This year’s GSAT results not encouraging

[Lazie]

Education Minister Andrew Holness has admitted that this year's GSAT results were not encouraging.
According to Mr. Holness this year's results are not much different from last year's.
He highlighted Mathematics as the main trouble area.
Mr. Holness admitted that the average score had dropped slightly below the 50% mark.

"You know it is still in the 50% average range things are slightly lower this year but those results will be made public. There are slight improvements in some areas and there are reductions in others. So all in all it is a balance, you will hear more details. I haven't seen everything in detail," Mr. Holness said.
Another major cause for concern is the difference in performance between boys and girls.
Mr. Holness says girls have once again outperformed their male counterparts.

"One of the things that continues to be very bothersome to me is the difference in performance between boys and girls. Girls continue to outperform the boys by as much as ten percentage points on average. Some experts may say that at this age girls naturally outperform boys but we see this continuing right throughout life," he said.
He says the stark difference in performance has remained unchanged over the years and something needs to be done to bring boys on par with girls.

http://www.radiojamaica.com/content/view/18739/26/

[Mosiah]

Gwaan, Andrew! Blast who fi get blast! Fling stone, yes!

[Gamma]

my mom who is retiring at the end of July had a 100% success rate for the little prep school for which she is also headmistress. she had less than 10 candidates this year but she has had that kind of success for the last 20 or so years! mi prouda har yuh si....

i met one of her students when i was in law school in the states and when she found out that it was my mother that taught her, she was so overwhelmed that for the next three years almost every day she would ask me how my mother was and send her regards.

teachers DO make a difference, the difference these days is largely forgettable though...sigh

[MdmeX]

my mom who is retiring at the end of July had a 100% success rate for the little prep school for which she is also headmistress. she had less than 10 candidates this year but she has had that kind of success for the last 20 or so years! mi prouda har yuh si....

i met one of her students when i was in law school in the states and when she found out that it was my mother that taught her, she was so overwhelmed that for the next three years almost every day she would ask me how my mother was and send her regards.

teachers DO make a difference, the difference these days is largely forgettable though...sigh

Tell her congrats & you're CORRECT - teachers do make a difference, but these days.....

[Assasin]

Big up to your mom for her service.

My mom was also a teacher who loved it. Her students were like her children. She is not around but her work is there as any of her students can talk about it. I meet one every now and then. She left us with the quest for education(that us) includes her kids, all my cousins and her students.

I stand with the minister who state that principals, teachers and parents have to take most of the blame for what is going on. You know how many of us never seen a computer until we were 20-30 and became masters at it? The first thing you have fi do is get a basic concept of education.

I Girls getting better scores, how is that? since them and the boys come from the same ghetto and yard a country? It is time we stop making excuse.

[Historian]

Surprising Statements....

I stand with the minister who state that principals, teachers and parents have to take most of the blame for what is going on. You know how many of us never seen a computer until we were 20-30 and became masters at it? The first thing you have fi do is get a basic concept of education.

I Girls getting better scores, how is that? since them and the boys come from the same ghetto and yard a country? It is time we stop making excuse.

Assasin, why do you “stand with the minister who state that principals, teachers and parents have to take most of the blame for what is going on”? It is easy for him to say that, but are things necessarily as simplistic? This particular Minister of Education, in fact, is on record as saying and promoting ridiculous things (as, to cite one example, in his attempt to ban books such as Zee Edgell’s excellent prose on Belize’s development, “Beka Lamb”).

My question now to you is this, do students have a role in their development, or are they totally absolved? (Although you were careful to use the adjective “most,” I notice you did not make any mention of the students’ role in their educational development.)

Secondly, your query about “girls getting better scores, how is that” is a very surprising statement! In fact, I must confess to being really, really surprised at this particular comment, as this has been the case not only in Jamaica and throughout the wider Caribbean for decades, but also in North America! Just check, for example, the enrollment and graduation by gender in every major college and university in this hemisphere! You might get some surprises!

[Assasin]

Historian the minster sets the overall policies but I can tell you that back in my and it still ringing today is the fact that regardless of the education policies if prinicpals don't work and put the heel to the wheel the children won't learn.

