There has been much in our local media regarding the schools, especially the government run ones, suggesting the teaching staff are to blame for the low standard of education being taught there.

I have written a number of editorials on the subject suggesting that the blame game goes much further and parents should take a good look at themselves before casting stones. I am not going to repeat myself again.

Today, iNews Cayman has published an article headlined “High numbers of East Caribbean teens at risk of dropping out, failing”.

It is not just a problem we have here in Cayman.

The article centres on a study co-authored by lecturer in Social Studies Education in the School of Education at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Dr Verna Knight, and Director of the School of Education, Dr Babalola Ogunkola. It found that 0.5 per cent of children of pre-school age (4+ years) were out of school completely, while this stood at 1.4 per cent (840) for primary school children and 3.3 per cent (over 1,000) for those of secondary school age.

The study concluded that boys were twice as impacted as girls, with repetition and dropout rates for boys standing at 8 per cent and 6 per cent respectively.

And the blame: – teachers!

“It wasn’t a surprise to find that teachers were reluctant to teach ‘weak’ students at the secondary level, but when we saw it emerging at the primary level and the early childhood level too it became a greater concern. If we are saying that potential exclusion begins at kindergarten level where we begin to see the gaps and this continues at primary school and into fifth form levels where it seems to widen then there’s need to bring those teachers together to ensure that their training and professional development are really addressed,” Dr Knight stated.

The image we placed in the article was taken from an article headlined “Gender and Education within East Africa and the Caribbean”. This was published by the Department of Geography UK and focused on why some girls from very poor backgrounds, or from families where education for girls is not valued, NEVERTHELESS stay in school.

In working to achieve the Millennium Development Goals of universal primary education and gender equity, Kenyan and Ugandan governments have put in place a number of strategies to increase girls’ enrolment and to address drop-out from school. Statistics show, however, that whilst there have been improvements, many girls attend school only irregularly, with large numbers still dropping out as they progress through primary and into secondary school.

Partnerships with colleagues in academic, government and NGO organisations in Kenya and Uganda have been crucial, both in guiding and informing the research programme and in enabling our approach to be culturally sensitive. Research has now been completed in four case-study areas in each country, with four schools chosen within each area. Since existing research shows links between poverty and lower levels of retention in school, districts with particular challenges and hardships that make it difficult for girls to attend school were chosen. Girls begin to drop out of school as they reach puberty, and so five girls thought by their teachers to be in school ‘against the odds’ were selected from Standard 5 (Kenya) and Class 6 (Uganda). Individual in-depth interviews were conducted with each girl, who has subsequently been re-interviewed twice more in the last two years. Focus group interviews were conducted with groups of boys and teachers, with individual interviews undertaken with head teachers and district education officers. In addition, twenty adult women who themselves completed education against the odds and who had progressed to successful careers, were interviewed in each country.

SOURCE: https://www.geog.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/commonwealtheducation/

The image I referred to earlier is a chart showing factors leading to school drop-out as it relates to females.

The article concludes:

Despite the multiple challenges facing children in these areas, however, we have been able to identify three main reasons for their retention.

Firstly is the girls’ belief in the power of education to change their lives. Their persistence and determination to succeed in order to make a better life for themselves, and assist others in their families and communities, was almost universal. Often, in the face of indifference from their families, they themselves made the decision to attend school. For these girls, education not only provided some meaning to their present lives, but was the key to a different kind of future.

School entrance

Secondly, schools were important, not only through the formal education they offered, but also because they provided a relatively safe and attractive place where girls had opportunities to develop their talents, to be with friends, to play, to be a child. Both male and female teachers were often critical in encouraging and caring for girls at an individual level. Many showed awareness of the wider problems they faced, were willing to listen and even to give practical support. Despite a real lack of resources, several Head teachers went out of their way to make their schools places where children wanted to come, lobbying for additional funding, putting in place income-generating projects, developing extra-curricular activities to develop life skills and putting in place strategies to raise the status of girls.

Finally, besides teachers, other people, usually within the family or local community, but occasionally national or even internationally known figures, acted as role models. These influenced girls directly or indirectly, and in so doing helped them to manage and sometimes overcome some of the challenges they faced. They offered advice, encouragement, practical support or simply understanding. In some instances they acted as catalysts for change. More indirectly, girls often admired from afar adult women in their communities who had achieved a certain level of material goods or who were in positions of authority, and whom they wished to emulate.

END

There are some very important lessons to be learned from this.and to me the chief one is this:

THE GIRLS’ BELIEF IN THE POWER OF EDUCATION TO CHANGE THEIR LIVES!