Reasons Why Men Underachieve in School
Male Underachievement in Schools
During the biblical days men were taught to be the household heads. Are times changing or is it females are just smarter than males? Over the past decade, a number of factors have played a vital role in the failure of men. These include but are not limited to; lack of adequate male role models, socio-economic status (that inevitably leads to crime) and lack of genuine parental support. The lack of adequate male role models is significantly affecting the nation’s population. Increasingly, young men are being socialised by single parent households with a female as the head. These homes are being headed by a mother, who arguable cannot offer that bond of a male role model. The absence of male role models has been proposed as a factor impacting boys' underachievement. In Jamaica, this problem is depicted by the high incidence of female-headed households and the high percentage of females who dominate the teaching profession. This was referred to by Miller (1986) as the feminisation of the teaching profession. Miller argued that this was a deliberate policy of our colonial masters to clip the wings of black men, preventing them from soaring into the realms of power, where they could pose a challenge to white rule. According to West (2002), the problem of an imbalance of male and female teachers gives the impression to disadvantaged boys that "only women teach" and only "women read". This phenomenon further solidify based on data supplied by the Planning Institute of Jamaica, that is, of 45 percent of all Jamaican households is female-headed. Female-headed households are larger than the national average, and larger than those headed by males. Female-headed households, according to 2002 data from the Planning Institute of Jamaica, also have a larger number of children and adult females, but have a lower per capita consumption than those headed by males.
Over the past decade Jamaica’s crime rate has increased significantly,
During the biblical days men were taught to be the household heads. Are times changing or is it females are just smarter than males? Over the past decade, a number of factors have played a vital role in the failure of men. These include but are not limited to; lack of adequate male role models, socio-economic status (that inevitably leads to crime) and lack of genuine parental support. The lack of adequate male role models is significantly affecting the nation’s population. Increasingly, young men are being socialised by single parent households with a female as the head. These homes are being headed by a mother, who arguable cannot offer that bond of a male role model. The absence of male role models has been proposed as a factor impacting boys' underachievement. In Jamaica, this problem is depicted by the high incidence of female-headed households and the high percentage of females who dominate the teaching profession. This was referred to by Miller (1986) as the feminisation of the teaching profession. Miller argued that this was a deliberate policy of our colonial masters to clip the wings of black men, preventing them from soaring into the realms of power, where they could pose a challenge to white rule. According to West (2002), the problem of an imbalance of male and female teachers gives the impression to disadvantaged boys that "only women teach" and only "women read". This phenomenon further solidify based on data supplied by the Planning Institute of Jamaica, that is, of 45 percent of all Jamaican households is female-headed. Female-headed households are larger than the national average, and larger than those headed by males. Female-headed households, according to 2002 data from the Planning Institute of Jamaica, also have a larger number of children and adult females, but have a lower per capita consumption than those headed by males.
Over the past decade Jamaica’s crime rate has increased significantly,