I will not blame the kids, they are a product of our environment. Especially in the elementary and school days, pre k and first 3 years of high school. Discipline must be instilled in them and they will follow. You can't expect kids to watch nothing but TV, go a dance, show up at school when they want and learn. This is the norm in the caribbean and many US ghetto. When parent teacher meeting called the parents make no effort to attend. Our school use to be the pride of our community, We had fairs, dance and other activities to enrich the school.


I will not look to any research to find out why girls doing better than boys. I think it is a big cop out. The reasons are boys are smoking ganja, and other drugs, staying out late, and normally more disruptive. I personally have never entered a school from elemetary to high school, or college where girls have done better than boys, it has been evenly contested in some cases but the fact is boys have the same potential. We just make them get away with more stuff and less education.

Basically we need to get back to basic values in teaching, loving our kids and nuturing them to be become better citizen. I hope I am right because I have two young one but I think we look for too many scientific answer.

I bet you the youts you hear cussing the biggest badword a the one who is missing from school regularly.

[MdmeX]

In addition to that, some of the very parents/guardians, who wouldn't try to give the youth the books, uniforms etc. to go to school and succeed, seem to have little or no problem finding the $$ to buy the new outfit for passa passa, the expensive cell phone, and the money for the bleaching cream! Check how many of them go to PTA meetings etc?

Not to mention that at the end of the school year, that thing called graduation, see how fast they find the $$ for the blinge!!

In my early days, the thinking among parents/guardians was that they wanted their children to have an education and succeed where they never had opportunities.

But nuff parents don't think like that these days. Dem nuh care,

[Historian]

Not worth pursuing

I will not look to any research to find out why girls doing better than boys. I think it is a big cop out. The reasons are boys are smoking ganja, and other drugs, staying out late, and normally more disruptive. I personally have never entered a school from elemetary to high school, or college where girls have done better than boys, it has been evenly contested in some cases but the fact is boys have the same potential. We just make them get away with more stuff and less education.

Basically we need to get back to basic values in teaching, loving our kids and nuturing them to be become better citizen. I hope I am right because I have two young one but I think we look for too many scientific answer.

I bet you the youts you hear cussing the biggest badword a the one who is missing from school regularly.

Assasin, boss, this debate is not worth pursuing. However, I can assure you that it is a fact that girls tend to outperform boys (and young women outperform young men) at the high school and college level. Next time you attend or see a graduation ceremony, check the gender ratio, and equally important, check the gender of both the valedictorian and the salutatorian.

I could easily point you to several specific reasons (for example, the average girl is generally more disciplined than her male counterpart and, therefore, less likely to flout authority), but like I said, I see no point in discussing this issue here.

By the way, while the reasons that you gave (smoking ganja and staying out late) are by no means irrelevant to the discussion, the truth is that the situation is a bit more complex than that. Now, let me cite one example before I end my contribution to this discussion. In September 2008 the enrollment differences at the UWI, Mona, was something like 83-percent women to 17-percent males. A similar situation exists in varying degrees in other Caribbean territories, and also in North America. This is the plain, simple, easily proven reality today, and no amount of debating the topic can change this.

[Assasin]

from a personal point of view I have never seen girls outshine boys maybe because in my years in primary and high schcool I have seen an even group which now includes world known MDs and former ahtletes etc from both side. I simply don't believe the theory. I believe the boys are more subjected to street life, and are given a harder time than girls who are forced to read their books.

None of my sisters played sports, all they knew was book, it is now as middle age women she has learned the joy of the lovely game football.
As I said it is more a reflection of our bad parenting skills.

[Historian]

Exactly!

from a personal point of view I have never seen girls outshine boys maybe because in my years in primary and high schcool I have seen an even group which now includes world known MDs and former ahtletes etc from both side. I simply don't believe the theory. I believe the boys are more subjected to street life, and are given a harder time than girls who are forced to read their books.

None of my sisters played sports, all they knew was book, it is now as middle age women she has learned the joy of the lovely game football.
As I said it is more a reflection of our bad parenting skills.

