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Another call has come for the socialisation of boys to be equal to girls, as the stark difference has resulted in the gap in male and female educational performance.
The discussion has been reignited following the release of the results of this year's Primary Exit Profile (PEP) exams which showed that female students outperformed their male counterparts.
More girls than boys achieved proficiency in Mathematics, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies.
Speaking Monday on the Morning Agenda on Power 106, Linvern Wright, President of the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools (JAPSS), said too many areas which could stimulate interest in learning for boys are considered feminine and therefore bad for them.
For instance, he argued that in the Jamaican society, "many young men actually scoff at education, they scoff at speaking English, they scoff at doing things that would help them in education because people think that these things are girly".
But girls "having been orientated to being friendly with books, they are going to do better in Language Arts", he suggested.
Mr. Wright also pointed to the fact that some families spend more resources on educating girls than boys, "so boys will be withdrawn [from school] much quicker than girls because there is this view that girls are going to have it rough and maybe boys can rough it out".
The educator suggested that these issues must be addressed and steps should be taken to assist boys to develop the same kind of interest in learning as girls.
Social commentator Dr. Nadeen Spence explained that work has started to reduce the educational gap between boys and girls.
One step already taken, she said, is that the education system has been making adjustments in marking the exam papers of boys due to the understanding that they develop at a slower pace than their female counterparts.
But according to Dr. Spence, it is clear that the preferential treatment is still not reaping the desired results, considering the continued underperformance of boys.
She believes there must be a reconsideration of how the education system treats with boys versus girls.
Dr. Spence was also a guest on the Morning Agenda.
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