emasculate our men and boys and to destabilise the society.

The fact that about seventy per cent of the enrolment in our universities are females is nothing to scoff at. This should make us all uneasy, including the females. With such vast disparity in the ratio of the upward mobility of males and females, there is bound to be a negative backlash.

Many men may come to feel intimidated by the salaries and influence of their girlfriends and wives, and this could cause endless arguments in relationships. There may even be cases where the only breadwinners are the females with the males virtually reduced to being "mama men."

The men may feel undone by the female to such extent that all manner of evil take place over their heads without them asserting themselves for fear of being put out of the house or being told that the relationship has run its course.

Granted, there are some men who would not have a problem being in such a situation. However, I believe the majority of men would find this offensive and untenable.

Another off-shoot of this unhealthy situation is that women who seek a certain calibre of men will find that task very difficult to achieve, resulting in the tendency of several women sharing one man. This situation could also give way to what has become known as the cougar mentality.

Maturation

Seminal work in this area has been done by Professor Errol Miller, namely, The Marginalisation of the Black Jamaican Male and Men at Risk. Also of note is the effort of the late Professor Barry Chevannes's group, Fathers Incorporated, which sought to empower fathers to stand up to their paternal responsibility and to play their rightful part in society. The matter has also received some attention by the churches through their Men's Ministry groups.

Scientific conditions

In recent times, there have been suggestions in many quarters that what needs to be done is to teach boys and girls separately in our schools. They defend his stance by pointing out that boys and girls learn differently. In fact, a few schools have gone ahead and carried out this experiment. They claimed that they had seen a marked improvement in the scholastic achievement of the males.

However, I believe that more work, under scientific conditions, need to be conducted before we can begin to call the exercise a success.

Behavioural scientists the world over have determined that in the early years girls mature at a faster rate than boys, but that there is a closing of this gap in the mid- to late teens. This being the case, it would make sense to teach them separately during the early grades in at least the core subjects.

However, one will find that other factors are just as crucial, including capability and dedication of staff members, teaching strategies, learning styles of the students and the general suitability of the school environment.

Questions, comments, observations? You can email me at elgin1225@yahoo.co.uk.

The men may feel undone by the female to such extent that all manner of evil take place over their heads without them asserting themselves for fear of being put out of the house or being told that the relationship has run its course.