Very good points, Assasin!

Now you are touching on some of the real underlying reasons why girls today outperform boys in virtually every educational institution in the Americas! (By the way, as you correctly alluded, this was not always the case, as several decades ago the opposite situation existed in Jamaica and elsewhere; that is, boys outshone girls in academics.)

You don’t have to believe the “theory” (as you stated), because I can assure you that it is not a theory! It is an indisputable fact of life today, whether we like it or not! All you have to do is speak with any knowledgeable educator in Jamaica or in the USA (or anywhere else in the Caribbean for that matter) and you will see that this is a fact of life today everywhere in our part of the world. And the margin is not even close between girls and boys as far as results are concerned! It is such that many educators are genuinely alarmed, and so we see today attempts on a large scale almost everywhere to “save our boys”!

The 83-17 (it was either 83-17 or else 82-18) ratio between female and male enrollment at the UWI Mona campus for September 2008 that I posted above yesterday is indeed a fact, as reported by the UWI. A similar situation exists at the other branches of the UWI and at other Caribbean universities such as the University of Guyana. In fact, looking at our discussion, I am much surprised by the fact that other forumites haven’t contributed to this (aside from MdmeX), suggesting that there are probably no posters here connected with education or with education institutions.

I have the link saved somewhere for an excellent New York Times newspaper article on this phenomenon (that we’re discussing here) with reference to universities throughout the USA. If I can locate this link I’ll post it later.

[Assasin]

I maybe a tad upset but over the past two years I have worked with a school board in the Atlanta area and when I see what goes on in these minority community, it doesn't take a lot to fix. Not that I don't believe in the theory but I think a little old fashion loving and punishment goes a long way.

For the past year I coached a after school soccer program in a black/hispanic community and at first many of the kids didn't even liked soccer, they though they would be better playing video games. I worked with them and some of these elementary kids don't show as parent won't take them, there are some who curse without even knowing, and you have those who walk a mile and half because the parents wont take them and these are young kids.

Now I tricked them into working hard and let them compete and add a little bit of fun and the kids love it and work hard, but if this program wasn't available I can see them playing games or joining gangs. I encourge them telling them about my college days and how they can go to college etc. I have seen one school moved from been very bad to be on par with some of the better school in the district and this was done by technology, weeding out teachers who were not with the program, putting disruptive students in special classes and a very tuff principal who don't accept no.

I gurantee you if he leaves it may not be the same.

[MdmeX]

I maybe a tad upset but over the past two years I have worked with a school board in the Atlanta area and when I see what goes on in these minority community, it doesn't take a lot to fix. Not that I don't believe in the theory but I think a little old fashion loving and punishment goes a long way.

For the past year I coached a after school soccer program in a black/hispanic community and at first many of the kids didn't even liked soccer, they though they would be better playing video games. I worked with them and some of these elementary kids don't show as parent won't take them, there are some who curse without even knowing, and you have those who walk a mile and half because the parents wont take them and these are young kids.

Now I tricked them into working hard and let them compete and add a little bit of fun and the kids love it and work hard, but if this program wasn't available I can see them playing games or joining gangs. I encourge them telling them about my college days and how they can go to college etc. I have seen one school moved from been very bad to be on par with some of the better school in the district and this was done by technology, weeding out teachers who were not with the program, putting disruptive students in special classes and a very tuff principal who don't accept no.

I gurantee you if he leaves it may not be the same.

Congrats and keep working at it Sass. You can win them over. I love those stories.

I know for a fact that all the kids can succeed, be it academics or as skilled tradespeople. Most of them just need some tough love, encouragement and hearing "you can do it".

But some are surrounded by people who tear them down, tell them they are "wutliss" and that they'll never amount to anything.

A friend of mine, while in high school, was very poor at Maths. One renking teacher, told her that she would end up being fish monger. Well that girl had others in her corner, & she aced her GCE O & A level, became Ms. Jamaica Farm Queen, took her scholarship, got her degrees, and today she runs a successful business in Hawaii.